Anybody remember the Distracted Boyfriend meme? I feel bad admitting it, but that’s basically how I pivoted from my Shining Spears to the new hotness that is Shroud Runners. I wanted to immortalize a character from a running campaign with XenonMage in miniature form, and while I’d done so with my Shining Spears it felt like the Shroud Runner was a much better fit for the character. It also doesn’t hurt that while Eldar have had a lot of new re-releases, Shroud Runners are still the first new kit and new profile that they’ve had added to their lineup in a long time. (Not counting new Corsairs, of course.)

And that, friends, is the story of how I broke my almost year-long embargo on buying new GW models. It’s bittersweet, because I still don’t feel great about some of GW’s previous business decisions, especially some allegations that came up regarding employee wages, but…at the same time, I love my space elves. And if watching copious amounts of South Park through the years has taught me anything, it’s that you won’t cheer for your team, you probably shouldn’t be in the stadium. Go Broncos. So, when a Chaos player was looking for somebody to split the new box set, I pulled the trigger.

I never thought that I’d have jetbikes as a mainstay in any army, but there’s a special irony in that I’ve now committed to what basically looks like a space ski-doo. I remember being a passenger on a ski-doo in the trails out near Deer Lake in the dead of winter with copious amounts of snow about as being one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, but…also, the more I look back on it, the most exhilarating. I felt very alive, even though we did roll the damned thing trying to get out onto the trail. I have to give credit where due to XenonMage’s brother – if he wasn’t such a solid driver I might not be around to tell the tale.

This felt like a return to form for me. Just painting stock models, on stock bases, working with what I had, and not relying on gimmicks or LEDs to make my models stand apart. Now, one gimmick that I did run with was applying a light coat of “shifter” paints, instead of glitter, to give the Ranger cloaks a bit of a shimmer to mimic the idea of their adaptive Shroud Runner Cloaks. In the end I’m really happy with how these turned out, and I plan to make these as much a staple of my army as Guardians and Howling Banshees.