Thursday 8 December 2022

NOW YOU SEE ME

 In the first Dark Eldar codex Mandrakes had Chameleon abilities and could easily blend into the background, by codex two they had changed quite a bit, here's what they say now :

A Mandrake is a foul humanoid creature who was once one of the Drukhari of Commorragh that lurk within the darkest corners of the Webway's labyrinthine confines. Its name is a translation into Imperial Low Gothic of a word in the Aeldari Lexicon.

The Mandrakes can be found in Aelindrach, a region of Commorragh. Literally fallen into shadow, it is one of the several districts of Commorragh that exists in more than one dimension at once. In Aelindrach, shadows thicken and writhe as living things, flowing into one another and attempting to capture those that venture into the district.

It is in Aelindrach that Mandrakes and Shaderavens make their lairs. Rumour has it that somewhere in Aelindrach lies a portal to a world where shade-daemons exist who can freeze the soul with but a touch.

This vile breed of their species is secretly feared even by other Drukhari, for a Mandrake can pull itself into any region of space-time through another being's shadow, emerging with a sibilant hiss to sink its frigid claws and teeth into flesh.

Their ebony skins writhe with blasphemous runes and their faces shift and flow, one moment a featureless mask, the next parting to reveal a maw filled with sharpened teeth. Mandrakes exist both in realspace and a cursed shadow world that may be a part of the Immaterium. To fight them is to combat a living shadow.

In my original tournament army I had a unit of 5, as the look and rules changed a lot, the original models are now in my Bloodbrides unit, and the bases have been utilised in my Reaver squads. So now I have 5 new models made from Empire flagellants as the basis  and a lot of green stuff to make these. The first 3 all have Balefire at the ready.


The other 2 I went for them holding their weapons two handed, to add some variation, I've also not done sigils all over on some to give the impression of them lighting up at varying times.


With this unit now complete, I only have a vehicle for the Kabal, and Beatmasters and beasts for the Wyches left to do, bar the beasts, I have a good chance of finishing these before the new year, which was my target goal. That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

20 comments:

  1. These look suitably eldritch, Dave, with their runes being particularly eye-catching. Would you mind saying which paint you used for that effect please..? You're putting an incredible amount of effort into this force so I do hope you get to put in on the tabletop in anger from time to time..?

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    1. Thank you Simon, of course on the paints, I started with GW white scar, then edged the runes with Vallejo Livery green, then gave a glaze all over of GW green glaze, hope this helps. Got plans for a big campaign, using the Dark Eldar, Chaos, Night Hawks, and Kroot, so should be quite a few dice rolling ! LOL

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  2. Cool sculpting job as usual, I love the poses and the overall look!

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    1. Thank you Suber, tried to keep the GW aesthetic, with a little of my style and different poses ! LOL

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  3. Excellent sculpting, Dave, and I really like the intense green sigils over their black skin, it gives them a solid other-worldly look!

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    1. Thank you Matt, the colour scheme is the GW standard look, so was only replicating what they came up with, luckily it fits in with the rest of the army ! LOL

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  4. The dark skin/green sigils pop pretty nicely. Definitely gives them that otherworldly appearance!

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    1. Thank you Brian, out of the 3 colours they showed in the codex, the black and green fitted best with the rest of the army, and is the most striking out of the green, blue, or yellow colour schemes.

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  5. Very nice work on these, Dave and I appreciated reading their backstory. Dark Eldar just have some cool units. I'd still love GW to update some of the sculpts for their faction but their reluctance to do that does make your sculpts stand out that much more at the same time, I'd say.

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    1. Thank you Jeff, thought it would be useful for anyone who didn't know the army ! LOL GW seem to go in phases with Dark Eldar, and we seem unfortunately in the one, where they are doing nothing for them, and even removing items from their catalogue, we can but hope they go back to doing more for them, but probably won't happen until they do another Codex ! LOL Glad you like the sculpts, as it's a lot cheaper than looking on Ebay.

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  6. More cool work Dave, you'll will have to do a whole army photoshoot when you finish the last few :)

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    1. Thank you Frank, I'll see what I can do, as my photography skills aren't great, and I don't know how well a huge group shot will come out, but I'll try

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  7. Never heard of these guys (but that's not really a shock now is it!), they are very cool though, a bit like luminous Morloks, I like them, top work mate.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thank you Roger, as you've been away from the GW propaganda machine for quite awhile I'm not surprised mate ! LOL It wouldn't surprise me if Morloks were an influence in them ! LOL

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  8. John@justneedsvarnish11 December 2022 at 06:13

    These are brilliant, Dave! :-) I have no idea what they started out as, but they look really good now! Some very nice painting and sculpting there!

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    1. Thank you John, imagine a robed running lune and you'd be pretty close on the original model ! LOL they all needed the second layer of skins sculpted on, and arms weapons runes and hair, so most of the model ! LOL

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  9. Wierd and wonderful as always.

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    1. Thank you Joe, have some weirder stuff coming up but probably won't be until May

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  10. Mandrakes are about the only actual Dark Eldar types that I like (Lesser Xenos army entries aside) in their list (In all honesty I've never been the biggest fan of Space Elves in general). Your's are pretty darn cool mate. Great job!

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    1. Thank you Dai, I know what you mean, spent a long time avoiding doing Space Elves, until a friend challenged me to make a cool looking Dark Eldar army as the models were lacking in the first edition codex, so got suckered into it ! LOL the second edition Mandrakes certainly had a more unique look to them, just a shame there wasn't much variation available in the way of different models, this way I got 5 unique looking models.

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