War Hydra conversion?

[Kendoka]

As the current GW Hydra IMHO is way too small for its impressive stats I am planning to convert a Hydra from a different source - a small dragon or similar - and perhaps mount the beastmasters in a heavy plate platform on its back.

Do you know if anybody have done this - converted a larger, meaner Hydra?
Perhaps based on the new Dark Elf Dragon (as there are two heads included it ought to be easy to get a few spares as bitz)?

Mierce Miniatures has an old Hydra mini - as do the Reaper Bones Kickstarter - but none of them are tough enough (or?).

Any other suggestions, perhaps the FW Carmine Dragon would be a good base?

I recently bought a McFarlane Hydra off Ebay - but it "got lost in the mail" so no luck there - and I guess it might have been too large (?) anyway. Any pics of one in a DE army?

Other tips?

[Tyrannus deathbringer]

Hi Kendoka,

By coincidence I have also been doing some Hydra converting work at the moment.

I compared the new Black Dragon to the current Hydra and they are almost identical in size and shape - in fact it looks like GW have been lazy and taken a cast from the Hydra and twisted it slightly to create the body of the Black Dragon.

The Black Dragon head and neck are much much bigger than the Hydra heads though, so more than about 3 will look too top heavy on the Black Dragon body. The current Hydra necks and heads are a better scale to go with that particular body size.

To create a nicely scaled Black Dragon based Hydra I think you would have to do a lot of greenstuff work, such as by extending the body and opening the two halves of the torso, inserting a frame and greenstuffing a broader body. It would be a lot of work and TBH you would probably be better going for a Hydra created by another company.

For a radical idea using GW products, you could work with a Stegadon base for the conversion, as this guy has to create a Diplodocus-odon!:

[cultofkhaine]

@Tyrannus I like the Stegadon idea, might pinch that!

@Kendoka here is a converion I did a few years back



It was a mish mash of dragon bits (inspiration came from the old Dragonlance Novels Takhisis for a five headed dragon.)

[Samusin]

still impresed by tha Hydra/dragon luve it since I seen it

[Blackphantom]

Nice dragon! I guess when you use it in a game, you can let it count as either a dragon or a hydra, depending on the the list :p

[Tyrannus deathbringer]

@ Cult

Nice Dragon! I've browsed your blog a lot but never noticed that one before

[Kendoka]

Thanks for all the info, especially regarding the hydra body of the new DE Dragon - and the pic of the excellent, if somewhat oldish, five headed dragon/hydra. I am having a go at something similar - but based on a FW dragon.

Progress, this far:


Not sure yet if it will turn out as I hope.
Might become too top heavy (to quote Tyrannus). Hard to say before I have greenstuffed the necks.

[Tyrannus deathbringer]

That's looking pretty sweet so far

Like a nice modern update of Cult of Khaine's version. Using the Carmine Dragon as a base was a good choice I think.

Looking forward to the finished version..

[cultofkhaine]

Yep that's looking pretty good!

Love those dragon heads, what have you got in mind for the beastmasters?

[Rowena]

Wow, that's one fierce looking monster! I love the Carmine dragon and can't wait to see this one finished. Where are the extra heads from?

[Samusin]

o0 you both scary... but for now I'll still count cult as a bit more scary xD (lol I just remember that dark elf beheading that high elf XD that was a fantastic model cult)

[Darkmark]

The big new WoC beastie could be worth a look.

[With hatred ...]

Absolutely love it! I've justfinished assembling the official hydra and it's looks so weak by comparison.

I reckognise a couple of black dragon heads there but which other heads did you use?