Welcome back to week 9 of Hammer the Backlog, the hobby blog that makes progress every week by feeling like a job. But a really fun job! I’m going to let you in on a little behind the curtains secret; this week I am actually typing this on Monday evening, having already got all of this week’s work done. Let me explain.
SCORECARD
If you have been following alone with this blog from the beginning, or even if you have just found it and have read it chronologically, then you will remember that we are running the whole endeavour using EOS, a kind of business ‘operating system’. In the business world of EOS you have a weekly level 10 meeting, in which your entire leadership team meets following a rigorous and rigid structure with the exact same agenda at the exact same time each week. In the EOS system they say that the only reason that you should ever miss a level 10 meeting is that you are on holiday, or dead. Well this week, I am on holiday. Not only am I on holiday, I am also going to the three day destination wedding event of the year. So, perfectly within reason I could have skipped this week’s update. However, I have decided that I will only skip updates when it is absolutely unavoidable, so instead I powered through the weekend and got everything for this week done by 12 pm on Monday afternoon.
As you can see, all in the green again. A few of the To do’s didn’t get To done, mostly the ones that involved going to a model shop and buying things. I will pick them up in the next few weeks instead.
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
Let’s take a look at some models! That’s the real reason we are all here. At risk of feeling nostalgic about a few weeks ago, this week was very similar to week three of Hammer the Backlog; starring two peasant bowmen and a single knight. Week three marked the move from the simple rank and file bowmen into the real meat and two veg of the project, the knights. This week marks the end of the knights, a return to the much simpler bowmen and a real feeling that this quarter is almost over.
This particular knight is a little bit special. He is painted in my family crest, at least according to the internet. He was the first and only knight I painted when I got this set in 1998, and he was the first one to be stripped and repainted for this project. I didn’t finish him then, deciding to leave him until last to improve my techniques a little bit before tackling him.
In the end for the bowmen, after a lot of help from the subreddit at r/warhammerfantasy, I decided to go for a classic mediaeval look of yellow, black and red. They ended up matching the second knight I painted, so I imagine they are his subjects.
One of my favourite things here is that although they will look good in a uniform unit in the same colours, I think they will also look nice if I decide to mix and match the groups later on. This is one of the advantages of sticking to using the same red or the same yellow across the entire force.
Of course, the real excitement of this week is that all twelve knights of the realm, two full units of six, are done. Cop a load of these!
FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PROCESS, NOT THE PRODUCT
I have been thinking about my painting speed recently, particularly as I manged to get everything done in three days for this week’s targets. I have also been watching a lot of hobby content on youtube as I am painting, the likes of Goobertown Hobbies and Mediocre Hobbies. Some of those guys are hobby machines. They paint more models in a month than I have in my entire life, and all to an excellent standard. This got me to thinking about my lizardmen for the next quarter. I have been thinking of planning out the quarter so that the 52 models will take about ten weeks. But their videos made me think ‘Why not just knock them out in a long weekend?’ This is not surprisng, I know that some of these hobby monsters could easily do 52 simple, monopose, low-detail lizards in one weekend. But there is no way I could, right? Surely it would be impossible? Then I started thinking ‘You know what, I bet I could do it. Set up a production line, basecoat everything, shade everything, do all of the bases etc. No, you know what, I definitely could do it!’
Buuuuuut! Then I remembered how much joy this whole process is bringing me! I really do enjoy the incremental, steady progress that I am seeing from the blog. I probably could blast out the lizards in a week or two, but then what about the blog? Would I be able to sustain the momentum? The last time I did something like that, finishing the Space Hulk box set in about three weeks, I ended up not picking up a brush for nearly two years afterwards.
I think what I am trying to get at is, try to fall in love with what you are doing, rather than the goal or reward at the end. Love your process, not the end product. Having a cool little army or display piece at the end is more like the cherry on top.
SOCIAL MEDIA
We passed 500 followers this week! Instagram has taken on a bit of momentum of its own now and the follower count is even ticking up of its own accord at the weekend, when I usually don’t engage with it that much. At 500 followers, Hammer the Backlog has also overtaken the number of followers I have on my personal account and that of my podcast, Sure Look, Sure Listen. I guess I am Mr. Hammer the Backlog now?
Anyway, thanks for staying this long. See you next week for five more yellow and black bowmen!
You’re good eggs.
Hammer the Backlog 
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