Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So im on Forge World today, looking through the pages, an I see something called a Tau Manta. It looks cool, so I click on it. I see it and see how BIG it is, so I check the price. $926 Dollars! WTF!!! So if anyone bought this model and painted it, please post! And say why you bought it! And how does some one paint somthing that large...

I've only seen it once and it is freaking huge! You can fit about 2000 points of troops in it, and you get about 4 Devilfish/Hammerheads with it along with about 50 Fire Warriors and 6 XV8's. The reason it is so expensive is because it has a fully working interior (extendable ramps and detailed cargo bays). It weighs about 12kg (about 27 pounds for you yanks) and it's about 3x the size of a Thunderhawk. For painting it you would have to use an airbrush, as otherwise you would just be driven insane by the massive areas.

If you want to buy one, you may want to consider scratchbuilding. Some people on Dakka have built them for a fraction of the Forge World price.

Actually, its not $926........ Its a whopping, $1444! and 1 Cent.

Its things like that that make me wonder how forge world makes money

zing165 wrote:Its things like that that make me wonder how forge world makes money

Because somehow, somewhere there is somebody who has a wallet that is larger then their brain

My girlfriend wants a ring, I told her I want a manta.

I've always wanted to buy one and mount it on the wall like a big fish! It's def on my "If I had a Million Dollars" list.

zing165 wrote:Its things like that that make me wonder how forge world makes money

Easily with things like that. They don't keep a stock of them, they're cast up to order--which means they don't need to constantly replace the molds, check them for damage, etc etc. The molds sit in storage until they're needed.

Daemon-Archon Ren wrote:I've always wanted to buy one and mount it on the wall like a big fish! It's def on my "If I had a Million Dollars" list.

That million dollars ain't going to last very long . . .

Seriously, this is a price that makes you think. What's an average middle-class income in the USA? $60,000 or so? You could blow 1/40 of your annual income on a single (massive) hunk of resin!

JDM wrote:Actually, its not $926........ Its a whopping, $1444! and 1 Cent.

They sold 30+ of those -> 43320$ cash. I was never tempted as I prefer the Epic model and the 40k Orca.

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:

Daemon-Archon Ren wrote:I've always wanted to buy one and mount it on the wall like a big fish! It's def on my "If I had a Million Dollars" list.

That million dollars ain't going to last very long . . .

Seriously, this is a price that makes you think. What's an average middle-class income in the USA? $60,000 or so? You could blow 1/40 of your annual income on a single (massive) hunk of resin!

It costs about the same a a week long vacation to orlando florida. Or the average family cost on a 5day cruise-line. Or 1, 12credit semister at community college...

1444.01 is less then 0.15% of 1 million dollars... I don't think buying a Manta would set me back too much at that point...

Before you ask, this beautiful work IS NOT MINE!



This is done by Astropos907. Check out his profile, he has a whole bunch of airbrushed tau vehicles as well as some bfg (iirc).

I think his manta was a scratchbuild but you get the idea.

(The post below is by the artist

Yea, darned pricey
and for about 40 dollars in foam, glue, paper and another 20-40 hrs you have yourself a manta!
awesome to behold and you dont have to get the scratch too accurate since most people have never seen a manta.
Plus forgeworld was kind enough to put some high detail images with scale references on their site. =)

The one above has a big hunk of white foam, the wings are blue foam with spray foam between the two layers of blue. the blue is shaped with a heat gun and tape till the spray foam cures, the leading edges are hard rolls of cardboard. and then I used wood putty to sculpt a bit of the contours that were missing and then used paper mache to skin it. Then cut out the traces to look tau'ish.
not really that hard, just time consuming and requiring a large table or work surface.

I myself have been looking for other pictures of painted tau and have been.....
extraordinarily dissapointed to see how many people have baught one and painted it to look like dren. Its like buying a Porsche and spray canning it.

Kroothawk wrote:

JDM wrote:Actually, its not $926........ Its a whopping, $1444! and 1 Cent.

They sold 30+ of those -> 43320$ cash. I was never tempted as I prefer the Epic model and the 40k Orca.

Agreed. More resonable than a Manta, Points wise.

I want to get an Orca and paint it like Shamoo!

I guy at the LA battle Bunker had one, it was so big you couldn't even really fir it on a table. I can't see how you could actually use it in a game. Cool display piece though, I guess.

At least the Reaver and upcoming Phantom are playable models.

Well you would need one BIG table! Mabye i'll build a huge table!

Now, a real pro would make a big table out of two mantas, and fight a battle on top of them! (Either landed, and in 6 turns they would take off, or an Air Battle!)

If you're lucky enough to live near Warhammer World they have big apoc tables which are something like 6'x10'.

You know a table is big when something is out of Earthshaker cannon range.

there was a P&M somewhere on the net (not sure if here or warseer) where someone made one from scratch for a team tourny at adepticon a year or two back (not this year). one thing to realize is that the model actually comes with the plastic tau transports and suits that it has in it's hold.

Daemon-Archon Ren wrote:Now, a real pro would make a big table out of two mantas, and fight a battle on top of them!

If I was a millionair I would have a manta coffee table :p ... now what would I use as coasters?

wickedcarrot wrote:

Daemon-Archon Ren wrote:Now, a real pro would make a big table out of two mantas, and fight a battle on top of them!

If I was a millionair I would have a manta coffee table :p ... now what would I use as coasters?

5" Blast Templates... duh

Now we're talking.

With some foam, a little creative inspiration, time, and a chunk of effort, you too can make a full-sized Tau Manta for 1/100 of the price.

warboss wrote:there was a P&M somewhere on the net (not sure if here or warseer) where someone made one from scratch for a team tourny at adepticon a year or two back (not this year). one thing to realize is that the model actually comes with the plastic tau transports and suits that it has in it's hold.

Darth Bob wrote:With some foam, a little creative inspiration, time, and a chunk of effort, you too can make a full-sized Tau Manta for 1/100 of the price.

that's the one i was talking about. you forgot to add talent to the list too.

warboss wrote:

warboss wrote:there was a P&M somewhere on the net (not sure if here or warseer) where someone made one from scratch for a team tourny at adepticon a year or two back (not this year). one thing to realize is that the model actually comes with the plastic tau transports and suits that it has in it's hold.

Darth Bob wrote:With some foam, a little creative inspiration, time, and a chunk of effort, you too can make a full-sized Tau Manta for 1/100 of the price.

that's the one i was talking about. you forgot to add talent to the list too.

Yeah. I mean you can't be totally inept, but I think everyone could do this to a degree. I mean it's just lots of foam and lots of plaster and sanding. The one really difficult part would be doing the troop area and hanger bay, but then again, that's always optional. Not trying to say it's easy and he shouldn't be proud of such a fantastic model, but I really don't think it's something you really need a TON of god-given talent to be able to make.