Quarter 3, Week 1 Update: We Fear the Enemy!

Hello and welcome back to Quarter 3 of Hammer the Backlog, the relentless Warhammer painting, accountability and productivity blog, where all of the targets are SMART, even if I’m dumb as a brick.

A nice little throwback to Dark Omen there in the title, for the real deep cut nerds among us.

As this is the start of the Third Quarter we have a lot to get through, including all new targets to look at and an exciting announcement, so let’s get going.

SCORECARD

Another week in the green this week. A rather uneventful one to be honest. I got everything done on time and enjoyed doing it. These week one weeks are pretty straightforward after the chaos of a week thirteen. 

NEW TARGETS

Since I had the second quarter review and third quarter target setting session last week, I already know what this quarter’s targets are going to be.

1. Get Blackstone Fortress painted, photographed and online.
2. Get Dreaded Ambull painted, photographed and online.
3. Get Traitor Command painted, photographed and online.
4. Create 90’s Style Box Art for Imperialis Miniatures Mercenary Swordsmen.

All four targets have the completion date of Thursday 9th March 2023. Then we will be on to the fourth and final quarter of year 1 of Hammer the Backlog.

Remembering that all of our targets must be SMART:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Timebound

Let’s take a look at the targets!

Specific – Blackstone Fortress, its first two expansions and ten resin minis.

Measurable – photographed and online, in a 90’s style box art in the case of the imperialis models

Achievable – 50 Hammer the Backlog Points (History shows I can do 65 in a quarter!)

Relevant – It’s a blog about painting models!

Timebound – by the 9th of March 2023

Looks pretty smart to me. The observant among you will notice that I have set a target of only 50, while being capable of 65. There are two reasons for this. First, I might not get as much done over Christmas and New Year as I usually do (or I might get more done, who knows?). Second, I have 15 points worth of models that I would like to do, but they are not going to be added as a quarterly rock as I might not be able to get them done. And if I don’t think I can get them done, that would take the Achievable out of SMART. Not very SMRT, is it?

THIS WEEK’S MODELS

This week’s models were an absolute treat for me. A tiny new model manufacturer called Imperialis Miniatures has produced these awesome, purposefully 90’s style wonky models that look just like the Grudgebringer Infantry from the Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen games that got me into this whole damned hobby in the first place.

These fellas are good old fashioned, cottage industry cast resin, not plastic or 3D prints. They were a lot more fun to paint than GW finecast, but considerably more fragile than finecast, metal or, the holy grail of miniatures, modern plastic.

I did them a slight disservice by spraying them in the worst weather we’ve had here in Ireland all year. I thought I had solved the problem, but on very close inspection there are a few patches of tiny tiny bubbles caused by the undercoat not behaving properly in -2C weather.

Other than that, they were enormous fun to paint. I went for a slightly brighter, more saturated scheme for them than the games had. What I was hoping to achieve was what the studio army would have done if they had been actually released in 1996. 

I swear to god I painted the eyes, but they have been lost in the slightly soft (but era appropriate) facial sculpts. I might go back and add more contrast around the eyes when I do the next batch.

I would have killed a man for a set of decals for the shields, rather than having to hand paint the grudgebringer infantry symbol on each one. Luckily, I got a lot of practice on steadying my hands doing Bretonnians a few months ago.

I decided to paint the leader, hornblower and three rear rankers first. That will leave four rank and file and the banner bearer for next week. Since I want to spend a little extra time on the banner, that should work out nicely.

The only problem is, in the games they come in a unit of 16, not 10. Should I get six more? No! Hammer the Backlog, not Increase the Backlog!

THE GRAND ‘HAMMER THE BACKLOG’ COMMUNITY CHALLENGE

One of the most unexpected things that has happened on this hobby journey has been people reaching out to me to say my slightly niche (ok, very niche) combination of retro painting style and productivity has inspired them to take a similar approach to their old, forgotten projects. It’s amazing to think that Hammer the Backlog is already responsible for helping to get at least 3 or 4 armies worth of old lead and plastic out of cupboards and onto tabletops around the world.

Last week I was contacted by redditor, awesome painter and photographer and all round cool human Harm op den Akker with the concept of starting a weekly accountability and productive challenge on Reddit’s r/WarhammerFantasy. They even suggested naming it the Hammer the Backlog challenge! Since I will be leaving the Warhammer Fantasy scene for a few months to focus on ‘Boring Space Miniatures’, how could I resist the offer?

We already have a good number of people who are signing up and working on their targets for Quarter 1 2023, running from the start of January to the end of March.

If you are in any way inclined to participate, I would love to see you there! 

Here is the link for the sign up post:

The Grand "Hammer the Backlog Q1 2023 Warhammer Fantasy Community Challenge"! from WarhammerFantasy

Anyway, thanks for reading this far. See you next week for the last 5 miniatures that I should have owned in 1996.

Cheers, you are the best eggs.