It's Leap Day

Did you know that it takes the earth 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds to revolve around the sun? Neither did I. But you probably did know that calendar years are measured in 365 days, and thus that each year there is a bit of extra time left over. So every four years we have an extra day to bring everything back in alignment.* It's called a leap day, hence the frog!

According to where you look on the web, the day is a good omen for starting something new. If you leap into something new on this day, it will be successful. With that in mind, I am treating today as the first day of a new push to improve my painting.

Maybe improve is not the word I am looking for. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I am going to vary my painting. I tend to paint figures only if they add to my armies. This not only restricts my choice of what to paint, but it also ties me to painting to match my existing collection. While I am happy with my army painting, I never really step outside my comfort zone. I am not exactly stuck in a rut, but I do think that trying something new will ultimately improve my technique, or at least expand my skill set.

The biggest problem I have is the vast range of minis out there. Which should I paint now that I no longer have to confine myself to chaos warriors or undead (the two armies I am supposedly working on this year)? It's a conundrum, but I do have a few ideas, which I will be posting about in the next few weeks.


*the smartest among you will have realised that there is a discrepancy in these numbers, since there's a little less than 6 hours per year added, and that eventually those few minutes difference will add up. Which is why there is no leap day in centuries that are not divisible by 400. So don't leave it to 2100 to take up a new challenge!