Quarter 1 Week 13 Update: There’s Only One Juan Diaz

Hi there, welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly Warhammer mini painting, productivity, accountability and Juan Diaz fan blog. It’s the end of another quarter already, so join me for the thirteenth ever Hammer the Backlog end of quarter review.

SCORECARD

It feels about right to count this the classic 2002 Demon Prince as about 5 points of work. He was certainly a big, heavy lump of highly detailed metal.

Everything else stays in the green this week.

A bit of a weird limbo this week, as it feels like ages since I ticked off the two quarterly targets for quarter 1, even though it has only been two weeks.

THIS WEEK’S MODEL

This week’s model is the absolutely classic 2002, all metal, demon prince model by Jaun Diaz. This model is an absolute banger, and it would not even look very out of place in a modern 40k Chaos Space Marine army, such is its lasting impact on the visual identity of the Chaos Marine faction.

It was even not so subtly kitbashed into a Nurgle version four years later and officially released. How many models are that good? Even the Nurgle one still holds up pretty well and you can see a lot of its design influence in the current Death Guard range.

Since I’ve spent the last few months hanging out in the 2000-2010 era of 40k, I really am coming across a lot of Juan Diaz the last few months. Lookit, you have your Jez Godwins and your Perry Brothers, the, for me, iconic names behind the best of the 40k and fantasy ranges. But Juan Diaz really should be in there with them. He produced so many classics. This Demon Prince, the famous demonettes, B’lakor, tons of dynamic space marine characters, Huron Blackheart. His style is the defining style of this era for me, and this model is the epitome.

Such as shame the plastic replacement kit was kind of shite.

I made this week kind of easier on myself by undercoating the model with chaos black spray. Then the whole thing got a heavy dry brush (with a small make-up brush) of Thunderhawk Blue. Everything then got a lighter drybrush of Fenrisian Grey. I’m not usually a huge fan of drybrushing, but this model is absolutely covered in lumps and bumps and organic ridges and sharp edges, which makes it one of the only models I would be happy doing it on.

The whole thing was a little too blue and bright after that, so I gave it all a coat of Black Templar watered down with about 3:1 contrast medium. I think current Nuln Oil would have done more or less the same job.

For the red sections, I went over the blue highlights directly with straight from the pot Flesh Tearers red. Once that was fully dry I glazed some very watered down Mephiston Red over the high points, then edge highlighted with Evils Suns Scarlet, Wild Rider Red and Tau Light Ochre for a dot highlight. The runes on the sword were the same, but made starker with orange and yellow highlights rather than the more muted ochre.

I actually bought this model all the way back in 2002/2003 for my Chaos Space Marine Black Legion, so I decided to stick to the plan and paint him up pretty damned close to the original scheme. He sat in a box for so long because I was too intimidated to try the blue/black to red blends, but in 2025 I’ve been painting for a lot longer, and paint technology is a lot better, making it pretty easy in the end.

It’s so funny that this guy has a pretty much modern Necron head on his belt, even though he is 23 years old this year. I still think of the sleeker Necrons as new. I am old and my bones hurt.

Ten out of ten, would paint again.

END OF QUARTER REVIEW

As per usual, I have spent the last week editing the end of quarter 1 review and quarter 2 planning video. It should be live by the time you read this. Please give it a watch at the link below.

At the time of writing the Youtube channel has 2997 subscribers. That means it should tick over 3000 in the next couple of hours once the video goes live! Imagine, 3,000 subscribers. I like sometimes to go back and read the first year’s blogs, where year 1 Mick was excited about 100 Instagram followers and 200 views on a video! Good times!

Since it is the end of a quarter, may I present you with the gallery of the models painted for quarter 1 of year 4?