Hi there! Welcome back to Hammer the Backlog. Elves! Sorry, it’s been a tough week painting very intricate models and every waking moment and thought has been consumed by ELVES! Sorry again. I’m sure that will stop happening. Elves! Nope. Still there.
In all and anyways, Hammer the Backlog is a weekly blog in which I use accountability and productivity methods to paint every single model I’ve bought over the last 25 years, since at one time or another I must have considered them the coolest thing in the world. Especially the elves. Did I mention I’ve been working on elves this week?
SCORECARD
Elves!
| Hold ups due to missing supplies | 0 |
| Instagram Posts | 5 |
| Facebook/Reddit Posts | 5 |
| Models Finished | 5 |
| Blog Post | 1 |
Flipping Instant Agency tools appears to be on the fritz again, so it’s back to bad old homemade tables for a week.
But at least the good news is everything is in the green again! I have probably been a bit stingy with myself here by having the five front rankers of the very detailed Swordmasters only count as five models, even though it includes an elaborate banner bearer and a champion with a magic sword, among other embellishments! Last year Mick would definitely have counted these as 2 to 3 points each.
The interesting thing, though, is that unlike other models that really pushed the limit of being a “single model’s worth” of work, I didn’t feel the need to cut corners on these to get them done. Instead, I just spent more time on them. In a normal Hammer the Backlog week I probably spend 10 to 12 hours painting. This week was easily 20+.
The tightness of the deadline wasn’t helped by the fact that I spent the whole of last Friday in the hospital (I’m fine) and a lot of Saturday recovering from the pain! This will probably end up being the trickiest week of the quarter, truth-a-be-told, so it’s good to have it out of the way while still feeling motivated. My brain is in two minds now. Do I power straight into the equally (more?) complicated Seaguard models and do five of them next week? Or do I treat myself to a character model, or maybe even something for the Bretonnians?
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
This week’s models are the front rank of the beautiful Swordmasters of Hoeth models from the Island of Blood set. I love, love, love these models. Although I had dabbled with High Elves in the past, including a plastic box set in 1998, it was these models and the prince on griffon that came with them that inspired me to go over the top and buy a 3,000 point high elf army in 2010. At least they are finally painted now.
These models are right on the edge of being over complicated, but they just pull back from being a chore due to their uniformity. Even though I spent twice as long on these as I would on, say, a Bretonnian bowman, at least I was able to create a process that required minimum thinking on my part.
Here is that process, visually unappealing as it may be, to help me remember it in five years when I am painting another 20 of these!
Undercoat the model with Skull White.
Paint the faces using Contrast Flesh Paint, varying the models’ skin tones with different Contrast paints.
Paint all metal areas with a tidy coat of Iron Hands Steel.
Tidy up any white areas using Corax White.
Paint blue areas with Ultramarines Blue Contrast.
Shade sword blades using a 50/50 mix of Blue Glaze and Nuln Oil.
Paint blue areas with Thalassar Blue.
Wash the entire model (except the skin) with Nuln Oil.
Darken shadows on the sword with Black Templar Contrast.
Paint gold areas with Retributor Armour.
Paint leather areas with Wyldwood.
Shade the gold areas using a 50/50 mix of Reikland Fleshshade Gloss and Agrax Earthshade.
Highlight the flesh with Kislev Flesh.
Further highlight the flesh with Flayed One Flesh or Pallid Wych Flesh.
Restore the shine to armour and sword with Iron Hands Steel.
Apply broad highlights sparingly, such as on sword blades, using Ironbreaker where the light catches.
Edge highlight the gold with Retributor Armour.
Edge highlight all metals with Stormhost Silver, including sword edges, glints, and scratches.
Tidy up any white areas with a broad application of Corax White.
Paint the eyes and teeth with Corax White.
Dot the eyes with Black Templar.
Basecoat gems with a medium grey (e.g., Mechanicus Standard Grey).
Highlight the leather areas with XV-88.
Dot highlight the leather with Karak Stone.
Paint the gems with Flesh Tearers Red Contrast.
Broad highlight blue areas with Teclis Blue.
Edge highlight blue areas with Lothern Blue.
Dot highlight blue areas with Blue Horror.
Glaze the bottom of the gems with watered-down Mephiston Red.
Edge highlight the bottom of the gems with Mephiston Red.
Edge highlight the bottom of the gems again with Wild Rider Red.
Apply a fine edge highlight to the bottom of the gems with Fire Dragon Bright.
Dot highlight the gems with Skull White.
Edge highlight all white areas with Skull White.
Apply superglue and fine grain sand to the base.
Paint the base with Steel Legion Drab all over.
Edge the base with Warboss Green.
Wash the base top with Agrax Earthshade.
Drybrush the base with Karak Stone.
Lightly drybrush the base again with Screaming Skull.
Tidy up the base edge with Warboss Green.
Apply superglue and flock to finish the base.
Because this simple 42 step process was so simple and only 42 steps, it cut down on the thinking time that slows me down some times when I am working on less uniform models. Also, because the details are so crisp and clear there are almost no moments of “What exactly am I painting here?”.
Oh, and obviously the banner didn’t quite follow that recipe, needing a few other steps! And the hair! I forgot the hair! Aaaagh! A simple 47 step process!
Fecking great stuff! Who’s next?
WHAT ELSE?
Somehow, despite doing all of that over the course of a week, I also managed to get the second, slightly smaller piece of jungle foliage painted. Once again, with the thinking and decision making out of the way, this was much easier, and I got the bulk of it done while the elves (ELVES!) were drying between stages.
Look lads, it took all of the discipline and motivation I have been training into myself over the last two and a half years to get this done this week. Especially while being in a decent amount of pain for a good part of it. If this week’s models aren’t the best endorsement for using a Hammer the Backlog type method for getting your models painting without burning out, I don’t know what is!
See you next week for either 5 seaguard, a mage or a grail knight!
Oh, the choices!
Elves!
Best eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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