Senlui! Welcome back to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly mini painting, productivity and accountability blog. It has been a heck of a busy week in real life this week, with very busy and tiring work days taking up a lot of my energy and time. Has that impacted the Hammer the Backlog project negatively? Only one way to find out. Read on! Or I guess you could call me and ask me, if you had my number. Or instagram, I guess. Many more than one way! But read on anyway!
Please.
SCORECARD
No, it hasn’t! Despite the exceptionally busy week, I did manage to get my 5 points worth of model painted. And what a model. This week’s 5 points were well and truly earned. These Dragon Prince models are not the kit for beginners, and I honestly think I only just have the skill and experience to deal with them now, after four years of having a brush in my hand every day.
They did not take to the attic years well, with lots of tiny, sharp, delicate plastic details that were very easily bent, broken or snapped off completely. Getting the model repaired was one day’s worth of effort on its own.
Then of course, there is the level of detail and fiddlyness on the model itself. Now, I didn’t make it any easier for going for the scheme I did. You might be able to paint these up much quicker just doing them in metal with a little bit of white and blue like the studio did, but of course in my head Dragon Princes have always looked like this shot of them in the 5th edition Battle Book, aka my introduction to Warhammer.
Fussing with colour schemes was probably the biggest time waster this week, so I’m hoping that now that I have them down, next week will be faster!
I hope so at least, as I am on the road with work for a couple of days, so it might be another tight one! No. Not might be. 100% is going to be. Might even be the single trickiest week of Hammer the Backlog yet.
THIS WEEK’S MODEL
Just a single model this week, but still easily five point worth. The unit champion of my 5 man Dragon Prince squad, all done up in 4th edition style. Does he clash with the rest of my blue and white army? Yes. Do I care? A little bit? I’ll know for sure when the unit is finished.
I’m going to note down what I did to get this guy painted, as keeping track of the colours might be one of the trickier things over the next few weeks.
Undercoat the model with Skull White.
Paint the faces using Fyreslayer Flesh
Paint all metal areas with a tidy coat of Iron Hands Steel.
Tidy up any white areas using Corax White.
Paint horse horse body with Apotocary White.
Paint horse tail and mane Skeleton Horde.
Paint all dark green and dark red areas with Mechanicus Standard Grey.
Shade sword blades using a 50/50 mix of Blue Glaze and Nuln Oil.
Paint dark green areas with Dark Angels Green.
Paint dark red areas with Flesh Tearers Red.
Paint bright red areas with Blood Angels Red.
Paint bright green areas with 50/50 Ork flesh/Warp Lightning.
Paint dark green areas with Warp Lightning.
Wash the metal and white areas (not the horse) with Nuln Oil.
Darken shadows on the sword with Black Templar Contrast.
Paint gold areas with Retributor Armour.
Paint leather areas with Wyldwood.
Shade the gold areas using a 50/50 mix of Reikland Fleshshade Gloss and Agrax Earthshade.
Highlight the flesh with Kislev Flesh.
Further highlight the flesh with Flayed One Flesh or Pallid Wych Flesh.
Restore the shine to armour and sword with Iron Hands Steel.
Apply broad highlights sparingly, such as on sword blades, using Ironbreaker where the light catches.
Edge highlight the gold with Retributor Armour.
Edge highlight all metals with Stormhost Silver, including sword edges, glints, and scratches.
Tidy up any white areas with a broad application of Corax White.
Highlight the horse with Corax White
Paint the eyes and teeth with Corax White.
Dot the eyes with Black Templar.
Basecoat gems with a medium grey (e.g., Mechanicus Standard Grey).
Highlight dark red areas with Mephiston Red glaze
Highlight dark red areas with Mephiston Red.
Edge highlight dark red areas with Wazdakka Red
Highlight dark green areas with Warpstone Glow
Edge highlight dark green areas with Moot Green
Dot dark green areas with 50/50 Moot Green/Phalanx Yellow
Broad Highlight bright green areas with Warpstone Glow
Highlight bright green areas with Moot Green
Edge highlight bright green areas with Moot Green/Phalanx Yellow
Dot bright green areas with Phalanx Yellow
Highlight bright red areas with Evil Suns Scarlet
Edge highlight bright red areas with Wild Rider Red
Dot bright red areas with Fire Dragon bright
Highlight the leather areas with XV-88.
Dot highlight the leather with Karak Stone.
Paint the red gems with Flesh Tearers Red Contrast.
Glaze the bottom of the gems with watered-down Mephiston Red.
Edge highlight the bottom of the gems with Mephiston Red.
Edge highlight the bottom of the gems again with Wild Rider Red.
Apply a fine edge highlight to the bottom of the gems with Fire Dragon Bright.
Dot highlight the gems with Skull White.
Edge highlight all white areas with Skull White.
Apply superglue and fine grain sand to the base.
Paint the base with Steel Legion Drab all over.
Edge the base with Warboss Green.
Wash the base top with Agrax Earthshade.
Drybrush the base with Karak Stone.
Lightly drybrush the base again with Screaming Skull.
Tidy up the base edge with Warboss Green.
Apply superglue and flock to finish the base.
Simple, right?
One of the joys of painting this project is that other people seem to be having the same idea at the same time, so there are people to talk to about it. Paul Brown over on the Warhammer Armies High Elves Facebook group is painting up a very similar unit at the moment, and has been hitting a lot of the same problems and decisions, which is always helpful!
IS THERE NOTHING ELSE?
Here’s the army so far this quarter. I started the week by basing up and undercoating my second High elf obelisk, but it quickly became apparent that I wouldn’t be able to get it done this week, even with only one model to paint. I MIGHT get it done next week if things work out, but I don’t have high hopes.
Wish me luck!
See you next week, best of eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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