In the words of the bard, William Shakespear himself, welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly Warhammer mini painting, productivity and accountability blog where I, Mick, use the official Hammer the Backlog to get my 30 years of unpainted Warhammer minis painted. I break this Herculean task down into yearly targets, which are then broken down further in quarterly “rocks” and finally, a weekly score-card.
You join me this week, the penultimate week of year 2 of the Hammer the Backlog, just in time to see a major target ticked off for both the quarter and the year. Sadly, all off the preparation for next year (and there’s a lot) meant that very little painting happened this week.
Let’s take a look at the scorecard!
SCORECARD
It’s a mostly green week this week, with the obvious red being that there are no models painted. That is not to say that no painting or modelling happened! In fact, more painting and modelling happened this week than in many of the weeks which are all green.
Let me explain, before you write me off as a madman. First of all, since the Dark Angels are now fully painted, I decided to treat myself to a little bits and bobs palette cleanser and paint up a squad of early 90s chaos space marines on lurid green bases. You might remember this little teaser from last week, if you are following me on Instagram.
I’ve had this box in my collection for at least 15 years, probably closer to 20 and I decided it was finally time to get them done. But! Old models need a little care and attention to get ready, with a fair amount of clean up needed, as well as stripping the old paint off some of the second hand ones.
Rather than rushing to get them done this week, I decided to give them a bit of breathing room and work on them over the two painting-target-less weeks.
In the meantime, most of my time on the Hammer the Backlog side of things this week was getting next year’s options ready. Some of the models for next year are ready to go, it was as simple as taking them out of their boxes and popping them on their baking trays. Some of them are even undercoated!
On the other hand, a lot of the models for next year were in atrocious condition. Buried at the bottom of a box and squashed under piles of their fellows. They had to be reunited (and in some cases rebuilt), pieces scrounged for and alternatives sought.
But in the end I am pretty confident that I have a cool little selection of models for the start of year 3 video and blog next week!
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
No finished models to look at this week, but since I am in the middle of a project it gives us a unique chance to look at the painting process!
In the end I went with Iron Warriors for my retro space marines. Mostly because I have never painted an Iron warrior before.
I undercoated them with lead belcher, straight out of a spray can. They then go a layer (or heavy glaze I suppose, although glaze feels like the wrong term for metallics) on the top of each panel with Ironbreaker, a slightly brighter metal.
Then they got an all over wash of Nuln Oil.
After the Nulm Oil had dried, the ironbreaker “glaze” was reapplied.
Then I did a recess shade with Wildwood and a very, very light shade of agrax earthshade on the underside of the panels.
Any panels with an edge then got a thick edge highlight with Ironbreaker, although there were mercifully few.
And finally, a very, very sparing almost dot highlight with Stormhost Silver. I didn’t want the final effect to look too bright and shiny!
Obviously, this all looks pretty rough at the moment, but I promise when the other details and trim are painted it will look pretty cool!
VENGEANCE WILL BE MINE
Well, 12 years and six months later, Dark Vengeance is finished. It’s hard to photograph these sets so that you can both see the details, but also appreciate the whole set.
That is probably why GW just photographs the models individually these days, and then photoshop it all together.
Anyway, here are a couple of attempts to get a photo that does the set justice.
I guess that means I have to make a “learn to play” video for this set next year?
That’s all from me for another week. See you at the same time next week for 5 finished Iron Warriors and the Year 2 End of Year review.
Oh, and big shout out to Gaius Marius Paints on Instagram for the blog title this week!
https://www.instagram.com/gaiusmariuspaints/
You are the best eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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