Of Upgrade Kits and Inceptors

[spiros14]

Now that all nine loyalist legions (though I have my fingers crossed that the zealous brothers of the Black Templars get their release!) have their own Primaris upgrade kits, I thought I'd answer the one question that I haven't seen answered yet: Does the Gravis pads in the kit fit the Multi-part Inceptors properly?

On every Primaris upgrade sprue there are three shoulder pads sized to fit Gravis armoured marines; two generic pads, and one pad with a little embellishment for the squad leader. These pads are designed to match the same style as the Primaris Aggressor, as noted by the extra ridge running along the front half of the pauldron

 

 

This ridge is unique to the Aggressor, not shared by the Gravis Units close support brother, the Inceptor.

 

 

Upon looking at the Inceptors, the question to be asked is: Will the the Aggressor Pad fit the model without cutting into it? Upon first glance, I believed that while the Sergeants pose (left arm down by his side) would allow the pad to fit on with no interference from the ridge onto the jump pack, I was concerned that the two veterans (left arm raised to shoot their weapons) would force me to cut up the ridges to ensure that it fit. I did a brief google search on the topic but didn't it turn up anything, so I decided to find out the hard way.

Following the assembly instructions in order, I found that, in complete disregard to my hypothesis, both standard battle brothers were posed in such a way that the arm was raised the exact maximum height the arm could go without the ridge interfering with the pack. So long as you attach the arm and pad to the body before attaching the jump pack, you should have zero problems

 

 

However, while assembling the Sergeant (who I previously believed would be the easy one) I found that, while the ridge of the pad doesn't interfere with anything, the rope embelishment catches slightly on the butt of the models weapon, and part of the pack. With a bit of manhandling, I was able to attach the piece without the need to cut into it. However, I would recommend that you attach the pad to the arm before attaching the arm to the body if you wish to try this for yourself, to prevent you accidentally messing up the join between arm and torso piece

 

 

With models assembled, I then turned my attention to other chapter sprues. Though I was able to push the Blood Angels embellishment onto the model, would players of other chapters also share this difficulty? Though I have not tested this in practice, I hypothesise that there are three tiers of difficulty to this question.

First are the Chapters with a small embellishment or token that does not go near the edges of the pad that might cause interference:

 

 

Second are the Chapters with a rope or chain going across the pad. These are likely to interfere with the gun butt and jump pack. Though this can be nullified with a bit of manhandling.

 

 

Finally are the White Scars, who rather have a small chain or rope, have opted for a pair of handsome scalps! Unfortunately this has zero chance of fitting correctly to the model as it will interfere with the jump pack, forcing you to either scalp the pad with a set of cutters and a mould tool, or to fit it to one of the marines with guns raised (which should have the room needed for a reasonably easy fit) 

 

 

In conclusion, I would say that the Primaris Upgrade and Inceptor kits were likely designed with this use in mind, or Games Workshop got especially lucky!  
I hope this topic has sufficiently answered a question hobbyists may have wondered about, but were too hesitant to test for themselves.

 

+Spiros14+ 

[Mr. Oddity]

A very helpful experiment, and one I'm sure a lot of people will find useful. Thank you for testing it out!