Yes, I know I used that same joke in last week’s headline, but it’s extra fitting this week. Welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly Warhammer miniature painting, productivity and accountability blog. This week was a real week of two halves, with models from two different games painted, one rock completed and another started and the realisation that I have committed to 10 weeks of painting edge highlights on hundreds of scales of mail.
SCORECARD
If the Chaos Dwarfs have brought you to the blog for the first time, welcome. Every week we start with a look at the scorecard. I use a website called Instant Agency Tools to have a weekly “meeting” (with myself) to keep track of the progress and health of the overall Hammer the Backlog project. If all five of these measures are in the green, it means I am on track with most things and am struggling or starting to fall behind.
I am happy to report, as you can see, that everything this week is in the green. Overall it was a good week of painting. The two blood bowl players were very simple sculpts with low detail using a scheme I have nailed down over the last two weeks and the Dwarfs, although more detailed, were new and exciting and time seemed to fly painting them.
Even better, with the human blood bowl team finished, I have completed the first of quarter 2’s rocks!
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
It was a real game of two halves this week. Have I said that already? The first part of the week was finishing off the last two players for the human blood bowl team, the two throwers. The throwers are probably the simplest models for the human team. They have a wide open pose, with the same armour as the linesmen, but one bare arm. They also have the fewest details of all of the players, without even a piece of cloth or a plume to paint yellow.
The weakest part of these models is, sadly, their faces. The right side of the face is ok, but the left side is right where the model meets and you pretty much have to use your imagination to give them any defined features on that side.
However, don’t they look great all together like this? After 20 something years of mucking about, I finally have at least one fully painted blood bowl team. I think I’m going to need to get a new really useful box for odds and ends like this, I can’t just shove them in with the rest of my fantasy models, can I?
The Chaos Dwarves (Dwarfs?) are something I have been looking forward to for months, and it was amazing fun getting them painted up. Regular readers will remember my favourite model of last year, this amazing Bull Centaur model by the talented sculptor Fabelzel. I ordered this model already printed from a seller in Poland, painted it up and fell so in love with it that I bought a 3D printing set up and dived into the murky world of Patreon for the first time to get more of Fabelzel’s models.
I went for the 28mm option when I got him printed, and that turned out to be pretty small. Worse, this particular resin is quite brittle and he has suffered quite a few falls. I am not going to fix the damage again, I am going to let him live out his life as a slightly damaged relic and inspiration.
The first three warriors I printed were all identical Warrior 2. I painted them in pretty much exactly the same scheme as my beloved Bull Centaur with bright red scales, dark red trim and black beard and fabric, with a contrasting blue for the weapon hafts.
Here is a little table of some of the colours
| Colour | Base | Contrast | Broad Highlight | Edge Highlight | Fine Edge Highlight | Spot Highlight |
| Bright Red Scales | Wraithbone | Blood Angels Red | Evil Sun Scarlet | Wild Rider Red | Fire Dragon Bright | Fire Dragon Bright/Dorn Yellow |
| Dark Red Trim | Wraithbone | Flesh Tearers Red | Wazdakka Red | Wild Rider Red | ||
| Black Beard | Wraithbone | Black Templar | Dark Reaper | Thunderhawk Blue | Fenrisian Grey | Fenrisian Grey/ White |
| Blue Haft | Wraithbone | Ultramarines Blue / Talassar Blue | Teclis Blue | Lothern Blue | Blue Horror |
It would be disingenuous not to mention the fabulous painter Styggosaurus now, as he pretty much originated this scheme with his own bull centaur. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say, so I can only hope he is flattered!
You may not be able to tell without a direct comparison, but these models are based in what I call my “4th edition” style, rather than my “5th edition” style that I use for my other classic models. They have a much finer grain of basing sand and a very simple warboss green base and averland sunset highlight.
YOUTUBE UPDATES
It has been a pretty good week on the social media side of the Hammer the Backlog project this week. Although Instagram growth has slowed down again, likes and engagement is higher than ever. Perhaps the injection of Chaos Dwarf nostalgia over the next couple of months will give Instagram a bit of a boost?
In the meantime, it has been a great week for the Hammer the Backlog Youtube channel. We passed 600 subscribers this week, with over 4,000 views on the 5th edition boxed set video! Last quarter was pretty stressful, trying for 3 video uploads in one quarter, but is it pretty nice seeing some return on the time spent, with people being interested in and engaging with the videos I’ve been making.
Well, that is it from me for this week. See you next week, I hope, for the first full rank of lovely Chaos Dwarf Warriors.
Good eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
Leave a comment