For reasons known only unto the great James Workshop himself. Citadel provides ridiculously flimsy clear plastic flying bases for many of its models.
So, having bought myself a squad of Suppressors for my fledgling Space Marine army I decided to fix this.
The stands rely on glue to hold them in place with tiny contact points 
Even if you get a good glue weld, the arm is spindly and fragile
The options?
- Suck it up and use the bases provided.
I could probably get a good glue weld. But the arm itself looks likely to snap if I look at it wrong. - Clip their wings and ground them.
Some people modify the unit and place the squad on the ground. - Buy a fancy resin base.
A few options exist for 3D printed resin bases which provide a thick plume of fire and smoke. But these are expensive, don’t fit the dynamic pose, and the belching smoke doesn’t feel very subtle or tactical. - Make my own dynamic base.
Create something new that gives them an active stance of landing or taking off.
A thinly veiled excuse to do some scratch building
I’ve recently started experimenting wtih terrain building. Using cheap materials and tools, like scrap cardboard, foamcore, wood filler, a glue gun and utility knife.
It’s amazing how quickly you can create something that looks good.
A shipping container 
Some concrete walls 
A staged scene using some homemade terrain
It’s great fun. So it seemed like a fun opportunity to make something instead of buying something.
The concept
- Create small rock outcrops that the unit is leaping from or landing on.
- Give enough height to give them some elevation.
- Use some tactical use of tufts to hide a pinned wire in one of their feet.
The construction
Foamcore scraps were stacked to create rock strata 
A utility knife was used to trim and carve the layers into a more natural shape 
Paperclip wire was pinned into the feet using a pin vice and fixed in place with super glue. This was then driven down through the layers and trimmed at an appropriate length,
The finishing touches
Cheap wood filler was used to blend the layters and create texture 
A simple basecoat was applied, brown for dirt, dark grey for rock 
I dry brushed a mix of sandy and light grey tones and finished with tufts.
BEHOLD MY TACTICAL ROCKS!
Less than an hour to create. Less fiddly than the provided stands. Less money than buying alternatives.
A nice piece of visual customisatiuon and interest for my growing army.
Sure I still need to paint the base rims – so sue me!