diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.elife.k8s.yml b/.gitlab-ci.elife.k8s.yml
index 735683aa2b83d268aaafca0df6a192f00b35cb9c..48a823b06d53952ea0c70e009db7aa997a2bb278 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.elife.k8s.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.elife.k8s.yml
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ stages:
 
 deploy:
   stage: deploy
-  image: jshimko/kube-tools-aws:latest
+  #image: jshimko/kube-tools-aws:latest
+  image: ubuntu:18.04
   variables:
     AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: $ELIFE_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
     AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: $ELIFE_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
@@ -48,11 +49,14 @@ deploy:
   #   - echo "${ELIFE_K8S_CLUSTER_CONFIG}" >> ~/.elife_k8s_config
   script:
       - |
+        sudo apt-get update
+        sudo apt-get install awscli curl wget -y
+        curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/`curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt`/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl
+        chmod +x ./kubectl && sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
         aws --version
         kubectl version
-        #helm version
-        aws --region=$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION eks update-kubeconfig --name $ELIFE_CLUSTER_NAME
-        kubectl cluster-info
+        #aws --region=$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION eks update-kubeconfig --name $ELIFE_CLUSTER_NAME
+        #kubectl cluster-info
         # helm repo add kotahi https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
         # helm dependency build helm/elife-kotahi
         # helm upgrade -i elife-kotahi \