Lucky for me, then, that I have been on top of things this week! Welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly mini painting, productivity and accountability blog. I can’t believe it is already week 9 of the Blood Ravens project, time really does fly when you are having fun. Speaking of fun, let’s spend the next couple of hundred words looking at the weekly scorecard, progress on the quarterly target and have a little peep at some finished models.
SCORECARD
Well, well, well, back in the green. Nothing major to report this month, other than five terminators, no matter how many times I have to learn this lesson, are always more work than you think they are going to be. There were a couple of late evenings and early mornings needed to get this gang to this point this week, and at the time of writing I still have the sergeant’s power sword to finish. And I can’t remember what paints I used for the other power swords. Sure I wrote it down somewhere?
I seem to have somehow got myself ahead of schedule, since now all of the infantry for the 2008 Space Marine army is done, with 4 weeks left to go. I know I originally planned the predator to take three weeks, but if I can get it done in two that gives me two weeks left over to work on some bits and bobs for fun and get the end of quarter video done. Nice.
THIS WEEK’S MODELS
One of the trickiest aspects of doing a space marine army for a quarterly project is that their uniformity makes it fairly difficult to find something to talk about each week!
So, five terminators done to the same standard (hopefully) as the tactical marines and scouts. All of the colour schemes and techniques were the same as with the rest of the set, as you can imagine.
I think the trickiest thing about painting terminators is the raised ribbed areas on the back of their legs. Essentially it’s like painting 4 or 5 space marine shoulder pads per model, in less obvious areas that are harder to reach. Is it worth it? I’m currently undecided.
The terminator helmet really is iconic, isn’t it? It’s also fairly fun and straightforward to paint. Even though I have no particular connection to modern 40k, I’m glad they didn’t muck about with the terminator design too much for the modern update, including keeping the helmet more or less the same.
I think the biggest challenge this week has been the damned heat. Now, I have never really seen the appeal of a wet pallet. Being blessed by living in Ireland, where the country itself is essentially a wet palette, paint drying up on the brush on or the palette has never really been an issue. Until this week! Consistently a dry, warm 26 degrees, with paint drying the second it leaves the bottle, I now get it.
So, anyway, stop climate change.
ZEITGEIST OR COINCIDENCE?
I’ve said it a couple of times over the last few weeks, but this Blood Ravens project has been easily the most well received of my 40k projects on social media. I seem to have picked the right project at the right time to catch a wave of Blood Ravens/Dawn of War nostalgia. Instagram views on the Blood Ravens project are topping out over 100k a month. That’s ever more than some of the peak fantasy projects.
What I’m wondering is, why did I decide to do this? Did I hear, some time about 4 months ago, that Dawn or War was being remade? I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure. Were the Dawn of War remake and the Dawn of War boardgame that released two weeks ago made because GW and their allies felt a wave of nostalgia coming, or did they create the wave?
If I was influenced, which is highly likely in hindsight, I’d love to know how!
Any ideas?
Anyway, that’s enough out of me, I’ve some terminators to finish.
See you later!
Best eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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