Gaming Table Project : Another Brick in the Wall

You may have noticed in yesterdays Death Company post (if your eyes weren't riveted to the foreground by the sheer awesomeness of the painted miniatures) ;o) that there were now two blasted buildings crumbling in the background of the gaming table.

Death Company Progress

Following the encouraging result with my test miniature, I've finally pressed on with a few more Death Company. As you can see I'm using some older incarnations at the moment (I think these guys are late 90's 3rd edition sculpts) mainly because I've still got a stock of them laying around the Forge, I hate to waste them especially when it means a few quid saved.

Judgement Day : Official Reveal Date for Necrons?

For your viewing pleasure, GW posted this little teaser on their site today, throwing a big hint that Novembers White Dwarf will see the official ribbon cutting ceremony on the new Necrons; simple but effective, I think it's kinda cool.

Chain Reaction : Life Size Chainsword Replica

Completed the Space Marine solo campaign? Racked up every achievement? Seen the breadth of your domain and wept (manly tears) having no more foes to conquer?

Well my friends, solace may be at hand; for those of you who have won big on the lottery, own an energy company or happen to have sold your copy of Aurelian Gold Edition on Ebay, one of these beauties lies within your grasp.

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.