Warhammer 40,000: The Powerful Scorpions of Kill Team Are Not What They Seem To Be

When it was first revealed that the Aeldari Striking Scorpions will be featured with brand-new Primaris Scouts in the Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team box, they received a lot of backlash. The fact that Games Workshop portrayed the inexperienced Space Marines as “more than capable of tackling the Asuryani threat” in spite of the truth that the Aspect Warriors would absolutely destroy the Initiates at any other time contributed to part of the anger.

Additionally, the new Xenos stealth attacker models didn’t exactly seem all that impressive. The fact that each figure has a tactical rock to stand on was justifiably derided, and the stances appear to be copies of the plastic models that are currently available rather than attempting something fresh and interesting.

Note: To offer models a more dynamic position with a secure base, chunks of terrain are molded into their feet to create tactical rocks. But the community views them as “cheating,” a cheap replica of movement created at the expense of more artistic sculpture.

My purpose here is to rectify the story. I’ve constructed five of the new Striking Scorpions, and assembling them is a pleasure. Though there are still a few problems, they will be a welcome change if you’ve ever constructed the resin models. Those of you with more time than me, I’m sure, can even conceal the tactical rocks amidst flora or basing.

The material used to make the Striking Scorpions has undergone the most significant alteration. Working with resin may be extremely challenging, and the previous Scorpions were among the worst culprits. You had to carefully scrape a craft knife along each individual teeth of a chainsword to remove the mould lines from them. Should something go wrong, the tooth would be ripped out completely, creating a huge hole in the Aeldari weapon.


That isn’t the case now. Although some mould lines remain, plastic’s inherent durability means that mishaps are unlikely unless you clean up your minis with a box cutter, in which case it’s definitely your own fault. The completed models are excellent, and the Kill Team kit is a definite improvement on the previous resin.

Advice: Don’t try to achieve a zenithal highlight with a rattle can if you don’t want a speckly finish.

That is not to argue that there are no issues with the box. The tactical rocks are especially bothersome, but if you’re resourceful enough, you can overcome them. The Scorpions’ own monoposes are far worse. Even while they all appear to be quite dynamic individually, the ten members of the Kill Team box—which, if you’re playing at your best, you should run in ordinary 40K games—will replicate each stance twice. Awkwardly placed pieces make even easy conversions difficult, and the entire impression is unsatisfactory.

The Exarch is the worst offenders because his body double is just a regular guy. This one has additional interchangeable pieces, but the posing is still very similar, particularly if your Exarch is using a Scorpion Chainsword instead of a Scorpion Claw.


This is a common issue with current Games Workshop kits, and it also affects the Primaris Scouts; however, since they are uninteresting models, no one will pay close enough attention to detect duplicates. The days of the sixth edition Sternguard Veteran kit, which could be assembled to create five warriors out of 120 potential components, are long gone. One of my favorite kits that Games Workshop had ever manufactured, it was an upgrade kit for Squad Sergeants and a convertor’s dream come true. It’s unfortunate that you were only fortunate enough to receive two or three more pieces for your parts box.

Though the days of easy access to replacement parts and virtually endless customization options are long gone, the new Striking Scorpions represent a significant improvement over the previous model. They’ll be flying like butterflies, stinging like, well, scorpions, and joining my Aeldari Exodite force without the need for conversion. They’ll even be disguised in the forest like Predators.