Hello Internet friends, thank you for coming back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly Warhammer mini painting, accountability and productivity blog! This week I was blessed by another of Grandfather Nurgle’s vile concoctions (aka the flu). You would think that being stuck at home with not much else to do would help productivity, right? Well it doesn’t! Aches and pains and a general malaise definitely slowed down production this week. Let’s take a look at the scorecard to see how badly.
SCORECARD
Not that badly at all, as it turned out. This week was definitely a struggle, but I managed to power through it and get everything done.
Three more dwarfs painted to get the Old Realm forge Marksmen finished, the first two Orc (or is it Ork?) linesmen painted and all other commitments met!
Let’s talk about the Old Realm Forge minis for a minute while we’re here, as I think they are very relevant on the rocks and focus side of the Hammer the Backlog project. Firstly, and this is just for clarity, I have no financial stake in the Old Realm Forge minis. Simone, the sculptor, is a Discord mate and when he showed off the models I asked him if I could have a unit to paint in exchange for painted photos! Having said that, they are beautiful models and I hope his project is a success so he keeps making more!
So, here’s the issue. There are 8 more models, an entire unit of beautifully painted Dwarf Clansmen in the same style, to print and paint. Now, looking at this quarter’s targets, there is no way on Earth for me to squeeze 8 more models into this quarter’s targets and still have them be achievable.
So what am I going to do? At the moment, the project manager side of me tells me to forget them. But the Dwarf model lover can’t resist. I’m definitely going to print them, that can’t be controlled. It looks like I might have to do them “on my own time”. If that is the case, and I end up doing an extra dwarf model or two a week over the next couple of weeks, the 100% most important thing is that they cannot be prioritised over the week’s actual target models.
Oh, what a quandary!
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
Despite the physical issues caused by being sick, and the project issues caused by being tempted off track by beautiful dwarfs, this week turned out to be a great week of painting. First of all, I finished off the last 3 of the first batch of Old Realm Forge marksmen. I don’t remember if I said it last week or not, but with these models I was aiming for a 4th edition dwarf style, seeing them as more of a militia in which each clansman supplies his own armour, than the more uniform look GW went with for future dwarf armies.
With that in mind I painted them in more of less the same colours as last week, just mixing and matching the details a little bit. They turned out fabulous, I love these little guys. They are the way 4th/5th edition dwarfs looked in my imagination!
The second set of models this week were two of the most basic models I’ve ever painted. Now, it is true that they are monopose plastic orcs from 1993, so you can’t expect too much! Despite the static poses and the huge flat chins, I am super pleased with how these turned out!
As you can probably tell by how few of them I have painted so far in Hammer the Backlog (It might be zero?)I am not hugely experienced with painting greenskins. I’m happy enough with the result though, and it feels nice and repeatable for the rest of the team. For my own reference more than anything, here is the skin recipe.
| Base | Wraithbone |
| Contrast | Gutrippa Flesh |
| 50:50 Contrast:Medium | Ork Flesh |
| Wash | Terradon Turquoise |
| Midtone Glaze | Orruk Flesh |
| Highlight | Ogryn Camo |
| Spot Highlight | Krieg Khaki |
Let’s have a quick quiz! Why do you think I decided to free hand the player numbers and shoulder pads?
- I want to improve my freehand and this is a nice way to practise
- It’s more Orcy to have them irregular, like orcs painted them on
- I lost the decals
Please comment on your choice down below!
SOCIAL MEDIA
2024 ended with a real social media bang! In the week since the last update, the Hammer the Backlog instagram account passed 4,000 followers. It’s gone up by another hundred this week too! I knew people would like those colourful, old fashioned dwarfs!
Not only that! Last week’s quarterly review video on Youtube was easily the most popular video I’ve ever posted, getting over 4k views in a couple of days, and getting the Youtube subscriber numbers over 1,000 too! What a week for side projects!
If you are reading this coming from either the instagram or youtube channel, thank you very much, and welcome!
See you all next week, I hope, for 5 decades old orcs. Or is it orks?
You’re good eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
Leave a comment