Hello and welcome back to another week of Hammer the Backlog, the Warhammer painting and accountability blog. This week has been a challenging one, despite having some really fun models to paint. Before we get to my whinging, let’s take a look at this week’s scorecard.
SCORECARD
Another week fully in the green, but another case of just barely. Being over 40 now, this week was taken up with doctor’s appointments, checkups and waiting for phone calls. Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I’m fine. Although the appointments etc. didn’t actually take up that much time, they were a real drain on my mental energy and motivation. I can say this with 100% certainty this week, if it weren’t for Hammer the Backlog and the accountability that having a weekly blog with actual real life readers brings, this would have definitely been the end of this project for a few months!
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
Let’s start this week with the model that was a bit of a cheat, Taddeus the Purifier. The reason I am saying that it was a bit of a cheat is that old Tadd here was 90% finished by the time I gave up on Blackstone Fortress in my last effort to get it finished. He got a few more details picked out this week, and one more step of highlights on the key areas, but he really was already mostly painted.
This next one from this week was Pious Vorne. Pious was about 50% done when I gave up on Blackstone Fortress in 2019. Her robes, skin and metallics were already done, I just had to do her parchment, armour, weapon and base.
If I were assigning points values to these two, it would have been 2.5 for Pious and 0.5 for Vorne. So they took up 3 points worth of my time, or about 60% of a week’s worth of painting time.
Which brings me on to my biggest disappointments so far in Hammer the Backlog. I love these two Rogue Psyker models, they are creepy and threatening and the flying poses really work on them. They are detailed and interesting, but not too bogged down in detail to be unfun to paint.
The disappointment is that I know I could have painted these guys to a higher standard. By giving them 1 Hammer the Backlog point each, they each got about 2 hours of work. You aren’t going to be doing subtle blends on the bulbous heads, intricately scratched and worn leather and terrifying glowing eyes with 2 hours from bare plastic to finished!
I have made peace with it, however, as this thinking is exactly why I have traditionally not finished projects. But, as they say, perfect is the enemy of done!
All of this week’s models also showed me that I have a bit of a weakness in my painting repertoire when it comes to pale skinned models! Something to work on in the future, maybe with some Dark Elves or Eldar.
HOW NOT TO DO IT
A few weeks ago I showed you one of my previous failed efforts to put a bit more structure and motivation into my painting time by starting a blog on Warseer (RIP).
This week, another look at one of my previous efforts to put some motivation and structure to my painting time. It turns out I have been desperately clutching at something approaching this idea for the last few years, who knew?
I, as well as you, love a part works collection. When I was a tiny wee fella I collected Star Trek Fact File, Treasures of the Earth, Bugs!, the list goes on. Maybe more than anything I’ve posted here, you might have to be of a very particular vintage to appreciate that list. Basically they are weekly or bi weekly magazines that come with a collection or a project of some sort to get you hooked and subscribed.
One of the greatest part works of all time was the Lord of the Rings Battle Games in Middle Earth Magazine, which I sadly missed. Reading back on it years later and hearing how it brought so many people into the hobby and how it slowly introduced models and concepts really intrigued me.
You can imagine my excitement when GW/Hatchette announced Warhammer Conquest in 2019. Two brand new, all plastic armies, with all of the paints and guides, at a substantial discount, built up in manageable stages over two years? I had subscribed before the ad had even ended.
The first few months were great. Each week I would eagerly open the latest issue and paint along with the guide, then put everything aside and wait with bated breath for the next week. Who cared that I wasn’t painting in my usual style and to my usual standard, that wasn’t the point. The fun was in following a structured project. I even, ever so briefly, considered starting a blog about it. This continued for more than a year, when I hit, I think, issue 36.
Issue 36 was the first set of layer paints, a blue and a green. In issue 36 the guide showed you how to put on a first, thick, edge highlight. Great, I thought, I will be edge highlighting this week. I highlighted the first unit along with the guide and excitedly turned the page. It said: “Now, go and edge highlight all of the rest of the models in your collection”. I closed the magazine and walked away.
And that, dear readers, is the story of how the entire contents of Warhammer Conquest ended up in the pile of shame.
Well, thank you very much for reading this far, I hope to see you back next week for a more upbeat week of Chaos Cultists.
Good eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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