Hello and welcome to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly tabletop mini painting, accountability and productivity blog. In this quarter 2 of year 3 of the Hammer the Backlog project, I have been mostly painting the High Elves from the Island of Blood set, while dipping in and out of my 5th edition Bretonnians for an upcoming video battle report.
Join me for one of the most uneventful weeks of painting that I’ve had in a long time, and a look forward at the future of the project. And a bit of digging into how I made this into a 14 week quarter? Maybe?
SCORECARD
Everything in the green except for models painted, which is no surprise since I am currently working on a three-weeker centrepiece model that is going to be worth 15 Hammer the Backlog points.
In the meantime, everything else is in the green for another week.
In terms of overall progress, Jim and I will be filming the battle report on Saturday the 14th, which gives me a full 5 days to get everything edited and uploaded. Should be no problem at all. Right?
Right?
THIS WEEK’S MODEL
So this week’s model is the High Elf Prince on Griffon from the 2010 Island of Blood boxed set. As far as I’m concerned, the star of the boxed set and probably the reason that I, at least, bought it. This is an absolutely fantastic model, and in my opinion the peak of the Warhammer character on monster design.
He is so dynamic and stylish, but still very much grounded in original warhammer scale and fantasy. Ok, he’s about 2-5 times the size of a 5th or 6 edition griffon, and he’s actually flying into battle rather than posing, but I think that the size and dynamics are spot on.
The empire griffon, which was released only a short bit later, is probably 10 times as big as this guy in volume. The damned thing is about 3 times as big as the dragons from that time. And even that looks tiny compared to where large monsters are now.
I like my monsters to look like a regiment of prepared men or a heroic individual might have a chance against them
I didn’t actually get much painting done this week, as you can see, as most of the week was spent of repairs and indecision paralysis.
Large models tend to suffer the most from being shoved into boxes and being squashed and jostled, and this guy was no exception. His lance and banner had both broken, and his flight stand has long since been lost.
I needed to use some brass rod to repair the join at the lance, since the contact area is too small for plastic glue to hold it. This cost him a couple of fingers, but I think it will be pretty much invisible from 99% of angles once everything is painted.
It is taking me a while to get motivated on him as I find painting natural colours (furs, feathers and leathers) to be the most intimidating. I like these things to look natural, but at the same time this can make them look washed out or dull in a fantasy setting. In the end I’ve decided to go with a leopard scheme for the body, which I am already struggling with. I’d love to be able to take confidence in the process and just go with it, but as this is the first time painting this scheme, indecision is holding me back!
SOCIAL MEDIA
Last week’s guest post by the legend of backlog hammering Gaius Marius was an expected success, of course. What I didn’t expect was for it to get twice the views of the normal blog! I’ve been usurped!
All joking aside, I’m hoping to have another guest post from Gauis in a few weeks, or maybe at the end of his next quarter. It’s hard for me to explain how much I love seeing other people hit their targets. I think it gives me more endorphins than hitting my own!
On that note, if there are any other regular readers who have adopted some sort of accountability system, even if it’s not strictly the Hammer the Backlog method, I’d love to have semi-regular guest posts! Reach out to me in the comments below, or directly at hammerthebacklog@gmail.com
Speaking of social media, I realised the other day that I was 300 instagram followers away from 5,000 with exactly 30 days left in the year. That’s only 10 followers a day to hit the big 5,000. Bearing in mind that I know it’s pretty pointless, I have decided to try to push for it. Wish me luck!
Oh, and since this update has been worryingly sparse on painted models, here is my current Bretonnian army that will be taking to the field against Jim’s greasy lizards next week!
Thanks for reading all that! See you next week! Best Eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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