Well hello there. Thanks for coming. Welcome to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly mini painting, accountability and productivity blog run by me, Mick. In this update we are going to look at the last 52 weeks of the year 2023/2024 and start planning for next year, 2024/2025. Please, take my hand and join me as we look back on the year that was and experience something akin to the joy of a childhood christmas in the middle of June.

YEAR 2 REVIEW

So the main targets of year 2 were well and truly achieved! What a relief! As a reminder, or for new readers coming for the first time, at Hammer the Backlog I break my enormous pile of shame down into targets for a year. I then break those targets down into quarters of thirteen weeks. Each quarter I have enough models that I spend 11 or 12 out of the 13 weeks painting, with a little left over for holidays, bits and bobs and/or the unexpected! That usually amounts to about 50 – 65 man sized models per quarter, fewer if they are big models like cavalry or monsters or detailed models like army generals or wizards.

The painting targets for year two were:

Dark Vengeance painted, photographed and online

Blood Bowl painted, photographed and online

Dogs of War starter army painted, photographed and online

3D printed Chaos Dwarf starter army painted, photographed and online

By using the SMART methodology I was able to break these two targets down into four quarters, roughly like this.

Quarter 1: Dogs of War and Human Blood Bowl Team.

Quarter 2: Chaos Dwarfs and Orc Blood Bowl

Quarter 3: Chaos Space Marine side of Dark Vengeance

Quarter 4: Remaining 4 Blackstone Fortress expansions.

In this case SMART meant 

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Timebound

I am, of course, very happy to say that all of these targets for the year were achieved. Here, have a little gallery of the finished models!

Hammer the Backlog also started year one with a three year plan. In the three year plan I decided that I would have no more unpainted boxed sets by July 16th 2025. The operating system that I am using to manage this projects required that I started to define what that would look like, and I imagined that if I were going to achieve it on time I would need to have set up a streamlined process, created a semi permanent painting station and have a semi permanent photography and storage solution. One of the major differences this year is that I managed to knock off some of these 3 year targets, specifically I converted my garage to be a full time, permanent painting station.

ADDING TO THE PILE

One of the founding tenets of Hammer the Backlog was to stop buying new minis when I have so many waiting to be painted. The way I like to explain it is that every broken mini, every sprue languishing unassembled in a box, every blister pack in the darkness at the bottom of a pile, every single one of them at the time that I bought them, seemed to be the coolest thing in the world. With that I mind, I made the decision not to buy any more new minis.

This I did not stick to. I did buy quite a few new minis this year. I was mostly able to justify them to myself by buying models that completed units, replaced broken parts or put the finishing touch on armies. But I did have a couple of moments of weakness too and just bought cool stuff. It’s not all doom and gloom though. 

Part of my hope for year three is to knock everything new that I added to the pile off the top as soon as I can, to avoid letting it sink to the bottom of a box in the garage somewhere.

THIS WEEK’S MODELS

Surprisingly, with all of the end of year hoo-hah going on, I did actually manage to finish some models this week too!

These five early 90’s chaos space marines are a lovely, fittingly chaotic blend of metal and plastic parts. 

I originally wanted to paint them in a week as a kind of palette cleanser, an amuse-bouche if you prefer, after 6 months of modern, high detail 40k models. I was feeling a  little bit jealous seeing everyone’s goblin green bases on Instagram.

I went for Iron Warriors as the legion as I thought (incorrectly) they would be a quick and simple paint job. I was wrong. It might have been a year end sag in motivation, or hesitance in painting up 5 models in a totally new scheme, or fear of not painting these classics to the standard they deserved, but I didn’t knock them out in a week like I planned.

Having said that, once the scheme started coming together and they started looking like something, the motivation sprung back and I did more on them in the last 3 days than I had in the previous 11.

The other mistake I made with them was falling for nostalgia and using the original decal sheet that came with the box. These decals are probably 33/34 years old. Even if decal technology hadn’t come on massively in that time, these were very brittle AND they don’t even bloody well fit on the shoulder pads. What were 1993 GW thinking? 

I took a copious amount of Micro Sol and a bit of artistic liberty to make it work in the end, but I am relatively happy with them. The final models of year 2 are done and dusted.

MODEL OF THE YEAR

A pretty easy winner for model of the year this year.

My clear favourite model that I painted was my Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer Lord on Lamassu. I love this model. I love the mount and the rider. I am really happy with the paint scheme. He was very popular on social media, being both my most popular Instagram post and my most viewed Youtube video. All round, a clear winner for model of the year this year!

SOCIAL MEDIA

One of the unexpected surprises of Hammer the Backlog year 1 was just how much it resonated with people online. The blog itself is easily the most read thing I’ve ever written and the instagram took off like a rocket, growing by 1,000 followers a quarter when I was painting classic warhammer fantasy stuff.

https://www.instagram.com/hammer_the_backlog/

Social media growth did slow down, not unexpectedly, when I started painting 40k stuff instead of fantasy. Still to this day my fantasy posts get many multiples of the likes and follows of the 40k stuff. We finished year 1 with 2,800 instagram followers. 5,000 seemed like a reasonable hope for year 2.

Year 2 started with a bang, going from 2,800 followers on Instagram to 4,000 by the end of quarter 2. Sadly, there are a lot of people painting Space Marines on Instagram, and the two space marine quarters of year two were by far the slowest so far, gradually tricking up to just over 4,300 at the time of writing.

On the other hand, it was a great year for the YouTube channel, which went from a couple of hundred views per video to 6 to 8 thousand. Subscribers also shot up around the time I was doing my 5th Edition Fantast “content”, sitting at a little over 1,200 subscribers and 3,000 watch hours!

The year two end of year review video will be going live by the time you are reading this, please do give it a watch!

YEAR 3 TARGET SETTING

So with year two a roaring success, let’s take a look at the pile of shame as it stands.

Box Sets:

Blackstone Fortress including all expansions

Deathwatch Overkill

Blood Bowl 3rd Edition

Warhammer Fantasy Battles 5th Edition

Warhammer 40,000 Dark Vengeance

Warhammer 40,000 Assault on Black Reach

Small Projects:

About 1000 points of 2000’s era Chaos Marines

Small force of Gondor for Lord of the Rings

Small modern Dark Eldar Force

Strip and repaint about 50 20 Dogs of War models

3D printed Chaos Dwarf Starter Force

Big Stupid Projects that should never have got off the ground:

About 3000 points of 8th Edition High Elves, including doubles of the Isle of Blood set

About 3000 points of 8th Edition Empire, based around units from the Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire book

Warhammer 40,000 Conquest Magazine, full armies of Ultramarines and Death Guard currently painted to about week 30

So, what do we target for year 3? There are a couple of considerations to take into account. The first is that the targets need to be SMART. This is the most important thing, whatever we pick we will come back to SMART and run a check to make sure it works.

The next thing is to remember that three year goal of having no more unpainted boxed sets. Looking at, for example, the 8th Edition High Elves, that could easily be a whole year’s target on its own. It wouldn’t get me any closer to having all of the box sets complete however.

The other consideration is variety. One of the most enjoyable things about year one was having the colourful whimsey of 5th edition warhammer and the grim dark blackstone fortress mixed in together. I’d like to recreate that a little bit this year with roughly 50/50 40k and Fantasy.

With all of that in mind, I decided that the goals for year 3 are:

5th Edition Metals painted, photographed and online

Island of Blood Elves painted, photographed and online

Deathwatch Overkill painted, photographed and online

I also like to have some non painting, or meta, targets each year.That’s why the meta targets for the year will be:

Follow up 5th Edition Battle Report filmed, edited and uploaded

Dark Vengeance “Let’s Play” filmed, edited and uploaded

Before we go any further, let’s take a look at our SMART system for one of the yearly targets.

Island of Blood Elves painted, photographed and online

Is it specific? Yes, the Island of Blood Elves were a discrete force released for the 8th edition starter set.

Is it measurable? Yes! 10 swordmasters, 10 sea guard, 5 reaver knights, a mage and a prince on griffon.

Is it achievable? Yes. 10 Hammer the Backlogs points for the swordmasters, 10 for the seaguard, 15 for the knights, 5 for the mage and 15 for the prince. 55 Hammer the Backlog points is doable in 11 weeks of painting.

Is it relevant? If we are going to get rid of the backlog of unfinished boxed sets, the only way to do it is by painting unfinished boxed sets. We pass this one with flying colours.

Is it time bound? If we just said ‘Island of Blood Elves painted, photographed and online’, I might get it done by Christmas 2027. If you are reading this close to the date of publishing, you will be able to follow along with the progress. If you are reading this in the bright and shiny future, you will  already know if I managed to do it within the time limit.

Going through all of my models to make the annual review was one of the absolute highlights of the year for me. It was like 10 christmases all at once. The complete change of mindset that the Hammer the Backlog process has brought me, from feeling anxious about how much space the unused models were taking up, being worried about things being broken and neglected and looking at the pile of shame with genuine shame, to having everything proudly on display and being excited about starting a new year has been amazing.

If you have been reading along for the last year, or even if this is your first blog post, I’d love for you to join me on the journey. 

How big is your pile of shame? If you got organised and SMART how long would it take you to get through it? What did you buy all those years ago, thinking it was the coolest thing in the world, only for it to end up unloved under a pile of cushions? Why not follow along with me this year, either by joining in in the comments below, or, even better tagging your own weekly updates on Instagram with #hammerthebacklog

Anyway, thanks for sticking around so long for this update. See you all next week for week 1 or quarter 1 all over again!

Best eggs!