Namarti Mandrakes

Hello everyone,
has anybody decided or played with the idea to convert the new idoneth deepkin namarti thralls into mandrakes? the legs are similar enough to coat it in greenstuff for the flayed hide look, bare thorsos and heads, weapons quite identical. They only lack hair, but thats fixable

Now that you mention it, that does sound like an excellent idea. If you wanted to I'd even argue you wouldn't even need to add green stuff, though I imagine that may give off a more regal look than the traditional Mandrakes. As for the hair, the old Mandrake models (and I mean REALLY old) were actually bald, but do bear in mind that their lore has changed a bit since those days, and they looked much more like regular Aeldari.

In conclusion, I don't see why that couldn't work. The weapons certainly look the part, and one could easily add a bit of greenstuff if one wanted to add a more ethereal/daemonic feel.

It really wouldn't be an issue if the Mandrakes weren't in Failcast. I really like the current sculpts, but I'm simply not buying anything Finecast unless it's some bargain bin sort of deal.

I was just talking this over with the other DE player at the store about this - they make damn good Mandrakes with very minimal effort, as their eyeless faces and the carvings on the torso make them look like the genuine article. I think the more regal look would actually turn out exceptionally well - who's to say that half-material daemonic fiends can't materialize some sharp, angular armor decorations if they're at it?

The whole Idoneth line has some very interesting models and bits in particular - very Dark Eldar.

I just saw em on the GW site and came here to say the same thing! Although with a little kitbashing or sculpting I think they could serve as incubi or wracks, too.
I don't care for the aesthetic of the deepkin army itself, but they are packed with conversion potential! In particular I think they would fit really well with a coven-themed army.

Take this guy, for example. Call me crazy, but with a little kitbashing I think he could become a centerpiece haemo or Talos in a DE army:



Liquifier gun? More like liquifier cape! Just imagine it, with the base littered with semi-dissolved Drukhari--hoe cool would that be?!

zelatar wrote:

I just saw em on the GW site and came here to say the same thing! Although with a little kitbashing or sculpting I think they could serve as incubi or wracks, too.
I don't care for the aesthetic of the deepkin army itself, but they are packed with conversion potential! In particular I think they would fit really well with a coven-themed army.

Take this guy, for example. Call me crazy, but with a little kitbashing I think he could become a centerpiece haemo or Talos in a DE army:

Yeah, all you'd really need to do is change out the arms and maybe the head, and you'd have yourself a pretty damn good looking Haemonculus. And if you'd like it to look a bit more bizarre, you could even use the fish and other sea creatures for the face. Might want to have some green stuff on hand for that, though.

Siticus the Ancient wrote:

It really wouldn't be an issue if the Mandrakes weren't in Failcast. I really like the current sculpts, but I'm simply not buying anything Finecast unless it's some bargain bin sort of deal.

exactly my thinking, 10 namarti cost only 12€ less than 10 mandrakes, but the 5 mandrakes are 1. failcast and 2. have already to models with the same pose

I was thinking more of making the water elfies into coven
With the namarti becoming wracks

those namarti look awesome, makes me glad i didnt grab the mandrakes yet, because now im grabbing a pack of those.

im going to leave the spikey hair bit off, paint them silver->waystone green-> then top it off with Agrellan Earth to get that cool cracked skin texture.

so im still waiting for mine to show up but i had a crazy idea on how to paint them and some spare arm bits laying around so decided to make a few practice attempts to see if it would work.

this is the end result of the second attempt


i didn't bother priming before the silver as very little is visible anyway.

so first coat is lead belcher
covered with Waystone green gem paint
then agrellan earth technical (it causes the cracking effect)
and then a really light dry brushing with abbadon black.

the first attempt i didnt load on the agrellan earth thick enough so the crack sections were just too small to notice.

what do you guys think?

I'd use ghouls for my wracks since I got crypt horrors as grotesques and they look like mini versions. And spirit hosts as mandrakes.

Sent from Topic'it App

mine finally arrived got them put together over the weekend, and frak these are gorgeous models. little concerned my idea with cracked skin will be a bit harder to pull off based on the poses and how close some of the swords/arms are to the chests.

still even painting their skin black and painting on the runes will look bad ass.

Please post pictures.

Sent from Topic'it App

still need to prime and paint, but the models are absolutely awesome. you get stuck with 3/10 as axes but even the axes look pretty damn bad ass. i think i will leave the off hands exposed with the green glow effect to show the bale blasts (im not great with green stuff sculpting, so not sure i could pull off the fireish effect)

I think I know what my next purchase will be
Although, I am not a huge fan of the spiky, antler, antenna thing on the back.  It looks like it can be easily removed/cut though.  
If you paint the rune right, you can have a forehead baleblast!

Damn, they have ginormous hands!

They are really nice, might have to fork out the $$$ for some of these bad boys

Sent from Topic'it App

unclasped wrote:

I think I know what my next purchase will be
Although, I am not a huge fan of the spiky, antler, antenna thing on the back.  It looks like it can be easily removed/cut though.  
If you paint the rune right, you can have a forehead baleblast!

yeah the back bit is part of the model kit, i added it on him just to sort of show he is the squad leader, im not super enthused by it but figured id give it a shot and paint that one up first as the trial run, because i get the feeling the first one will be botched and need to be stripped anyway.

So first test on the actual models


Lessons learned:
avoid using the texture on the face/hands entirely, and then just paint in the black when you cover it.

its hard to get a pic to do the glow/shimmer effect inside the cracks with my crappy paint table set up.
ill try to come up with a better solution for the next pics.

alright first test, just base coats obviously. what do you guys think? obviously going to have to add to the armour, but the skin is mostly finished.

C&C

I love what I hope to be athe intention skin cfacking, green underneath effect.

Looks good to me.

yup that what im going for, this is just the first test run to make sure it all goes together color wise.

from some of the detail i lost on parts of this guy, the rest are going to use the texture paint effect a bit more selectively in areas so im not giving up important detail in areas like the face and hands.

my third color is usually a red for things like hair or plumes, but mandrakes have white hair, these guys are bald, so im thinking ill keep the tassles white just to make it more visually obvious.

this guy is pretty rough i just wanted to rush one and get some C&C before i set to work on the rest of them.