Welcome back to update five of Hammer the Backlog, the project which, we can safely say at this point, is actually happening. This week was one of the quieter weeks all told. Two knights were pretty much done and dusted by Tuesday evening, leaving a bit of time for planning and prep work. Funnily enough, I think the loss of the looming pressure of a deadline actually made me a little bit slack this week. I certainly had plenty of time to get the brown background finished this week, but the voice in my head saying “Ahhhh, there’s plenty of time! Have a relax!” convinced me that there was plenty of time and that I should have a relax.
Let’s take a look at our weekly scorecards.
Another week totally in the green! This week was, as I said, pretty straight forward. After being a little bit intimidated by getting two knights done, I currently think it is going to be fairly smooth sailing for the rest of this quarter’s targets. We are only one knight away, at 27 out of 60 HtB points done, from our halfway point.
I managed to clear most of our todos this week too. The new backdrop has arrived, you will see it in some future photos, the bowmen are all stripped and ready for mould line removal and finishing the brown base carries over until next week.
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
Two more knights this week, bringing us up to five finished knights in total. The first game-legal unit of Knights of the Realm. I quite like both of these guys to be honest. The bull knight took an early lead in the painting process and demanded that I finish him first. He ended up being almost exactly the colours for the Empire region of Ostland. I wonder if there is an interesting story there?
The unicorn knight had a different journey. Yellow and green are two colours I have a lot less experience with. This poor guy definitely went through an ugly phase of painting. The green and yellow base coats were both quite patchy and unpleasant and I nearly gave up. But once again, trusting the process paid off in the end. The yellow in particular almost came out looking like non-metallic metal. For the uninitiated among us, that is when a metallic look is achieved without using any paints that actually contain metallic flakes. A 2-dimensional art technique applied to 3-dimensional figures. Looks cool, I’ve never tried it.
One of the things that I am really enjoying about having this blog weekly is that you can really see the steady, inexorable growth of the army. Sometimes with blogs and challenges things can be a little stop start. This month I painted 150 individual Goblins! Join me next month when I hope to get this one single squig base coated!
The full army together is really taking shape now. This will be the last time they are all going to fit on my little green photography base, sadly. Should I make a bigger one?
DISAPPOINTING MY PARENTS
By becoming a stripper. Regular readers of the blog will be happy to learn that beloved blog character Finubar the Seafarer, But The Sea is Alcohol not only survived his 36 hour dunk in 99.8% IPA, but he came out looking fresher than he ever had before. Even his moldlines look as crisp as the day he was made. It was therefore with great confidence that the remaining bowmen and horses joined him.
ON BROKEN LANCES
At the start of the blog I was pretty sure I had all of the pieces I needed to get everyone back together in close to original condition. Unfortunately, I either misscounted or the dreaded carpet monster claimed some new victims. I am two broken lance tops and a shield short of a full set. The shield shouldn’t be a problem, the shields that came with these knights originally were as basic as you could possible imagine. I could provably even make one with plain plastic card and it would be fine.
The lances will be trickier. At the moment I am considering making one into a standard bearer by stealing the lion crest from one of the spare knight’s heads and hand making a banner. The second might become a champion by doing a hand swap and giving him a simple sword to replace his broken lance. The perfectionist in me isn’t in love with this idea, as it will result in a unit that is not exactly what came in the original box, but everything looks better with some subtle personalisation, right?
PAINTING CHALLENGES
One of the things that got me back into the tabletop painting hobby was the proliferation of painting challenges and groups. The one that particularly inspired me was the 4th edition challenge, The Gathering of Mighty painters. Check it out at this link, it’s great.
Unfortunately, Hammer the Backlog pretty much rules me out of taking part in any of these cool challenges, as they always have their own rules and specifics. I would pretty much have to double my painting output except in the rare cases that I could make things match up.
Luckily this Sunday is going to be one of those times. Since I will be doing two more knights and I am quite confident I can get them done in a comfortable eight hour session, I have decided that I am going to do next week’s models as part of Warhammer Official’s #warhammerpaintathon this Sunday. I have already decided on the schemes and am going to get all of the prep work done before Sunday. If you are taking part, keep an eye out for my two knights on the day.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Finally for this week, 200 Instagram followers!
Cheers, you are a bunch of good eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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