Or FIST for short. Imperial Fist, that is. Or are my fully painted unit of Bretonnian Men-at-Arms, very kindly sent to me by the gang over at Merlin’s Miniatures, the real force integrated strength team? Only one way to find out, by reading the rest of this week’s update here at Hammer the Backlog, the weekly Warhammer mini painting, productivity and accountability blog. My name is Mick, and I am the one who hammers the backlog. Join me for another weekly meeting, where we look at the scorecard, the week’s painted models, and try to identify, diagnose and solve any issues holding the project back. Onwards!
SCORECARD
I hope you’ll pardon me going back to the well for jokes, but we have another week in the green with two normal men and a space marine painted, so I don’t have that much to work with here!
This week’s scorecard is as green as an imperial fist is yellow (totally green). Nothing really to report this week. Despite his big, bulky, complex looking gun, he actually has a lot fewer small details on the rest of the model than some of the others, so he panned out at about the same amount of work, if not slightly less.
The bretonnians, however, turned out to be slightly more work. The padded leather armour takes a little bit more careful painting than full chainmail, and of course I had to create a paper banner. So overall, about a wash in terms of work done.
Everything else on track!
In terms of quarterly rocks, with the last two Bretonnians down, the first rock of the quarter “Bretonnian Men-at-arms painted, photographed and online.” is now complete! The space marines are probably about 45% done (45.45454545%), but the software won’t let me do 5% increments. And of course, the Company of Honour have yet to be started.
The question is, next week, straight into the Company of Honour or do the White Scars biker first? Answers on a postcard to the comments section below please!
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
Ok, let’s talk about the Space Marine first. I was dreading painting this guy. Easily, I thought, the most boring marine from the bunch of deathwatch overkill. Just a normal devastator marine, with a helmet on, holding some sort of knock-off heavy bolter. Not the most inspiring.
He turned out to be light enough work, to be completely honest. With no face to paint, no robes or fetishes, he really was just a black and silver marine with a yellow shoulder pad. Simples.
He only has one purity seal on him, for Throne’s sake! I did paint the heavy weapon casing in a different black scheme to the armour, and the metals with different colours in the recess shades, but I don’t know how much the really comes across on the final model.
Anyway, with 5 space marines from five of the most famous chapters fully painted, I now have, pretty much, the squad I kitbashed for my golden demon entry back in about 2008? I must dig them out and take a look at how they compare.
The most exciting part of Hammer the Backlog this week was adding another finished unit to my now quite considerable 5th edition Bretonnian army. Oh how bow Mick would have loved to have an army like this! Hahaha, but you can’t have it Boy Mick, you stupid idiot! It’s mine!
The banner was pretty straightforward, I basically copied the size and design from the command groups currently available for the old world. I hemmed and hawed about adding a gold Fleur to the centre of the banner, but in the end I decided to keep the 5th edition vibe by having the men at arms have the plainest banner possible.
I think these two models may have been more intended to be the command group for the men at arms with halberds, rather than spears? Or maybe that was just the way the studio ended up painting them in the end.
Anyway, a dream-come-true of a unit for me. I love units of all metal 90s models, especially when they are kinda almost monoposey like these guys. Huge thanks to Merlin’s Miniatures, for the last time for a few weeks. If I was to ever expand this unit, I think I would get 6 more, for a 4×4 square of 16. Real 5th edition vibes!
Well, I think that is it for me for this week. As I’ve been typing I’ve more or less made the decision that next week’s painting target is going to be the 5 point effort of painting the White Scars biker. For the Khan!
Thanks for reading all of this, best egg!
Hammer the Backlog 
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