Quarter 2 Week 10 Update: Assault on Black Reach? Completed it, Mate.

I’m freeeeeeee! After 10 weeks of painting up the Ork half of the Assault on Black Reach boxed set, from next week I’ll be free to do something else! Huzzah!

Welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly mini painting, productivity and accountability blog. The accountability part of that sentence has been doing a lot of heavy lifting over the last few weeks, let me tell you.

You join me again for week 10 of the second quarter of year four of the Hammer the Backlog, on the day where I’ve just knocked off a fairly substantial target for the year! Read on for a look at the scorecard, the progress on the targets, this week’s models and any other business.

SCORECARD

That’s enough histrionics, let’s get down to the weekly grind. Another week fully in the green, and with the various busier and quieter weeks averaged out over the last ten weeks, all of the averages are full in the green as well. Nice.

More exciting perhaps is that with the third and final Deff Kopta painted, this quarter’s target of 

Assault on Black Reach Orks painted, photographed and online.

Is now complete. 50 points worth of models, painted to a standard I am pretty happy with. Look, none of the regular readers of Hammer the Backlog are blind (metaphorically speaking), so you know that this has not been my favourite project of all time. I consider this quarter a true victory for accountability and habit formation over intrinsic “motivation”. The fickle bitch. 

But! Not only is the quarterly target achieved with this model finished, but even one of the Year 4 overall targets is knocked off!

Assault on Black Reach painted, photographed and online

Is also now fully complete! It feels great to have another completed boxed set added to the pile of unshame.

We now have:

Heroquest

5th Edition WFB

Assault on Black Reach

Space Hulk

3rd Edition Blood Bowl

Deathwatch Overkill

Blackstone Fortress

All painted up, photographed and ready to be played. This Hammer the Backlog thing really is working out!

The secondary target for the quarter:

Hammer the Backlog system app in workable alpha state

Is still well and truly on pace, and should be done by the end of the quarter. I’ll be checking in with my collaborator this week and might even have some screenshots for you guys soon!

THIS WEEK’S MODEL

So, for some reason, despite not really liking these models very much, I decided to free hand 3 separate checkerboard patterns on this thing, including one over a complicated curved surface. To paraphrase my good mate Gaius Marius, when I told him what I’d done:

“We do not choose to free hand paint checkerboard patterns over curved surfaces because it is easy. We choose to do it because we are idiots.”

Anyway, I accidentally ended up painting a ramshackle ork helicopter in the colour scheme and style of an Italian-American restaurant from the 90s. Nice one, Mick.

Other that than silliness, nothing really to report about this guy. He was the easiest of the three to paint with the familiarity build up over the last few months. But, hopefully, the last Ork I paint for a while.

Unless I end up getting the 6th edition fantasy starter set!

ASSAULTED ON BLACK REACHED

Well, would you look at that? Another full boxed set complete.20 Ork Boys, 5 Nobs, 3 Kopta’s and a Warboss painted over 10 weeks of grinding teeth.

And going up against 10 Tactical Marines, 5 Terminators, A Dreadnaught and a Captain.

Going for the Dawn of War 1 colour scheme for the Blood Ravens and the Orks meant painting a lot of red over the last few months. An unintentional throwback to the GW red era, with 2008 models.

Happy with that, let’s move on!

HE’S DONE IT AGAIN

So three weeks left in the quarter to spend on bits and bobs! How exciting. One rule I am setting for myself in the next three weeks of bits and bobs is that whatever I start, I have to finish it. So no getting carried away!

Project number one is 100% going to be my arvus lighter. I can’t wait to get that started. I intend, at some point, to maybe add it to a diorama with a motley cre of characters, but for the moment lets focus on getting the model done.

So what else? Well, at the last possible moment, who swept in but noted menace to piles of shame everywhere (and all round good egg) Emiel from Thanqual’s Lair with two hand picked minis for the pile.

He sent me a Bretonnian Damsel on horseback, adding some much needed magic support to my French themed cowards in their next battle against Jim.

He also sent me one of the classic wounded marines, who is getting painted up straight away as the missing member of my inevitable Blood Ravens assault squad.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for sticking with Hammer the Backlog during those tricky couple of low motivation moments!

See you next week for some renewed excitement!