Dearest of readers, welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly warhammer mini painting, productivity and accountability blog, where this week your beloved author learned a thing or two about hubris, and not mucking about with plans after they are in motion. Let’s get started with a look at the scorecard for this week, before we move on to this weeks’ model(s) and have a look at how The Work on the Buildings is going. With only two weeks left of year 1, is it a case of “I love it when a plan comes together” or “No plan survives contact with the enemy”?
SCORECARD
Another week in the green, although the numbers are a little lower than I’d like. I only got to make two Instagram posts this week as working on the buildings and general work and life got in the way of being able to set up and photograph cool stuff for instagram. Hopeful with the workspace nearly done, this problem will soon be a thing of the past.
Also, I really had hoped to get the two guardian drones from Ascension finished this week. With each of them counting as 5 points, that would have been 10 points in a single week and another rock ticked off. But, if 5 points of painting is the time and energy I have per week, why did I think I would be able to get 10 points done? I ended up getting about a third of the way through the two guardian drones before realising that it would have been physically impossible to paint them both up to a standard I was happy with in the time I had.
That’s why I decided to finish one off this week and leave the other one for week 12, which was the original plan all those weeks ago, before I got high on my own supply of success.
This should make next week a very stress free week of painting, since I’ll only have one model to finish off. But, as I said last week, there is a lot of other stuff to do to wrap up the year, including painting a saurus warrior command group, recording a Year 1 review for Youtube, recording a Year 2 planning session, etc.
THIS WEEK’S MODEL
This week’s model is one of the guardian drones from Ascension, the final Blackstone Fortress models in my collection.
When these guys were released, there was certainly a bit of disappointment around them. Although they are undoubtedly cool, they have the overall bulk of, say, a space marine terminator. Sure they are taller and ganglier, but there is not a lot of plastic here for the size of the box and the price they came at. They are also probably a touch small for what they represent. If the mini spindle drone that this big buy is repairing was the same size as the actual spindle drone models, I don’t think there would have been as much outcry, but it is about 50% smaller, giving the entire model a feeling of being slightly out of scale with the rest of the game.
Complaints about value aside, I love these models. Feeling truly alien and different from anything else in 40k. Their weird biomechanical carapaces and spindly tripod designs have aspects of Chaos, Eldar and Necron to them, which I suspect may be the point. Great stuff.
Fetting the white carapaces feeling right is what ended up taking so long. Again, as with many of these super detailed models, I could have spent weeks try to get perfect shading and highlighting. Instead I had to call 5 points, or a week’s work of work, enough and move on. They were painted with a combination of shades, contrast and normal blend. Here, as much for my own memory, is a basic outline of the process.
Undercoat: Spray Grey Seer, zenithal spray Skull White
Contrast: 3:1 Contrast Medium, Space Wolves Grey
Shade: 1:1 Contrast Medium, Nuln Oil
Selective shade: Space Wolves Grey in darker recesses. Nuln oil in very dark spots/openings
Glaze: Very very thin Ulthuan grey, mixed with Lahmian medium over multiple coats
Glaze: Very thin Ulthuan Grey, Coraz white mix, thinned with Lahmian medium.
Highlight: Very thin Coraz White/ Skull white mix
Spot highlight: Dot of skull white
The black was painted up with my usual blend of Dark Reaper to Thunderhawk Blue to Fenresian Grey to white.
I think they look pretty snazzy. Funnily enough, there is a lot more blending on the big guy than the little ones, even though the little ones probably look a bit smoother, probably thanks to their smaller surface area.
WORKING ON THE BUILDINGS
Great progress in the buildings this week! I got a lot of the scope items finished between last week and this week, and now everything is skimmed and ready for painting. The shelving and workbench is on its way. A few new things have popped up, including forgetting that slabbed walls need skirting boards and that the electrical box needs to be boxed in, but they are both almost complete too.
Unless there is a hold up with the delivery of the shelving and bench, there should be no worries about getting this rock ticked off by the 8th of June, even if it is only just!
Thanks so much for reading all this way, you are the best eggs.
See you in a week for the last guardian drone and hopefully the final touches for the year!
Hammer the Backlog 
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