This is Major Mick to Hammer the Backlog readers. Take your protein pills and put your helmets on to get ready for this week’s Hammer the Backlog update. Hammer the Backlog is a weekly Warhammer mini painting, productivity and accountability blog where I attempt to paint my 30 year backlog of neglected minis before a curse makes my hands fall off.
You join me this week at week 6 of quarter four, roughly the halfway point of the last quarter of the year. So the last eighth of the year, I suppose? As with each week, let’s take a look at the scorecard, the painted models and then any issues or other business.
SCORECARD
All green, all day. Despite the abundance of blues and purples that the genestealer cults have introduced into my life.
I decided not to follow my plan strictly this week, needing a break from rank and file hybrids. What better break than spending the whole week on a single large monster character. I can’t remember what he is called. Is he a Broodlord? A Patriarch? For the rest of this update he will be simply called Big Genestealer.
So big Genestealer took up all of the painting time this week, and he was a welcome break from painting 5 man sized infantry models, even if he used a lot of the same colour scheme.
With him done we are at roughly 50% of the genestealer cult painted. Although, as I said last week, in terms of bodies we are way past the 50% mark. The remaining pieces just include more characters and special units who get a little bit more painting time and attention.
As I approach the end of the year I looked back on last year and realised that I made a bit of a booboo. In quarter 4 last year I made it one of the rocks to get the two end of year videos filmed, edited and uploaded. This year I forgot to do that, just assuming that they would get done. It does explain why I don’t have a “meta” target this quarter, I just forgot to add it.
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
A nice break this week from painting multiple small infantry men. Big Genestealer (Big Gene from now on) was no less work than five infantry models, but it was nice to focus on achieving a slightly nice level of detail and crispness of highlights without having to worry about sheer volume.
I started his carapace with a Mechanicus standard grey spray. I coated that with a thick coat of Leviadon Blue contrast. That gave a very dark blue to start, that would hopefully look almost black in the deepest recesses, giving a very stark contrast to the highest highlights that makes everything look, hopefully, sharp.
The edge highlight progression was Kantor Blue, Aliatoc Blue, Hoeth Blue, Fenresian Grey. Again, it was nice to have the breathing room to do a five to six stage shade and highlight process. This is about the standard I would paint every model to if I wasn’t doing the Hammer the Backlog process, which is exactly why I never got anything done.
Big Gene (Big G from now on) has an awful lot in common with the big genestealer from the 2008 Space Hulk box. They are about the same size, in the same pose, standing on a thingy.
I wasn’t hugely proud of the Big Genestealer from Space Hulk when I painted it about 12 years ago. I think he was the last model in about a 2 week push to get the box set painted. Having said that, having him on hand to compare with Big G has really let me see how much I have improved and how much the Hammer the Backlog process has helped me out.
Sure look, that’s probably enough genestealer talk for one week.
See you next week for either one of the leader models or the final three infantry and a couple of genestealers.
Best eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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