diff --git a/scripts/pod/install-minimax-h3.sh b/scripts/pod/install-minimax-h3.sh
index a7fdcfd..45164ac 100644
--- a/scripts/pod/install-minimax-h3.sh
+++ b/scripts/pod/install-minimax-h3.sh
@@ -23,8 +23,14 @@ cp "$STAGE"/workflows/*.json /ComfyUI/user/default/workflows/
 
 # --- test/reference images (synthetic + real reference sets) ---
 python3 "$STAGE"/make-test-images.py
+# prefer the volume-staged copies (immune to fetch rate limits); fetch only to backfill
+if [ -d "$STAGE"/bench-images ]; then
+  cp "$STAGE"/bench-images/* /ComfyUI/input/ 2>/dev/null || true
+fi
 python3 "$STAGE"/fetch-bench-images.py || echo "WARN: v1 image fetch incomplete"
 python3 "$STAGE"/fetch-bench-images-v2.py || echo "WARN: v2 image fetch incomplete"
+mkdir -p "$STAGE"/bench-images
+cp /ComfyUI/input/bench2_*.jpg /ComfyUI/input/bench2_*.png /ComfyUI/input/bench_*.png "$STAGE"/bench-images/ 2>/dev/null || true
 
 # --- weights (skips files already on the volume) ---
 tmux new -s downloads -d "bash $STAGE/download-weights.sh" 2>/dev/null \