At $1500 that's 3 new armies.
To me, I'd love to do that. It would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Actually one of my goals is to find two other manta owners and field 3 in one game. So far I have only seen at max 2 fielded and one was a scratch made.

I had to go down to baumont today so I got no work done in on the manta today, sorry guys :/

I wish. $1500 doesn't even cover half my IG army, and my Tau will probably reach that level once we get a new codex and I start working on them again. When you start including Forge World/conversions/etc, the Manta's price tag doesn't look all that high compared to what you're already buying.



As for the impressive new model, what I want to know is how is the casting quality? Do the parts fit together well? I'd be very tempted to get a Manta in the not-so-distant future, but I've built enough Forge World stuff to be very afraid of how much cleaning up and fixing a model that size would require.

The amount of cleaning up will take me a week. There is so much excess resin I can make terrain out of it.

So far I found only the Lower hold for tanks does not allign up with one of the rails that slides it in and out of the model. But with all the clean up I have not had time to go through the entire model yet. Also the nose section one of the mounts to hold a burst cannon is warped all funky to the point it can not hold a gun. When I feel confidant enough I am going to heat that part up and attempt to shift it.

Some of the very fine detail and small pieces broke in the shipping. An example is the gun racks that sit in the 2nd level behind the heads of the fire warriors. The last 3 carbines in each rack snapped off.

As a heads up for this project you will need a hobby saw, no if and's or but's about it. Also a sanding bit for an electric drill would come in handy for the removal of LARGE chunks of resin that was left on the model.

They could have saved a lot of money by hollowing out the manta, instead it is one giant chunk of resin. Very sturdy, very heavy. But this makes it hard to wire.

I was amazed at how much excess resin came on my R'alai so I can only imagine the amount of cleanup your having to do. Also how about bubbles? Seeing a lot of those or did yours come unhol(e)y. Haha mine was hol(e)y...should paint mine up to look like a paladin now...
Sorry for the dry humor.

....anyways I am definatly looking forward to seeing this thing progress. Make sure your snapping shots during the assembly process and the painting process. If I manage to afford one someday I would like to have a sort of guide to follow.

Do you think it would be possible to post the assembly instructions? It looks thick.

I am one of those people who might actually buy a Manta myself, but having owned a lot of Forgeworld models I have been too scared to invest $1500. If it came with no failed molds and was to the standard you would expect for such a price tag I would most certainly purchase one once I return to the States. Either that or possibly an Orca. I am a bigger fan of the dropship but alas it is not nearly as useful on the tabletop.

Anyways, if you could post the assembly instructions so I can get a better idea of what sort of model that beast is I would appreciate it. Could tip the scales in my decision making process.

Much appreciated.

So very jealous. I've been saving up for a Tigershark just so I can mitigate a little bit of that Manta longing. Love all those fliers, the Orca and Manta especially.

New pictures uploaded to the album. I may forgo the lighting for right now because I might be able to get a game in with it tommorow.

In one of the new pictures you can see a sea of sprue junk, which has been really slowing me down.

Wings up, then I opened up the three bits bags with all the guns and turrets and things. Im done for the day. I am not going to discribe the Cluster**** that is in there. When I wake up I will take pictures and let you decide.

On a good note I think I figured out two ways to house the cells for lighting the manta.

http://s888.photobucket.com/albums/ac87/hurumordae/MantaBook/

This is a link to the 23 pg instrustion booklet.

If you notice some steps in the building are just assumed.

Wow looks nonetheless impressive.

A question, the plastic kits included, are they boxed GW releases or are they just supplied on the sprue?

Its a bag of sprues. Right now I have the nose curing in place and hope to have pics of the almost finished manta before I start the wiring.

Thanks for posting the book. It is hard to tell just how big and detailed this kit is without it. I look forward to seeing the build move forward.

Thank you for the instruction scans, most informative. For instance now I understand how the bottom elevator works.

One question about the other models included. Are the XV-8's included for the suit racks forgeworld XV-8's or standard GW ones? From the look of them they have bent knees and such so I was hoping they are FW suits. If that is the case it makes the $1500 price tag a bit easier to accept.

The models on the suit racks are standard GW, but they also included 8 sets of forge world legs as well, Plus bases.


Also I would like to note something odd. The resin seems to be acting like a sponge and absorbing my paint. As compared to the normal devil fish hull or my other resin models like my raven guard army. I have never encountered anything like this as it is greatly hampering my ability to airbrush I instead have taken the pain staking task of hand painting the entire thing by hand as it requires more of a dab effect to get the paint thick enough to not be absorbed into the resin. I say absorbed because the resin just "eats the paint" into it and slowly starts to tint the shade I want in splotches. It seems to take 3 rather thick coats to achieve the proper shade and I have not finished the wing yet. Although GW based paints do no seem to have this problem I noticed. Perhaps I need to base the manta with a codex grey then air brush it? Its kinda late now but as a note for anyone else who buys one.

Have you put down a primer coat on it? If you haven't, that's probably your problem.

I have not because the paticular green i use is the exact shade I want, but when using primors it alters the shade of what I am going for sadly quite drasticly. I can mange it and the paint I am using is by model master. Its a quite durable paint as it has not worn off or scratched off as easly as some of the other brands I have tryed.

Just more or less was curious if anyone else has had a similar problem with resin?

You do know a primer does not have to be the base coat colour?

That colour can be applied over the primer.

You really need to prime the model. It would be a shame to put all the work in to have it slide right off. All the panels are slightly different colors and that shows through the topcoat without primer. Primer is cheap and saves time. It gives the underlying paint something to grab onto so you don't get the splotchy appearance. You will also use less paint. Don't cut corners on such a killer model.

Also it looks like you are doing a metallic green take a look at Duplicolor's metal cast green spray. I used their blue for one of my battle suits and it is a dream to work with. It give almost a candy paint color like a hot rod paint job.