You’ll excuse the slightly histrionic title this week, I hope, since we are doing some classic Black Legion Chaos Space Marines! Welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, my weekly blog focussed on Warhammer mini painting, Productivity measuring and accountability. I have nearly 30 years of unpainted Warhammer minis to get painted before ennui sets in and I sail off to the undying lands, and this blog and the methods in it are how I plan to get it done.
We are coming off a couple of rough weeks for the project. I didn’t super love the last couple of weeks’ worth of models, and my own personal and work lives were pretty busy. But! This week things seem to have settled down a little bit and everything felt a little bit like it clicked back into place.
Let’s take a look at this week’s accountability scorecard before we move on and look at the models.
SCORECARD
Back on track baby! At least in terms of the scorecard, things are back in the green this week. It’s a nice feeling, giving me a bit of renewed vigour to power through to the end of the cultists and get working on the Space Marines finally. So, what went right? Why the sudden change of mindset?
Well, first of all, I bought myself a new brush. I was really surprised by how many people listened to my whining over the last few weeks and came up with solutions. My beloved W&N series 7 which has lost its point does seem unsalvageable. I tried a couple of rounds of brush soap and conditioner to try to get that ultra fine tip back, with no joy. It’s still a perfectly usable brush, but getting a new one with a perfect tip has made such a difference in the speed of detail work.
The other thing that helped this week was a few people suggesting ways to spruce up my interest in my models i.e by taking scenic photos like I do with my classic stuff, by posting them all together etc. In the end I posted them in a couple of subreddits and got some decent feedback. As I’ve mentioned before, getting models painted up and posted somewhere online is the finish line for me. For some people getting them painted and playing a game with them is the point, but for me it’s putting them somewhere public.
And finally! Getting past the slog of doing the ununiformed 2012 rabble of the cultists and getting to do my first Black Legion Space Marine in over a year was a real treat! Let’s take a look at the models.
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
So this week’s model painting was a real game of two halves. I painted the last 3 cultists (a slog) and the first Black Legion Marine (a joy). I realised during this painting process that I have done exactly the same thing I did with my Blackstone Fortress minis and made my job a bit harder than it needed to be.
Since I started these cultists way back in 2012, they are very much painted in 2012 methods. So they have a base coat, a wash, reestablish the base coat, first highlight, edge highlight. Now, there is nothing wrong with this method in and of itself. But it does give you very 2012 looking results. Especially when the wash for most of the colours in Agrax Earthshade. Agrax Earthshade wash, and Devlan mud before it, were the defining look of most moderately well painted armies for about 15 years.
As I said, nothing wrong with this method, per se, but I hate basecoating!
On the other hand, I painted the Black Legion Marine in my preferred “Modern” style, using contrast paint as a basecoat. In fact I painted this guy in exactly the same way as my Blackstone Fortress Marines.
In the end this is going to result in a final force that might look a bit hodge-podge. The marines are going to be painted to a higher standard with better detail and more intense colour. But then again, they are 10,000 year old, demigod killing machines and the lowly cultists are basically their fanboys, so I suppose that works out in the end?
A part of me wishes I had just committed to painting this whole force with Blackstone Fortress bases too, for consistency.
I had a Black Legion army in the late 90s and early 2000s. Here is a quick comparison to show how my Black Legion painting has changed!
PROGRESS CHECK
This one is mostly for me! As I pushed through January and early February, it became a challenge to get the week to week progress done, so I admit I took my eye off of looking at the broader goals for the quarter, so lets have a quick check.
We have four weeks left in the quarter and 5 Chosen, a Chaos Lord and Hellbrute to finish.
| Week 10 | 2 Chosen |
| Week 11 | 3 Chosen |
| Week 12 | Lord |
| Week 13 | Helbrute |
I think that will do it for us. 3 Chosen in a week is quite a lot to get done, so the plan as of right this moment is to get started on 3 chosen this week, get as far as I can on them, but stop work on the third one to make sure I get at least the first two done. Then next week I can finish him off. So really I’m doing 2 and a half Chosen a week.
Last but not least, I’m now way behind on the Blood Bowl video and photo set up. I need to get the game played this week!
Well, thanks for sticking around again, and thanks for all the comments and support doing those couple of tough weeks!
See you next week for some more space marines!
Best eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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