It’s big, it’s Tau and it’s here…
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With Games Day UK just a few weeks away, we at Forge World plan on sending out a newsletter each week with details on many of the new models and products we should have on display for you to drool over. This is the first of these ‘teaser’ newsletters and it’s one I’ve been looking forward to writing for quite a long time. Thx, Ewen Little, Forge World.
40K Tau Manta – It’s finished!
For over a year now, Will Hayes has been working on a 40K scale Tau Manta and recently he was finally able to say it was finished. The Manta is by far the largest model that Games Workshop has ever produced, and by a long way too! The Manta measures 630mm/25 inches long and has a wingspan of 860mm/34 inches! Weighing in at 12.5 kilos/28 pounds, this beast weighs six times as much as a Thunderhawk Gunship, and that is before we put all the tanks and Battlesuits inside! Take a look at the pictures and you can see how massive this model truly is as it dwarfs the Thunderhawk sat next to it. Some people said it couldn’t be done, others that we could only make the Manta to a reduced scale. Piffle and poppycock. The Tau Manta is an exact 40K scale model and matches all our painstakingly drawn plans in every detail.
40K Tau Manta – In Detail
The overall shape of the Manta was finished months ago, but adding all the fine detail to a model of this size was a task of Herculean proportions for Will. More so that the Manta was always designed to have a fully working and detailed interior. The Manta has two decks: the upper deck is where you will find forty-eight seated resin Fire Warriors and six Gun Drones, overseen by a seated Tau Ethereal. They exit through doors that retract into the walls and then down to the landing zone via the hidden extendable ramp. On the lower deck are eight Tau Battlesuits, two Devilfish troop carriers and two Hammerhead battle-tanks. Once the Manta is near the ground, this whole deck drops down so the vehicles and Battlesuits can disembark and deploy rapidly. Further forward, towards the nose, four Air-Caste systems operators and two pilots control the prodigious amount of firepower that the Manta can bring to bear on the enemy. Sixteen Long-Barrelled Burst Cannon will scour any infantry or light vehicles from the landing zone while the Long-Barrelled Ion Cannon, Heavy Rail Guns, Missile Pods and battery of Seeker Missiles will make pretty short work of anything heavier. It is no word of a lie when I say that the Manta and the Hunter Cadre it carries is an entire Tau army! I want to make this perfectly clear; the two Devilfish, two Hammerheads, eight Battlesuits and six Gun Drones are all included in the Tau Manta kit.
40K Tau Manta – Availability
The Tau Manta is available to pre-order now for release from Monday October 9th, but if all goes according to plan, we should have a very limited number available to buy at Games Day UK. If you are serious about wanting to get a Tau Manta and collecting it at Games Day then please contact us and reserve one as these are not the quickest or easiest kits for us to manufacture and each one will be pretty much made to order!
Games Day UK
Forge World’s next show is the biggest and busiest of them all, Games Day UK at the NEC in Birmingham on Sunday September 24th. At a busy event like a Games Day Forge World can run out of some models very quickly, but we are happy to offer a free reservation service. Having what you want to buy from Forge World reserved for you means you don’t have to rush over first thing because we pick and pack your order a few days before the show and it is sitting waiting for you at our dedicated reservation collection point marked with a big red sign and flashing orange light. To place a reservation, just email us your name and a list of what you want to buy to forgeworld@games-workshop.co.uk or give us a call on 0115 916 8177 and we shall take care of the rest. Reservations must reach us by Monday September 18th so we have enough time to pack them up for you.
Forge World
Games Workshop
Willow Road, Lenton
Nottingham, NG7 2WS
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