Quarter 3 Week 1 Update: Hungry Like the Wolf

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, some bloody painted models.

SCORECARD

Starting the new quarter with a green sweep. In fact, with the orks from last quarter well and truly behind me, and the palette cleanser of my Arvus Lighter done, it was super exciting to move on to some models that really caught my interest again. I’m writing this on Wednesday, with this week’s models already done a day and a half early, and next week’s models already started! How strange!

NEW TARGETS

So, with the annual target of:

Assault on Black Reach painted, photographed and online

done and dusted, the choice came down to which set of three units of infantry, one unit of cavalry, one character and one warmachine I wanted to do first. I genuinely couldn’t decide, so I asked the gang for opinions. Over hundreds of votes (literally, not metaphorically) it was pretty close, until in the end the Empire tray took a substantial lead, with about 58% overall, to 42% for the High Elves. So with that in mind

One tray of Fantasy Empire painted, photographed and online

Is this quarter’s painting target.

Let’s break it down:

As per usual, that’s 11 weeks of work with two weeks of give and take to do some bits and bobs or get a migraine. It’s probably a little more than two in reality, as I’ve become a substantially faster painter, so I may well be able to get a good bit more done in weeks 5 and 9 than I’ve scheduled.

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 – The pre-defined tray of empire models, 40 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 12th of February 2026

Of course, one does not simply have a painting target per quarter! One also needs a meta target!

Assault on Black Reach Battle Report Played, Filmed, Edited and Uploaded

Here’s a little scope breakdown for that project.

Jim dusted off and convinced to play 40k	01/01/26
Rules learned	15/01/26
Battle Played and Filmed	29/01/26
Battle Edited and Uploaded	12/03/26

You’ll notice, I hope, that having two weeks without any target models to paint leaves me with a bit more time to get battles played and videos edited.

THIS WEEK’S MODELS

Alrighty then, we are cracking open a decades old project here, I hope you have dust protection on. For the first five models I decided to go with the front rank of the Swords of Ulric, a famous unit from the Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire book.

These fellas.

I bought a huge (HUGE) lot of empire models back when the book came out to make sure that I had every bit and piece that you could imagine to convert units to be as close to the artwork as I could possibly get. But that was about 15 years ago, and I honestly have no idea what I did here.

There are at least pieces from state troopers, free company, knights, greatswords and pistoleers. They even include the ugliest head from the empire sprues, which I am never going to use again.

Since I assembled these more than 15 years ago, I was a bit nervous about picking them up and getting them ready for paint, but late 20s Mick actually did me a solid and removed most of the mold lines and filled the biggest gaps.

Some of the conversions work better than others, in hindsight, but I am still very happy with them as a representation of the original artwork.

They are a very nice front rank for a unit of 10 swordsmen, but they would also make a fabulous skirmish band for any sort of small unit game (Mordheim?).

I’m not sure if the unit leader makes sense in any version of the game. I guess a bit of artistic licence just makes him a unit champion, equipped the same as the rest of the unit. But he could equally be an independent character, or even a Warrior Priest if you’re feeling saucy.

The unit description says, specifically, that the wolf crest is hand painted by each trooper on their own shield and is unique to them. I had considered getting some Space Wolves transfers and just using the red ones, but since I am going to need to do 9 more variations I bit the bullet and hand painted them. Each one only took a few minutes, since I was going for a fairly rough and sketchy look overall.

Best eggs