Quarter 2 Week 1 Update: More Fun Than You Can Shake A Nob At

It’s the start of a new quarter, and a whole new set of targets and models for Hammer the Backlog, the weekly mini painting, productivity and accountability blog. Buckle up and strap yourself in for our quarterly look at the three months to come, the weekly scorecard, the new targets and even, if we’re lucky, so bloody painted models.

SCORECARD

Starting the quarter, as we pretty much always do, with a clean, green sweep. Green is probably going to be a major theme of this quarter, after all. It’s no surprise that we start in the green every new quarter, as a big foundation of this entire method is that 90 days is pretty much a normal human’s motivation cycle.

NEW TARGETS

So, quarter one and some retro chaos marine bits and bobs done and dusted, time to start quarter 2 of year 4. The choices were, in simple terms, Orks, Fantasy Empire and High Elves. With the overall yearly target of 

Assault on Black Reach painted, photographed and online

firmly in mind, there was really no other choice than to bite down on something hard, get over my prejudice against the Bois and get the Orks done. So the quarterly target for Y4Q2 is

Assault on Black Reach Orks painted, photographed and online.

Let’s break it down:

Week	Date	Models
1	18/09	Warboss
2	25/09	Regret
3	02/10	5 Nobs
4	09/10	Deffkopta
5	16/10	5 Boys
6	23/10	5 Boys
7	30/10	Deffkopta
8	06/11	5 Boys
9	13/11	5 Boys
10	20/11	Deffkopta
11	27/11	Captain Badork
12	04/12	Mental Breakdown
13	11/12	Holiday

Of course, the scheduled Mental Breakdown and Holiday may end up being used for various bits and bobs, as they so often are. 

Let’s do the now customary SMART check

Remembering that all of our targets must be SMART:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Timebound

Let’s take a look at the targets!

Specific – Ork side of Assault on Black Reach, 29 Plastic Models

Measurable – photographed and online

Achievable – 55 Hammer the Backlog Points (History shows I can do 65 in a quarter!)

Relevant – It’s a blog about painting models!

Timebound – by the 11th of December 2025

The more observant of you will notice that I only have one quarterly target this quarter. That is because the second target:

Hammer the Backlog system app in workable alpha state

Is a lot less under my control, since I am working away in the background with a collaborator, who is also doing this as a hobby, not a job. So who am I to impose strict rocks on someone else? WHO AM I? Nobody, that’s who!

THIS WEEK’S MODEL

This week’s model, clocking in at a full 5 Hammer the Backlog points, is the now iconic Warboss from the assault on black reach set. I don’t know who exactly actually sculpted these, but he is definitely of the design lineage of one Brian Nelson, the Ork sculptor from the era I was introduced to orcs.

He revolutionised Warhammer Orks with their big, long, rectangle heads and wide mouths. Pretty much every GW Ork was based on Brian’s version up until the Kruelboys from Age of Sigmar reinvented Orks again. Successfully? We’ll see.

I have made no secret that I’m not mad about Orks, and have not painted that many of them. In fact, I wasn’t really particularly looking forward to this quarter.

But this guy was amazing fun to paint and not terribly challenging. The green, alienness of the skin makes it both easier to paint that hard edges like armour, but also more forgiving than painting human skin, which has a realistic baseline to stick to that makes it waaay more obvious when you’ve done something “wrong”.

I undercoated this guy with Orruk flesh, washed with Ork Flesh contrast. Then I did a heavy glaze of Orruk Flesh to reestablish the base. Then, the classic ork skin highlights of Ogryn Flesh, Kreig Khaki and Screaming Skull dots. I could have taken him a good bit further in the time I had, but I didn’t want to overdo the scheme and make him stand out too much from the 28 more Orks I have to paint!

I went for a much brighter, more cartoony red than I used on my Blood Ravens, since they will have to look good together and have some visual contrast when the whole boxed set is done.

Bring on the Nobs for the next two weeks!

I’M NOT A FANGIRL, YOU ARE

I don’t think it’s a secret that my, far and away, favourite GW sculptor in my late teens and early twenties was the great Juan Diaz, master of metal demons and space marine characters. I’ll just leave this Instagram screenshot here.

Thanks for reading all of that guys! See you next week for 5 half-painted Ork Nobs.

Best eggs