Multi-Part Intercessors & Vanguard Veterans

[Blissful Brushes]

Without seeing the sprues I can’t make a proper judgement, but I fail to see the point of the intercessors being in this article. The only update visible is AK mags and a back banner 

[Blindhamster]

On 9/1/2026 at 4:13 PM, ThaneOfTas said:

By that logic every marine unit is boring, as theyre all just a dude with a different weapon and slightly different bits.

I mean... this is literally marines to a T. They're all always still "just" marines, some get a bit more bling than others. How boring that is, depends on the viewer I suppose. 

Personally I fall into the camp of preferring some bling without going over the top. For me the vanguard are spot on - except the jump packs. I'd have liked the jump packs to have some little details - skulls on one, crux on one etc. The marines themselves though are pretty in keeping with the style we have for sternguard, which I love. 

I don't hate the poses, I might clip a few off and stick them to clear plastic instead, but I like them generally.

 

 

On 9/1/2026 at 4:23 PM, Blissful Brushes said:

Without seeing the sprues I can’t make a proper judgement, but I fail to see the point of the intercessors being in this article. The only update visible is AK mags and a back banner 

They have: 
- different chest designs (some have aquillas, some have the crossbones imperialis, some have bare single skulls

- different "abdominal plates"

- some variation in belts

- some more variety in base helmet designs (different "pipes", more targeters etc, probably other early mk options when we see full reveal later)

- finally sergeant options in the box

- mix of leg armours, now we get the ones without separate knee pads mixed in

- a not insubstantial one, something many people complained about for nearly a decade: 10 distinct leg poses in one kit.

- new bare head options (including the half off one, which I think is great to see, and the sergeant head might have immediately become my favourite recent marine head)

- back banner

 

There may be other interesting bits and bobs when we see the sprues too.

 

[Karhedron]

9 hours ago, Blindhamster said:

Personally I fall into the camp of preferring some bling without going over the top.

 

Agreed. For me, the perfect sweet spot was the 7th edition Blood Angels Tactical Squad, I still run mine as Sternguard. The separate shin plates on the original Intercessor squad always struck me as a massive missed opportunity as GW never did chapter-specific upgrades to replace those. 

 

[Brother Christopher]

Subjectively, I've gotta say that these are amongst the best Space Marine previous in memory. I know I shouldn't buy more loyalist Space Marines and - luckily for me - I don't want any of these previewed minis. They're what they are.

 

I liked the Armageddon ETB Intercessors better. Regarding, Van Vets, they're okay. The most amusing thing is how similar their poses are.

[Antarius]

15 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

 

Agreed. For me, the perfect sweet spot was the 7th edition Blood Angels Tactical Squad, I still run mine as Sternguard. The separate shin plates on the original Intercessor squad always struck me as a massive missed opportunity as GW never did chapter-specific upgrades to replace those. 

 

That really was a great kit. I still have a whole lot of bits lying around for when I (maybe, someday) decide to do a BA or sucessor army.
If only that was the level of "bling" on Primaris kits, I would be a very happy camper.

[Orange Knight]

GW failed to capitalise on the Terminator kits having seperate chest plates and shin armour.

Why don't we have entire upgrade sprues dedicted to each chapter that can dress Terminators up, and provide them with unique wargear option that caters to each chapter?
 

 

I want to be optimistic that this new Intercessor squad will lead to cool upgrade sprues, like the "abs" armour for Blood Angels, but they've failed to do this for existing kits.

I guess 3rd parties can still come to the rescue..

[Antarius]

I'm not sure whether it can conclusively be said that they're not going to do something like that. It took a long time for the (both pre-primaris and primaris) chapter upgrade kits to materialise, for example. But yeah, at present 3rd party bits suppliers are where it's at.

[Blindhamster]

1 hour ago, Karhedron said:

 

Agreed. For me, the perfect sweet spot was the 7th edition Blood Angels Tactical Squad, I still run mine as Sternguard. The separate shin plates on the original Intercessor squad always struck me as a massive missed opportunity as GW never did chapter-specific upgrades to replace those. 

 

See for me, i used to mix a regular tactical squad with a blood angels tactical squad for my rank and file firstborn. I always felt the blood angels tactical squad looked more like sternguard (so yeah exactly like you have above!)

Whilst I know I get hate for saying it, I found the death company kit to be far too gaudy, so again used to mix those with a regular assault squad kit to get a bit more of a balance across the unit. 

[Marshal Reinhard]

1 hour ago, Orange Knight said:

GW failed to capitalise on the Terminator kits having seperate chest plates and shin armour.

Why don't we have entire upgrade sprues dedicted to each chapter that can dress Terminators up, and provide them with unique wargear option that caters to each chapter?
 

 

I want to be optimistic that this new Intercessor squad will lead to cool upgrade sprues, like the "abs" armour for Blood Angels, but they've failed to do this for existing kits.

I guess 3rd parties can still come to the rescue..

This is so utterly strange to me. Since a lot of the critique about the newer models are that they're too samey, it does not make sense to me that they limit our options to alter this same-iness, even when the opportunity to do so is right there.

[Robbienw]

It is bizarre they haven't done anything with terminators.  I loved the previous Deathwing set, I'd love for my new terminators to have the same level of DA iconography.  All i need for that is a sprue with leg plates and chest plates.  Maybe a couple more helms and storm bolter parts also.  Would be so easy for them to do.  The new terminator kit was so clearly designed with this in mind.  There are a few scant bits on the DA accessory spure, but no where near enough and of course no leg plates.

 

So instead i have to get 3rd party stuff to meet the requirement!

Edited September 2 by Robbienw

[FarFromSam]

Let's talk about how good those intercessors look!  Back banner? Chef's kiss.  Mixed mks love it.  Great job gw.

[MoriyaSchism]

Upgrade sprues that have two dozen pauldrons or bare heads with only one Terminator chest plate. The other day I saw a compilation of all the Dark Angel upgrade sprues through the years. Talk about shrinkflation. 

[Nephaston]

The one thing they did with terminator upgrades was to take down the 3d printed offerings made by 3rd parties. Like this one.

Spoiler

 

Now mind you, parts of these are still available here and there, but it's basically whack-a-mole.

 

Now for those new Intercessors they could definitely do swapable chest plates, or even just the pectoral plates, shin plates etc. Or they can release another upgrade sprue with 50 bare heads and 5 helmets.

[Zebukkuk]

16 hours ago, MoriyaSchism said:

Upgrade sprues that have two dozen pauldrons or bare heads with only one Terminator chest plate. The other day I saw a compilation of all the Dark Angel upgrade sprues through the years. Talk about shrinkflation. 

 

Indeed. The Company Veterans and Ravenwing upgrade sprues from 4th edition were low quality overall, but the variety was stunning. The latest upgrades are a cruel tease for the Deathwing: Only enough to bling out the sergeant. It is not right.  

 

This is *almost* as bad as the situation with the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Sector Mechanicus bases: No 25mm bases for the Skitarii infantry, only a few of their units are on 32mm bases, and the units that are (Electro Priests mostly) obscure the base details with their robes and large boots.  

Edited September 3 by Zebukkuk
Additional comment

[Mmmmm Napalm]

The recent primaris releases have featured slight changes to the design beyond the inclusion of previously absent variation; I made a thread demonstrating some of these changes

Edited September 6 by Mmmmm Napalm

[Mmmmm Napalm]

Rather annoying but expected that the VVets will feature a panel line that runs into the leg thruster like the Assault marines. 

 

On the monopose VVets it was placed above the thruster in order to disguise the seam where the two parts of the leg come together. That made it easier for me when removing the leg thrusters, as it meant I did not have to connect the two halves of the panel line with a scribing tool and a hobby knife.

 

[Heraclite]

On 9/1/2026 at 1:06 AM, Captain Idaho said:

Is it me, or are the Vanguard Veterans bare heads all follicly challenged?

 

I mean, as a 40 something man, it's like a mirror... low blow GW.

 

Maybe they shave for aerodynamism!

[Captain Idaho]

16 hours ago, Heraclite said:

Maybe they shave for aerodynamism!

 

Maybe. That's my excuse too...

[Wispy]

On 9/1/2026 at 4:01 PM, Blindhamster said:

I mean... this is literally marines to a T. They're all always still "just" marines, some get a bit more bling than others. How boring that is, depends on the viewer I suppose. 

Personally I fall into the camp of preferring some bling without going over the top. For me the vanguard are spot on - except the jump packs. I'd have liked the jump packs to have some little details - skulls on one, crux on one etc. The marines themselves though are pretty in keeping with the style we have for sternguard, which I love. 

I don't hate the poses, I might clip a few off and stick them to clear plastic instead, but I like them generally.

 

I think the exhibit A for balancing of bling is the Space Wolves. Their 5th edition stab on them had them try almost everything on every level of infantry. Their refresh still keeps almost all the 5th edition elements but it escalates up the wolf bling In intensity as they ascend the ranks from troops to elites to hqs.

[Jings]

Almost all the bling complaints can be dealt with through transfers. Personally prefer them more and more to moulded options these days. 

[Wispy]

On 9/8/2026 at 5:39 AM, Jings said:

Almost all the bling complaints can be dealt with through transfers. Personally prefer them more and more to moulded options these days. 

Especially like it in when a sheet has gold metallic transfers.

Edited September 10 by Wispy

[LostTemplar]

On 9/2/2026 at 11:08 PM, Nephaston said:

The one thing they did with terminator upgrades was to take down the 3d printed offerings made by 3rd parties. Like this one.

  Hide contents

 

Now mind you, parts of these are still available here and there, but it's basically whack-a-mole.

 

Now for those new Intercessors they could definitely do swapable chest plates, or even just the pectoral plates, shin plates etc. Or they can release another upgrade sprue with 50 bare heads and 5 helmets.

 

I have that kit. Sadly I think the shoulder pads and shin guards are too small.

Edited September 11 by LostTemplar

[Jukkiz]

49 minutes ago, LostTemplar said:

 

I have thay kit. Sadly I think the pads and shin guards are too small.

sounds like scaling issue. STIL files are wonderful when one with printer can adjust those

[LostTemplar]

I dont think they sold the STLs, I did get the resin bits directly from them. And most minis I see online with their parts have the same look of being slightly thinner than they should be.

[Mmmmm Napalm]

 

despite the initial preview talking about the presence of classic helmets in the new intercessor kit, none of the UM preview miniatures are wearing any, which is very annoying. Thankfully we can see at least some of the 13 helms touted in the Sunday pre order preview. I count four mark vii faceplates, and one beakie. Theres a picture of some crimson fists miniatures as the header of one of the leaked detachments, and I see the same five helmets there. perhaps these are the only classic helms in the kit, but there could be more. 

 

I've noticed that the grenades, pouches, etc on these miniatures seem to be in the same positions as the UM miniatures. I'm hoping they're separate accessory bits like previous kits, and aren't molded on to each body. clipping off and sanding down that stuff isn't too difficult, I've done it on a whole set of the monopose Armageddon miniatures and many others before that, but I expect to have to do that for monopose starter set miniatures if I want to customize them more. I don't want to have to do that for a multipart kit. the other possibility is that there are specific accessory bits tailored to each of the ten poses, which wouldn't be too bad I suppose.

 

edit: @MoriyaSchism, my beloved fellow armor enthusiast, beat me to it in the other thread lol

Edited Friday at 01:07 AM by Mmmmm Napalm