Hello there! Has my riddle enticed you into reading this, the latest update from Hammer the Backlog, the weekly mini painting, productivity and accountability blog? If so, welcome! If not, well, then you’re not reading this, are you, and I’ve backed myself into a meta-narrative corner. How do I get out of this? By taking a look at this week’s project Scorecard.
SCORECARD
Well, as you can see, one thing that is not black and blue and red is the scorecard, which is once again entirely green. Very little to report on that this week, therefore. I sat down on Saturday and started on the two halberdiers, thinking that they would be a bit of a struggle after the ease and fun of the 90s spearmen over the last few weeks. But they ‘re not at all! In fact, painting for the joy of painting took over and I had these finished by Sunday evening. I didn’t even have podcasts, movies or Youtube videos in the background while I was painting them, just pure, focussed enjoyment.
It goes back to what I always say about the Hammer the Backlog project. When I converted these models 10 or 15 years ago, painting them up was the most exciting prospect in the world. Then that excitement faded when the next shiny thing was released. All I had to do was use productivity and accountability methods to “force” myself to start them, and the joy just flowed from the brush onto the models.
Since I made such great headway on the fantasy models, you would think that would leave me with no pressure to get the Space Marine done. But, instead of riding the wave, my brain saw the chance to relax and I took Monday off painting and then spent the rest of the week trying to catch up! Damn you, brain!
In non-news news, I did manage to slip off to the art supply shop and get myself a new pointy brush, and by god the difference it makes. I’m starting to get a bit of a collection of worn down W&N Series 7 size 1s. Should I throw them away? It always feels bad throwing away old brushes, but otherwise am I just hoarding?
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
Let’s start with the Company of Honour. In the end, in painting these guys, I decided to “take a risk” and paint them in a slightly more “old-fashioned” bright and vibrant colour scheme rather than a more “modern” “grim and gritty” colour scheme. I hope you can forgive the amount of quotation marks in that previous sentence.
By this I mean I undercoated them white rather than black or grey, and used contrast paints as my base coats. There is not a single new colour on either of these guys. The red, blue, black and yellows are all the same recipes I used from my 90s Bretonnians, just applied on a much more recent model.
Speaking of the recency of these models, they are fairly heavily converted with bits sourced from all over the Empire range, many of which I’ve forgotten. At the very least, the legs and torsos are from the very expensive (at the time) greatswords kit. The helmets are helmeted heads from that same kit, as well as the state troopers kit from 7th edition, the state troopers kit from 6th edition, the mordheim/free company sprue. The halberds themselves are from the most recent state troopers kit too, sadly without puffy sleeves. It actually might have matched more closely to the art to just use a full kit of the 5th edition state troopers, but the crispness and detail of the greatswords was too difficult to resist at the time.
The faces on this unit are going to be a real mixed bag. One of these has a deep, craggly, horrors-of-war face from the more recent kit, and the other has a slightly derpy horse face with barely any detail from the Mordheim kit. It’s going to be interesting to see how the whole unit ties together in the end.
The Old Raven Guard man was a bit of a contrast. He is definitely the least colourful of the marines in the Deathwatch Overkill set, being that the black of the Deathwatch is contrasted against the black of the Raven Guard.
His only really defining characteristic is his bluish lightning claws. Rather than fussing over the exact colours I just went back to the well and ended up using the colour scheme from the High Elf Sea Guard shields a few months ago.
Out of the fish themed context, I think it works just as well as a powered blade as it did as sea foam.
For his base, I went for a purposefully dark and washed out series of reddy browns and yellows to somewhat replicate the colours of the “chasms” on the deathwatch overkill board tiles, which he is presumably leaping over with his magnificent jump pack.
WHAT’S LEFT?
Eight Company of Honour and four Space Marines to go. The marines that are left are fairly heavy on details, and I have a free hand banner to paint (on both bastarding sides!) for the company of honour. I might actually split the banner bearer over two weeks to give myself plenty of time.
Quick question for you military historians out there. If a banner is on a flagpole, should it have the same design on each side? Or is there a front and a back?
Let me know in the comments below!
Best eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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