The sun always rises, as they say, on a quarterly blog. Welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly Warhammer mini painting, accountability and productivity blog, where this week we are getting a start on quarter 2 of year 2 of the project! As with every other time, a new quarter brings new rocks, targets that are set at the start of the quarter that I must adhere to, come hell, high water or diarrhoea.
Hammer the Backlog is all about me using the methodology of running a small to medium size business to keep myself productive and accountable. That basically breaks down into three main parts. Firstly, I have a weekly scorecard which keeps track of the health of the project. Green means things are going well, red shows that things might be slipping.
The second thing is the Rocks themselves. I usually have between 2 and 4 Rocks per quarter. The rocks are set in stone, be all and end all targets for the quarter. If nothing else happens in the quarter, but I get the rocks done, then the quarter is a success. I have to be very careful to make sure, therefore, that the rocks are SMART every quarter.
The final thing is the weekly meeting. The weekly meeting is where I check in on the scorecard, check the progress on the rocks, deal with any problems that have popped up, and then write the whole thing out and present it to you, the beautiful readers, as a blog.
SCORECARD
Let’s start quarter 2 as we mean to go on, with a green sweep. This week’s green is another case of me manifesting the best result, as at the time of writing 1 of the models is finished and the remaining 4 are hanging around at 75% done. But I’m pretty confident. And once again, if you are reading this, it means that I did it. A slight dose of the funny bum won’t stop me!
Everything else progressed as expected with all other commitments met.
Let’s move on and take a look at this Quarter’s new rocks.
NEW TARGETS
Since I had the first quarter review and second quarter target setting session last weekend, I already know what this quarter’s targets are going to be.
- Get Bloodbowl Human team painted, photographed and online.
- Get Chaos Dwarf army painted, photographed and online.
- Update website with search function, categories and improved graphics.
All four targets have the completion date of Thursday 21st December 2023!
Remembering that all of our targets must be SMART:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Timebound
Let’s take a look at the targets!
Specific – The Human team from blood bowl 3rd edition, 12 plastic models
Measurable – photographed and online
Achievable – 63 Hammer the Backlog Points (History shows I can do 65 in a quarter!)
Relevant – It’s a blog about painting models!
Timebound – by the 21st of December 2023
If this ain’t your first Hammer the Backlog rodeo, you’ll notice that this is probably the highest total number of models, or weekly Hammer the Backlog points, that I have committed to so far in this project. Unlike previous quarters I have not left any space for weeks off or bits and bobs. That is one of the main reasons that the third target, the meta target of updating the website, is much less work that the last two quarter’s meta targets. It’s going to be a to-the-wire, hardcore painting quarter with minimal distractions.
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
Lest we forget, I did actually paint some models this week. These 5, simple, low detail, practically 2-D plastic monopose models from 1993 were the most fun I’ve had painting models since my Bretonnian bowmen all the way back in quarter one. I said it then, I’ll say it now, 90’s plastic models and contrast paints are a match made in hobby heaven.
I went for the classic Reikland Reavers uniform, more or less as it was at the time. Unlike the ‘eavy metal team of the 90’s I went with metal helmets, to be more like the absolutely iconic cover art. I’m not sure the cover artist intended the models to have white shoulder pads, I think it might have been the ‘eavy metal team misreading the non metal of the artwork, but it is so iconic and it looks so good that I decided to keep it in.
I went for the classic bright green base. Rather than hunting down a goblin green, I used the modern Warboss green, which is a mighty fine substitute.
QUARTERLY REVIEW VIDEO
As with every other quarter since the first one, I also made a short video reviewing quarter 1 and planning for quarter two. Please give it a look if you have a few minutes to spare.
That is more or less it from me this week! Thanks for sticking around for another quarter of relentless progress, you’re good eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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