Backup but leave backupdrives icon intact
 

I tried to leave my backup drives icon always intact when backing up.
I tried creating a new script and only under "Script commands" add a rule:

ignore: .VolumeIcon.icns

however it doesn't seem to work (the icon is still cleared every time I smart-back up to this drive)

also, is this even the right way to do it?
and do I have to include any other scripts, so I get the other features of smart-backup like spotlight-index-ignoring and so on?

That won't work, as ignore operates on the source; see the thread about this exact issue at the top of this forum.