Warhammer 40K: Flight Stands Vs Tactical Rocks
Games Workshop opted to leave the flight stands off the new Jump Pack Intercessors. The time of the tactical rock is here!
By now you’ve probably seen the new Jump Pack Intercessor kit. If you haven’t, they are basically Assault Intercessors with slightly smaller Jump Packs than the Inceptors.
There is one notable difference between these models and the Inceptors (besides their different wargear) and that is the basing option GW went with. As you can see from the picture above, they are all dynamically posed on “tactical rocks” instead of flight stands like Inceptors were:
I do like the dynamic poses and movement of these Jump Pack Intercessors. Individually, I think that each model’s pose has a motion to them and they seem cool.
However, in a group something seems a little off. And for me the thing that sticks out is the fact that each and everyone one of them is balancing on a rock like a petite ballerina.
By the way, this also extends to the Jump Pack Captain, too:
Somehow, this bar is sticking out of the ground at such a perfect angle that the Jump Pack Captain is able to bound off of it without it bending under his weight. Or maybe he’s landing on it, in which case he’s gracefully supporting his body weight plus his power armour and jump pack on this precarious ruin. Kudos to him I guess.
I suppose the other option would have been to use flight stands for the Jump Pack Intercessors. And while that could have worked those stands do have their own sets of issues. Aside from frosting from glue, they don’t always feel particularly stable on the tabletop. The tactical rock option allow for more stability and a lower center of gravity making those models more usable on the tabletop.
The old Assault Squad revamp box did add tactical rocks, too. These do give the illusion of some extra height to these models with them actually being taller as it’s just extra basing. So these tactical rocks aren’t a new thing by any means. I guess my issue is that the new Jump Pack Intercessors just look like the rubble they are leaping/landing on couldn’t support their weight. And as a squad when you stick them next to each other it just feels a lot more artificial than previous incarnations. It’s like these Intercessors all got together and planned out a photo shoot for instagram or something and applied the “tactical rock” filter.
‘Tis I, Captain Photo Genicus of the 11th Insta Company. Tactical Rock Filter engaged!
What’s the fix? Just cut them off the rocks and glue them to the base. Or add a lot of custom rubble around the rocks to make them look less like these models planned to leap off the one piece of tall rubble on their bases.
Again, I do like these models individually. Maybe kit bashing them with the Assault Intercessors will help make them look less like a “boy band photo shoot” and more natural — as natural as a Space Marine is supposed to be…
Would you have opted for the Flight Stand option or are you fine with the Tactical Rocks? Or are you like me and just going to do some custom basing?
