Hi Folks,

Another week, another progress report for CtA25.

Although my second vow in the Xenos faction is not yet completed, it is closer of its ending than of its beginning.

Indeed, after completing some Warpspiders last Saturday, I finally started working on the hoods, heads and weapons of the Shroudrunners which were set on standby for 3 weeks. I expect completing them in a couple of days, even if they are far from being what I consider as a good paintjob of mine while comparing with the last 2 years of job. Yet, it is as it is, and I will probably not improve them except at resuming completely the paint scheme and stepping back from the sponging technique I have tried on them.

The current state of my painting on this vow is the following:

-          Warwalkers – done

-          Spiders – done

-          Rangers – done

-          Wraithguards – done

-          Spirit Seer – done

-          Wayleaper Autrach – 75%. I have started working on highlight and details.

-          Shroudrunners – 75%. As mentioned above, plus glueing crew on bikes.

There are yet some odd stuff in this list, as, except the Wayleaper Autarch which is a conversion from bits and old models, all the other miniatures are relatively new ones. I mean, my purpose as declared is to clean up my pile of shame and bitz box without buying new stuff, except if it bring the small little extra that allow me to increase the cleaning up potential; say for example buying a squad to get enough bits allowing to recycle forgotten bodies in by big Aeldari bitz plastic bag; something like being able to build up 2 squads out of a single box, if you follow me.

Clearly buying some Wraithguards and additional squads does not really fit the scheme, does it?

This is where I may eventually try out an exercise of bad faith. Let’s talk of the Rangers and Shroudrunners. With the spare guns and slipcover/gun carryage cases, I have enough spares to customize 5 old Guardians bodies waiting in the bitz into 5 additional Rangers. Yet for an economic point of view, it is arguably a poor investment…

This so-called demo produced out of my bad faith exercise is however to be counter balanced by another explanation, far more convincing IMHO.  In order to know more about it we should step back a long long time ago, when 40k starter box for 2^nd Ed has been released. Legendary times, except for old timers.

At the time, I was more into WFRP, Bloodbowl, Talisman and WFB. Yet I had the 40k 1^st Ed rules and started collecting Space wolves. I was able to field the 3 boxed sets (Blood Claw, Grey hunter and Long Fangs), Ulrick and Ragnar plus a Rhino. My gaming group was focusing on WFB but my best friend of the time started lurking into the local gaming store and finally grabbed the 2^nd Ed starting box. It was a familial investment, with his 2 brothers picking up Orks and Marines respectively, while he decided stepping into Eldars.

Our first games were with models out of paper silhouettes, just as it used to be in Blood Bowl at the time (it was before the release of the Edition with Astrogranit terrain). Color xerox from WD magazine and slota bases allowed building full forces on a budget; And Scenery was card board made too, so...

That year I went on summer camp in Plymouth area (UK) and he charged me with a mission to spend his piggy bank content into Eldar models. I came back with all its list completed: Spiders, Banshees, Plastic Guardians (the quick fit ones with lasgun), Scouts (before they become Rangers) and Dark Reapers.

This has been the origin of my obsession for most Eldar models I bought; this obsession being only but fueled by the released that came out in the following years. I have therefore started buying and storing Eldar stuff, inc. a couple of years after from FW, until I started painting seriously this back og with CtA23. 20 years latter or almost.

This obsession was rooted into the perceived quality of the models at the time: the sculpts were swift, balanced and more complex and good looking than the bulky SM. Yet, as time passed by, I stayed sticked with SW as my main gaming force for 40k, mainly because I had enough models to play seriously, and also because my investment capacity was such that changing direction at the time was meaning getting a little bit of everything and nothing in sufficient amount to be worth. I did as bees, foraging in gaming stores when I saw a model I liked in the Eldar range, but without making that leap of faith. And I kept my money for WFB (which will be a cause of big frustration when the End of Times came and erased the World that Was, until resurrection of the Old World… but this is a different story). This obsession was embodied into a limited number of models: Walkers, Spiders (which were the deadliest out of the deadly units of that era as far as I remember), Reapers and Scouts. As you see now, this is indeed a best reason for fielding Rangers than pretending using a couple of spare guns. Even if I may end doing it…

I have now sufficient earnings to fuel my obsession and addiction, but I lack time. So, I focus on painting side only atm. But digging into the pile of shame reactivated that visceral need to grab the Eldar models I spent so much time staring art in the WD pages that the images are engraved in my eyes by retinal persistence effect. Or almost. I am therefore slowly completing that lust for Eldar models, getting most of the ones I wanted for so long, except Reapers that will be my next dose of Nostalgy driven spending.

(I do like these better than the current plastic models, but the plastic ones will do the job too when I will grab some. In a (not so close?) future buy)

Never underestimate perseverance (isn’t it a better word than obsession?).

See you when the vow will be completed enough to be worth a new post.