Rise of the Machines : New Necron Model Pics

Oh, my! I... I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. No, please don't get up.

They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until they get a new codex!

From Beasts of War and in this instance via Natfka's Faeit 212 excellent ear to the ground news & rumours site; we have some great pics of Games Workshops new Necron range. Having been sorely disappointed with their no show at Games Day last month, this 'leak' will definitely lift the spirits; brace yourselves, the Toasters have evolved!

Books in Brief : Fallen Angels by Mike Lee

Once again the Heresy clock is stuck in the hours before High Noon and the show down between the Emperor of Mankind and his wayward son the Warmaster Horus seems as far away as ever. I'll admit to growing frustration at the lack of forward momentum in this series, despite the wealth of great tales coming from the Black Library.

I'd happily read all the spin offs and side stories they can print; but pretty please, with sugar on top, give us some fethin progress!

Taking up the story of the Dark Angels again and following on from the series duff note Descent of Angels; Mike Lee had his work cut out to re-ignite my interest in the so far poorly served Chapter; returning to the main protagonists of the first book Zahariel and Nemiel as they continue their divergent paths towards the schism of the Great Betrayal.

The book is an improvement on its slow paced predecessor and benefits from being set in a more relevant period, between the events of Istvaan III and V; with some exciting combat on the Forge World of Diamat and some interesting developments on Caliban.

But it again seems to suffer from what is becoming the 'curse' of the Dark Angels in that the author appears confused and conflicted as to the motives of the characters or the plot as a whole. This in turn muddied the waters for me as the reader and I'm again left with the feeling that no one really knows what's going on with the 1st Legion.

So although I enjoyed this book for the most part, I came away with a yearning for clarity and tied up loose ends that it's somewhat hurried ending just didn't deliver.

UK Games Day 2011 : Pt II Selection of Golden Demon Entries

As it says on the tin, a picture is worth a Thousand Sons...sorry, words; here is a selection of 40k entries from the Golden Demon cabinets at last Sundays UK Games Day 2011. The bar was once again high although I thought the volume of quality pieces was much reduced from previous years, not sure why that may be as I don't enter; any thoughts?

UK Games Day 2011 : Pt I Forge World Studio Pictures

The sun has set on another years Games Day; I'm back from a rain drenched Birmingham, foot sore, tired and with a much lighter wallet. I was planning to hold off on posting for a few days and cover the event in depth as I did for the blogs inaugural post on UKGD 2010.

Sadly despite being a sellout gig this year, having a well padded official program, both of which I saw as good omens promising much; Games Day 2011 was...well a little Meh!

It wasn't a bad day out, it was just lacking in wow factor, there just wasn't all that much on show and a distinct lack of new product to tease the paintbuds; perhaps we were spoilt last year with the Dark Eldar. (I wouldn't know, somehow I missed them!)

Anyway, I still managed to take plenty of pics and those that I messed up were mostly duplicated by Will and kindly given to me, cheers mate. Over the next couple of days I'll endeavour to bring you what was on offer, for those of you who couldn't make it...or were stranded in the queue for the sales hall!

Books in Brief : Tales of Heresy (Anthology)

Again the Black Library denies us any forward momentum of the main Heresy story arc and instead offers an anthology of short stories, most with little if anything to do with the actual 'far from' Civil War. But this can be forgiven when, for the most part, the stories are of such fine quality and provide new insight into ideas and institutions of the 31st Millennium, so often drowned out by the thunder of Bolters.

Blood Games by Dan Abnett

No one does openings quite like Dan Abnett, in a few brief lines he illuminates the surface of ancient Terra giving detail to various geographic regions and at the same time plunging the reader straight into a gripping piece of espionage and assassination where all is not as it seems. The story fleshes out the crème Del la crème of the Emperors forces, his personal security detail, the Adeptus Custodes and in 50 pages we are treated to information on them, the Throne Worlds preparations for war and the surprisingly diverse nature of culture and politics still in existence there.

Postcards from the Edge

A delayed but somewhat fitting Postcard today. I'm currently embarked on another leg of the 'Grand Tour', Warp Storms and the state of the Imperial Treasury mean that for me it has to be experienced in bite sized chunks.

Having failed to find a local Astropath who could understand at least a fraction of my butchery of their native tongue; I've finally found a semi decent upload site to send this message Broadwave, in the interests of letting you guys know the reason for the resumption of infrequent posts.

On my return, fat on culture and pasta, I should hopefully have plenty lined up to see the month out. Just prior to my departure I took delivery of a whole heap of scenery bits from various sources for the Gaming Table project and my pewter piping set has arrived from the Dragon Forge Store so the Griffon project can now be resumed.

Also 'The Edge' will be a year old with the coming of UK Games Day, if all goes to plan I'll be celebrating with another trip and full report from this years event.

Right I'm off to try and find a potion that'll hopefully remove me from the menu of the local nasties. What do they eat when they can't get tourist!?

Thanks, that is all.

PS: Apologies for the lack of links & usual format, I'm learning rapidly that my iPad although very shiny and useful, has it's limitations.

Now, I am Become Death : Space Marine Demo

For many months now, my Xbox has been languishing in it's own private hell slowly gathering dust and occasionally plagued by by our moggy Merlin hoping that the heating has been turned back on at nap site #360.

There had been no games to tempt me to retrieve my controller from the corner where it had come to rest, following the throwing incident brought about by my billionth failed attempt at Halo Reach's "If they came to hear me beg" achievement.

This was good for my hobby activities, not so good for my wife, at least she saw me when sat on the sofa in front of the console.

So it was with some relief to all parties concerned that the demo download for THQ's third person shooter Space Marine became available last week.

Gaming Table Project : Bricks and Mortars

I can't believe it's been four months since I completed my gaming table, some of the Gents are hankering after blooding the new battlefield and I still haven't got a shred of cover to put on it. So in the absence of a multi-million dollar Atmosphere Processor I had a rummage around the Forge and located my scenery supplies.

The Craft of Death : Death Company Tester

Well it took a bit longer than I had planned, but here is the completed test miniature for my Death Company, known as the Evocati in my Blood Drinkers background.

A Little Tinkering

As you may have noticed over the past few weeks I've been meddling with the blog a little (I know I never learn), firstly my apologies to those that have dropped by the Veils Edge only to find the bonnet up and the whole thing running less than smoothly.

Secondly I'd like to thank those that have helped me out, bringing some much needed finesse to my ham fisted efforts, preventing me from causing a meltdown of the Eastern Counties power grid and more importantly from screwing up the blog. Bish and Brian aka The Inner Geek , cheers chaps.

With their help I've now 'pimped' the Edge out with not only the 40k quotes gadget but also, following on from my last post about music and it's place in the hobby; I've installed a music feed gadget that 'should' list what tunes I'm currently listening to whilst working in the Forge.

On the subject of working in the Forge, I think it's high time I rolled the Veils Edge back out of the Magrathean workshop and got on with some painting and modeling.

Picture featured 'Mek Town' by Paul Bonner copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2011