Day One - The Year Begins, The Painting Continues

So 2026 has begun, and with it the last calendar year of my 30s. By the end of the year I'll be 40, and that's quite an age really. I began this blog over a decade and a half ago, and in that time I've painted a couple of thousand models, sold several armies, and still have over a thousand models to paint, plus all the ones I'm yet to get or have acquired since I made my list. Anyway, today I spent some time putting paint onto the Maiden Guard, until my eyes went wonky and I became too tired to paint.

I'm proud of how the giant conch shell horns are turning out

I got all the gold blocked in, and painted the musicians' giant conch shells to a point where I'm almost (almost) happy with them. Then I used some of my dwindling stock of Flesh Wash to wash the skin and gold of the first 10 Maiden Guard, ready for the next set of steps. I was going to do the rest of them to that stage as well, but I just got too tired to carry on. Hopefully I'll get that bit done tomorrow. I'd really like to have them done and based by this weekend as the first game of the Escalation League is on the 13th. It's not, on the face of it, a particularly tall order - I just need to knuckle down and finish the gold, skin, jewels, red spot detailing, hair... and probably a few touch ups along the way. Then I'll see about making some old school paper flags for the standard bearers.