Welcome back to week three of Hammer the Backlog, where we are chipping away at the pile of shame in a structured way. Hopefully. It has been a very eventful week of hobby time, so let’s straight down to it.
You know the deal by now, we are going to start with a look at our scorecard, the main way we have of keeping track of the health of the project. As Hammer the Backlog has multiple strands to it, the score card has been very useful for keeping track of everything.
Another full week of everything in the green!
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
So if you remember back to the introduction post, models have a value assigned to them. We are aiming for five ‘points’ per week. A normal man (or lady!) is worth one point. A cavalry figure is worth three points. The logic for this is that the knight himself is about the same amount of work as one figure and the horse and horse coat are worth two. Let me tell you this now for nothing, that might be a bit of an underestimate of the amount of work painting these Bretonnian knights is going to take.
This week’s knight took a lot of work, that’s for sure. Will I be able to keep this up with all twelve knights? With each one having a unique scheme? I think some of them are going to have to be a little bit less complex, with others being a bit more fun. Another thing I learned this week is that I really struggle with painting horses! I’m glad I don’t have any models in this batch where the horse isn’t wearing a giant coat!
On the other hand, I have really noticed that the peasant archers have become very easy to paint in week three. Once you have the paint scheme down and you know the models and their weird bits inside out, you can really fly through them! What a shame that these are the last two in this scheme!
| Figures | Points per model | Total |
| 24 Bowmen | 1 | 24 |
| 12 Knights | 3 | 36 |
| Total | 60 |
At 15 ‘points’ worth of models out of a total of 60, we are officially 25% of the way to our first quarter’s key priority.
Even more importantly than all of that, from a background perspective, we now have a Knight and the twelve stout men he has mustered from his holdings. The Warhammer Fantasy Bretonnians are based on this medieval feudal system, with each lord bringing men from his own land rather than a standing state army. The little force is starting to take on the earliest hint of being an army.
The knight himself was painted exactly the same way as the archers, with the only difference being the pale unsaturated leather colour of the archers being replaced by a bright, vibrant, rich looking yellow. It really changes the whole look of the figure, I think, even though it is used relatively sparingly. I am no expert on colour theory. I barely understand art, to be honest, but I think it is because on the archers the red works as the highlight against the darker earthier tones, whereas here the red is basically the base colour for the even brighter yellow.
THE ISSUES LIST
As promised last week, let’s take a look at the Issues List. A big part of the ‘operating system’ that we are using to get through the backlog is the Identify, Discuss, Solve process of problem solving. Here’s how it works.
Throughout the week, as I spot problems that could slow down our progress, I simply add them to the Issues List on Instant Agency Tools. That means that I don’t get distracted and start trying to solve the problem straight away, but also that no issue ever gets forgotten. Then on Thursdays we have our weekly check up and I have time to look at all of the issues I’ve noticed during the week and make a plan to solve them. The solution spins out into a ‘to do’ with a set time to complete. If something isn’t important for achieving our quarterly key priorities, it can’t become a To do. That means that I know that anything that does become a to do, needs to be done.
Practical example time! I noticed a few weeks ago that I had used some of my original Bretonnian horses to make some ‘better’ 6th edition High Elf Silver Helms.
Luckily I spotted this and added it to the issue list. At the next weekly ‘meeting’ (it’s just me, but it’s basically a weekly reflection/planning session) the issue became a ‘To Do’; Buy 5 knights before I run out of horses to paint and it causes a delay.
As a side note, I am not considering rebuying lost or broken components as adding to the backlog! I am still, however, trying to limit how much I am spending and not starting any new projects. No new projects! None! Especially not Fabelzel’s incredible oldhammer style Chaos Dwarfs! Stop it!
SMALL MILESTONES AND COMMUNITY
Finally for this week, we hit our first tiny little baby milestone on the social media / blog side of the project.
After two weeks we have passed our first 100 followers on Instagram. I must say that Instagram has turned out to have an absolutely incredible community of miniature painters of all kinds. If anyone has hesitated about giving it a go, jump straight in. From world renowned experts with hundreds of thousands of followers to tiny little newbs like me, everyone is very supportive and welcoming.
See you all next week for two more knights!
Cheers, you’re good eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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