Quarter 3 Week 11 Update: Something Fishy Going On

Hello there me hearties, and welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly scurvy mini painting, accountability, plundering and productivity blog. I am Captain Mick of the good ship backlog, Manaan bless everyone who sails under her flag.

SCORECARD

Another week fully in the green, presumably not unlike the gangrenous toes of Von Klumpf’s Buccaneers, the (vaguely?) pirate themed sellswords out of Marianburg, who were the sole painting project this week.

Look, not really much else to report. So let’s take a look at what’s left with two weeks left in the quarter.

On the painting side, I have the last 5 men from Von Kumpf’s Buccaneers next week for week 12, and then a week free of painting for week 13. I would usually like to do some bits and bobs during that week, either a character model or to tick a random lost soul off the pile of shame. I do have a single unpainted Grail Knight, for example.

However, the bit issue as we come to the end of the quarter is that I have two videos to make and not much time to do it. First of all, the end of quarter 3 video and quarter 4 planning session. I should be able to get that filmed next Saturday, after the last models of the quarter are finished next Thursday, week 12. So that should be done for week 13 no problem. Since I usually like to post those on week one of the new quarter, that gives me nearly 10 days to get it edited. Perfect.

The second, and bigger issue, is the Assault on Black Reach battle. I have resorted to threatening Jim that if we can’t find time to do it, I am going to have to play both sides and make a fake version. The sheer terror of my tactical errors being attributed to him has meant that he has cleared next weekend. If we get it done on Saturday or Sunday, that will give me only a few days to get the video edited before the Thursday deadline. Probably for the best that I won’t have any target models to paint!

THIS WEEK’S MODELS

This week’s models are a little bit of a change from the rest of the models this quarter. They are still from the Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire book, but they are not from one of the fabulous Dave Gallagher watercolour splash pages. Rather, they are from the famous regiments of the empire section.

In the description they are described as being out of Marianburg and formerly lavishly equipped. Time and battle has resulted in most of their gear being worn and plain. Only their bright yellow tabards have the colour you would typically associate with a wealthy bunch of Burgers.

When I was kitbashing these 15 years ago torsos with tabards were pretty few and far between, and there were certainly none with nice flat, clean chests to paint the logos on. So I decided to take the worn out and used vibe even further and imagine that some of the tabards are now being held together with pieces of rope, letting me use the open coat torsos from the free company models. The rest came from the “modern” archers/huntsmen kit.

The swords and shields came from anywhere I could scrounge a sword with a suitable arm and matching shield arm. The shields themselves are from any kit that had a plain round shield with rivets. I think there is a dwarf shield, a skaven shield and an undead shield in the mix.

Even though they turned out very nice, the fish on the shields were the easiest freehand I’ve done in a long time. Fish are pretty simply shaped, after all. They were painted directly with corax white, then the lines were added in with very dilute abaddon black, and the scales were painted dawnstone.

I think I pretty much nailed the artwork, even if some of the features are moved around a little. I.e the musician has the green bandana of one of the regular troops, and the more curved “pirate” sword that might have looked better on the captain.

Another fun thing is that I’ve given this unit a captain, banner bearer and musician, which my Swords of Ulric don’t have, so I could combine this into a unit of 19 swordsmen with full command and a warrior priest. I think I might have planned that back in 2011?

Next week there will be a little more freehand to do, with 4 shields and a banner. In fact, I should probably get started straight away!

See you next week!

Best eggs!