I've also read that people like to play the game narratively and try to avoid repeating the same weapons on fighters. Is that possible with these gangs?
I always try to do that on any gang I play. It gives you Garan Long shot, the lasgun sniper, rather than Guardsman 8. It makes your gang a collection of characters.
(I would start off all fighters with different weapons when you found your gang. As you add more you may find you need a few lasgunners because it works but your original guy will have a narrative of it's own by then).
It is definitely possible to start with unique loadouts with Initial gang of any of the Clan gangs, including Van Saar.
Your teks just on basic weapons have a midranges pinning sniper with a lasgun, a midrange rapid fire harrying gunner with the Las Carbine and a close quarters room clearer with the Suppression laser. To add to that there are a few pistol and grenade builds for teks and subteks. There are many options higher up with Special and heavy weapons.
There may be less options for Ironheads but given that they are expensive, well once you add Ironhead guns, it is surprisingly easy to have a unique loadout in your starting roster given that it is likely to be a smaller crew.
What do you do if you want to add a weapon or piece of gear the fighter doesn't start with as far as the model goes? Is it necessary to magnetize everything?
If you are capable of magnetising from I modeling perspective I Highly recommend it.
It uses up far more of the sprues so you don't have a tone of arms and weapons taking up space forever. Less waste plastic etc.
It seriously cuts down on your total model requirements. Instead of buying three or more main boxes to have ethe bodies you want to model all the weapon fits you want to try eventually you may only have one and a few different upgrade boxes.
GW love shoulder pads. They hide any drilling mishaps nicely
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Magnetising let's you try out different weapons that you would not normally do. After being smashed in melee too often a van Saar player may want to give shock staves a try. ( The correct Van Saar response to melee is nasty gunfire to the face. At range).
I've magnetised every official necromunda gang (Cawdor were a nightmare), except Corpse Grinders (no desire to play cannibals. Eww).
Apart from the Goliaths, who I did hand/wrist magnet joints to, all the alternate gang boxes like the neoteks share the same arm/shoulder joints so you can mix and match parts quite well. All the van Saar are the same.
Van Saars were a dream with arm and shoulder joints. Most of the arms already had a hole right where you need to drill so it is perfect. Just open up the two-handed guns arms a tiny fraction and they fit in perfectly well.
The Ironhead squats also were quite easy to magnetised. The ball and socket join of the arm works perfectly for tu one handed arms. For the two handed autoguns, Heavy stubber and bolter i had to do an additional magnet joint for the right elbow connecting to the right forearm, which holds the gun trigger handle, which was fairly delicate. Otherwise the chunky ball joins will not slot round those big dwarf chest plates.
I eventually got round to magnetising various heads, so my Goliaths can sport Roman Gladiator helmets or respirator masks, and back options so I could add cloaks, backpacks, extra weapons, jump packs etc.
