I’m all bloody shook up this week by the amount of time and effort it took to paint up these five Elvis. Elvis is the plural of Elves, right? Welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly mini painting blog which uses accountability and productivity methods to help me get 25 years of hoarded miniatures painted to a standard that I am happy with.
The sheer amount of detail and the variety of colours needed on this week’s models pushed the hammer the backlog method to its very limit. But no need for suspicious minds, read on to find out if I managed to hit the targets this week.
SCORECARD
Phew! Even though it was a lot of Trouble (that counts!)I did manage to just about keep everything in the green for another week running. Instant agency tools are still on the blink, so it’s another week of grubby hand made tables.
| Hold ups due to missing supplies | 0 |
| Instagram Posts | 5 |
| Facebook/Reddit Posts | 5 |
| Models Finished | 5 |
| Blog Post | 1 |
As I said, I thought, it was a blood tight one! This week’s models probably clocked in at about 5 hours of effort each, maybe even a little more. If you remember the Hammer the Backlog method, I give one point to infantry models, and usually paint about 10 to 15 hours a week. I easily doubled it this week, meaning that I constantly felt under pressure.
I could have given up and counted each of these models as two points each, or painted them to a lower standard and left them at one. But in the end I took the dumbest route and just got them done instead. Accountability at its finest.
I’m already dreading next week, with a champion, musician and standard bearer to add into the mix, but I am going to attempt to power through and get them done.
The other issue of the week was that I haven’t been able to find, for love nor money, any command sets for my Bretonnian bowmen. These fellas are like hen’s teeth. Luckily I had the idea of asking Instagram for help. It turns out the squires were released for the old world, and while they are not exactly the right models, they are era appropriate and armed and armoured correctly, so I ordered myself a set.
That lets me get working on one set while I try to hunt down a “correct” set in the meantime.
Remember, completing units or adding missing pieces are the only times I am allowed to add to the backlog, so it’s not cheating!
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
This week’s models, the five rear rank sea-guard, were, I think, the most intimidating models I’ve ever sat down to paint. I dilly dallied for hours on getting started because I was undecided on color scheme and I let that intimidate me into inaction. In particular it was the two greens, the sea green on the shield and the teal green on the seaweed that stopped me.
In the end, the green on the shields was super easy to achieve. @andrewwarhammerpainter on Instagram (great painter, check him out) showed me that it is actually just a GW colour triad, Stegadon Scale Green (it’s fucking blue mate), Sotek Green (also blue) and Temple Guard Blue (finally, we’re being honest with ourselves, with a thicker than usually white final edge highlight to represent the same foam. Lovely.
The seaweed is painted with Lupercal Green (actually green), Son of Horus Green (kinda blue) and an edge highlight of sons of horus mixed with some yellow. I think I could have skipped mixing my own if I had some sybarite green, so I’ll pick some up for next week.
Otherwise they were painted in exactly the same way as the swordmasters from last week, but with 3 times as many fiddly details.
Not my favourite models to paint, but they might be, technically speaking, the best unit I’ve ever painted. Having a paintbrush in your hand practically every day for 3 years can certainly make a difference!
Speaking of, I also decided to repaint the bases on my 15 year old archers to match my new army. They were actually bought at the same time as the rest of this force and were supposed to be the test unit.
I only managed to find the time to redo their bases in between drying stages of the sea-guard, so touching their banner up to modern standards will have to wait for a much quieter week.
Speaking of busy weeks, I also managed to get the next bit of Lustrian scenery finished by roping in my lovely last wife to help paint the bases. Didn’t she do well?
Well look, I’m wrecked and I probably need to get started on the front ranks of this unit if I want to get them done without going mad, so I’ll see you in a week’s time!
Thanks for reading all of this, best eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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