Quarter 3, Week 10 Update: A Game of Two Halves

Hi there! Thanks for coming to week 10 of the third quarter of Hammer the Backlog, the weekly miniature painting, accountability and productivity blog. This week’s update is brought to you by the lesson I learned about having flexibility within your system, while still making sure that you hit your rocks. Let’s get straight down to it with a look at this week’s scorecard.

SCORECARD

Another week fully in the green. Nothing too much to report on the scorecard this week. Which, I suppose, is a sign of a very good week! You will be delighted, I hope, to hear that my recent post-40 health scare now seems to be mostly in the rear view mirror and so both my productivity and my general outlook have improved! Hooray for modern medical science.

In the end, I awarded myself five points for completing only the traitor commissar. Although I had originally scheduled painting the Traitor Commissar and the Ogryn from Traitor Command in a single week, and therefore counting them as five points, once I got started on the two models I changed my mind. Now, this is where the flexibility I mentioned earlier comes into play. I definitely could have painted both of the models to a decent level this week, but once I got going on them I got really excited by how nice they were and decided to elevate them a little bit above the level I would normally paint ‘rank and file’ miniatures. These guys are special baddies after all.

I hear you saying “Mick, you can’t just go around deciding to change the number of points that a model is worth mid week, what will the boss think?” Well, first of all, there is no boss. This is a hobby blog about painting little plastic men. Secondly, this is a good chance to look at the interaction between the Scorecard and the Quarterly Rocks.

Since getting Traitor Command is the last outstanding rock of the quarter, and there are three weeks left, I had two options.

1. Rush Traitor Command, get both models done to a combined 5 point standard and then have three weeks to do various bits and bobs, and maybe take a one week holiday.
2. Split Traitor Command over two weeks, get each model done to a 5 point “character” standard and then have two weeks left, one week for bits and bobs and one week holiday.

This is where the Rocks stepped in for me and made the decision. Sure, I might be excited to be “done” with Blackstone Fortress for a few weeks, but Traitor Command is the Rock for the quarter, and having a bit more time to do some bits and bobs very much isn’t.

The Scorecard only represents the amount of work I was able to get done, and since I managed to get the commissar done to roughly the same standard as my explorers, he gets five points. 

THIS WEEK’S MODELS

So, after all of that, here is this week’s model. I found this set the least exciting of the Blackstone Fortress sets when it first came out. Even less exciting than No Respite, and I already had those models. There was just something about a Chaos Commissar and an Ogryn that didn’t excite me that much. Part of it may have been that I had already painted a Chaos Commissar a few months before, from the Dark Vengeance box set. And I thought the older guy was a much cooler model with his bare chest, shotgun and half oni mask.

But, as I said above, once I got stuck into this pair I really changed my mind and got excited about dedicating a little bit more time to making him look cool.

I am quite happy with how he turned out, particularly with the dark red on his power fist. That won’t be the last time we see this red recipe on Hammer the Backlog. 

It was Khorne Red, a heavy Agrax Earthshade wash, highlighted with Khorne Red, then Wazzdakka Red and a final highlight of Evil Sunz Scarlet.

Here he is with his predecessor.

I got a good bit into the Ogryn too, before deciding to put him aside and spending a bit more time on really giving him life next week.

THE HAMMER THE BACKLOG CHALLENGE

I think it is fair to say that the Hammer the Backlog challenge on Reddit was not the great success that both me and Harmopdenakker had hoped it would be. But, never let it be said that we pass up the opportunity for learning here at Hammer the Backlog.

I think the major difficulty is that this little system that I have developed for painting minis really requires a full, 100% buy-in to work. And for a community to be built around it, using this method, we would really have to fully commit to keeping each other accountable, making sure that our targets are SMART, making sure that weekly scorecards and commitments are being maintained, holding each other accountable when we start slipping behind and helping each other other with guidance and support when things do go off track.

For something like this there has to be an incredible amount of trust between every member of the group. Imagine how it would go down if we said: “Hey, Reddituser2, you have missed your commitment two weeks in a row. We need you to get back on track for the entire project to be a success. If you can’t do it now, let us know how we can help. If that doesn’t work, we are going to need you to withdraw with no hard feelings”.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, dear readers? Is something like this an inherently personal project, or would it work with a tighter group, like on a facebook page or a discord?

Well, that’s enough out of me for one week. See you next week for a Chaos Ogryn and the last of the quarterly Rocks complete.

 Thanks for coming back, you’re good eggs.