The Tau Empire...complete: The Manta has arrived

Wow, I can still barely believe it!  From the beginning of me getting hooked into the hobby of Warhammer 40,000, and quickly starting to build a Tau Empire army (being my pride and job and largest army I have), I often looked at the pages for the Tau Manta on the Forge World website, dreaming of ever owning one of these beauties.

So at Games Day 2010 and after much fighting with myself to justify the decision, I finally had the pleasure in picking up two large boxes from the Forge World stand.

Again, being the geek that I am, I spent time at home unpacking all the components and checking against the inventory listing.   For a good number of nights I ended up filing, sawing and cleaning up each component.  The place was a mess of resin dust and clippings!

Finally, getting the chance and pleasure to sit down and built the monsterous craft, it was worth every moment of effort and every penny (even though it still stings a little!).  

It's now all sprayed up, with some of the interior painted (the Command Centre and crew had to be painted before assembly).  So it will take a while before I start to paint it fully, but it's still looking good sat on the gaming table in all it's glory :-D

Here's the blurb from the Forge World website:

The Manta measures 630mm/25 inches long and has a wingspan of 860mm/34 inches! Weighing in at 12.5 kilos/28 pounds, it weighs six times as much as a Thunderhawk Gunship, and that is before we put all the tanks and Battlesuits inside.

The Manta has been designed to have a fully working and detailed interior and 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. 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, six Long-Barrelled Ion Cannon, two Heavy Rail Guns, Missile Pods and battery of Seeker Missiles as well as a Networked Markerlight turret. The kit includes two Devilfish, two Hammerheads, eight Battlesuits and six Gun Drones.

My new beast - Nissan Pathfinder

This week, after having spent ten years with "the beast": my black 1993 Mitsubishi 3000GT, I finally got a new car.  Well more than a car really, a big, meaty 4x4.  I went for the Nissan Pathfinder Aventura - 2.5L Diesel.  It's beauuuuutiful!  Three years old and in great condition with gadgets coming out of it's ears!  Only had it for a couple of days and done a mere 150 miles, but the ride is fantastic and it's sure very different to be climbing up into the driving seat and looking down at other vehicles, than lowering myself down and laying down to look up at other cars, as with the 3000GT (I still have the Mitsubishi, however - ironically having had the missing cylinder fixed only yesterday, after it being causing me grief for about 18 months!)

So i'll be giving the Pathfinder a good run this weekend and spending a bit more time getting used to it and appreciating all that it offers.  From one extreme to the other with the two cars!  I intend to spend a bit of time and money over the 3000GT and get it in a bit better shape to use as an occassional car and when I fancy a change.

Return to the Three Valleys

February 2010 saw my return to the Three Valleys (Courchevel, Meribel and Van Thorens) in France; this time, with seven other lads - Steve N, Alan, Scottish, Ewart, Mike, Ian and John.  All but two (John and Ian) are snowboarders, and we stayed in a fantastic chalet in Les Allues, just outside Meribel.  Conditions were great, and whilst it didn't snow until the last day, the snow on the piste was perfect.

So on day one it was just to get used to it all again, sticking around Meribel and trying some old familiar runs.  My skill has improved a fair bit since my last visit so that, combined with knowing the runs helped get my confidence back pretty much straight away. 

Courchevel was the next day and down to La Tania (obviously taking the scenic Plan Fontaine run).  The next day was spent over in Le Menuires, which I believe is the 'fourth' valley!  Some pretty good runs around the resort.  

During this holiday, I finally made it over to Val Thorens, which I hadn't done a couple of years back.  I was out on my own this day as I wanted to get an early start as there would be maybe over an hour of traversing across Meribel and Le Menuires before gettin to Val Thorens.   And it was worth it!  I'd say that the best runs on the valleys are in Val Thorens.   It's not anywhere near as pretty as Courchevel and La Tania, but the runs are fantastic and really improved confidence and skill, not to mention hitting some pretty high speeds.  Went to one of the highest points in the Three Valleys (Le Coq) for some amazing views!

The next day was a return to Courchevel with most of the lads, to go further down towards 1550 and La Tania again.   Did a great jump down Verdons, but then disaster struck about 15 minutes later when I hit a ridge at high speed going down to the lift at the end of afternoon to return to Meribel!   Ironically, after buying elbow pads the day before, I twisted an ankle, so had to painstakingly get down towards Meribel before relunctantly taking the gondola down to the resort :-(   Oh well!  And so ends the snowboarding for me this holiday.  Still, I only missed out on the last day, which was a whiteout anyway, and at least it was down to injury rather than beer ;-)