Welcome back to another Hammer the Backlog update, and another end of quarter review! It’s been a long and rocky road to getting everything done this quarter, topped off with some hectic and ever so slightly stressful fun getting some bits and bobs painted. Let’s take a look at the scorecard, this week’s model, the quarter in review and any other random stuff that needs addressing.
SCORECARD
Look at all that green. It’s very nice to finish quarters that have had their ups and downs with fully green averages, let me tell you.
Since it is the last update of quarter 2, it is probably worth reiterating that the painting rock of the quarter
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.
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. Even if it feels like that all happened weeks ago!
The meta target for the quarter
Hammer the Backlog system app in workable alpha state
Is also well and truly achieved. I know that’s not terribly exciting news, since an alpha is nowhere near ready to share, but I hope there will be more news on that soon.
When I wasn’t painting this week, I spent most of the time recording, editing and uploading the next quarterly review video. One of my favourite pass times is saving screenshots where I look particularly awful for potential thumbnail use.
THIS WEEK’S MODEL
Well, this was fun. My Arvus Lighter was a birthday present from my lovely lady wife, which skipped it right to the front of the bits and bobs queue when I got it in October. Painting this model really felt like scratching an itch. I got to do and try things that I’ve wanted to do for ages, but didn’t have the skills, time, courage or opportunity to try. And on this model I got to do them all.
At the moment it is only the model itself that is finished. I still have the intention of adding it to a scenic base and diorama at some stage.
I very much wanted to approach this model like a scale model, rather than a warhammer gaming piece. Part of that was in the techniques used. This model was almost exclusively painted with lacquer paints and thinners through an airbrush, rather than citadel paints.
Once the paints had dried, I sealed them with a gloss varnish and applied weathering with oil washes, something I’ve never done before. I used an overall wash with very dark brown, which I them wiped off, and a panel line in the deep recesses and rivets with Tamiya panel liner.
I did make a few mistakes. The metals finish was either 1) no where near as durable as I thought, 2) not fully cured) or 3) loosened by the gloss coat, rather than protected, since I had to go back and respray some sections where it had rubbed off when I was cleaning up the oil wash. I think next time I do a “scale model” type miniature” I need to be a lot less conservative with the gloss coats.
The major inspiration of the colour scheme was a late WW2 american style bomber. But the inspiration for the name was totally different.
Edward Sheeran (aka The Bear. aka my cat, not the popular singer songwriter) has a cardboard box that he loves that has This Way Up printed on it. One of his favourite activities is pretending it is a spaceship and exploring the vast unknown in it. (I pick him up and walk around the house).
Since an Arvus Lighter is basically just a cardboard box with wings, what better name for my ship. I hoping to find a 3d printable stl of a cat that I can print out in the right scale, paint up ginger, and put curled up in the pilot seat.
QUARTER 2 REVIEW
By the time you are reading this, the quarterly review video will hopefully be live. I believe the thing that the algo really loves is early, full views, so if you have a spare twenty minutes I’d really appreciate it!
As per tradition and protocol, with quarter 2 done, please enjoy this little gallery of this quarter’s models.
HAMMER THE BACKLOG ON TOUR
I cannot simply be within 20km of a local wargames shop and not drop it for a little nosey around. So when work took me to Wexford, I remembered that my mate Drummo had told me that Mountain Gremlin Games was worth popping in for a visit. Check out Drummo’s journey back into Warhammer over here:
https://www.instagram.com/drummo_hammer/
Mountain Goblin Games is awesome. Tim has some really really nice retro armies both on display (including the only Rogue Trader era Space Marine army I’ve ever seen with my own two eyeballs) and a gaming area that also doubles as basically a 40k and fantasy museum, it is so comprehensive.
I’ll definitely be making my way back down with my Bretonnain army, as soon as I find time to bash them up against someone else’s retro classics.
https://www.instagram.com/mountaingremlingames/
SOCIAL MEDIA
Between Youtube and Instagram, the only two platforms I really keep track of, Hammer the Backlog is rapidly approaching 10,000 followers and subscribers. We should cross that mark by the end of year 4, which would be a nice little moment. In recognition of that, let’s take a look at this screenshot from week 4 of Year 1!
A great bunch of eggs, indeed.
Hammer the Backlog 
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