Building a hydra from scratch

[Trosfuktaren]

I'm not too good with modeling and i am an average painter. I've recently made a scratch built treeman which i was very satisfied with. Now i'm thinking of doing a hydra.

It will most certainly not look good but since i can either buy GW:s war hydra or keep my life insurance I will give it a shot.

My plan is to convert two corsairs for handlers, this will prove an easy task.

For the hydra i will build a skeleten out of wire, use putty and hobby clay to fill out the body.
I've got spare shields, heads and some bodies from lizardmen saurus infantry OBS! I will scale the hydra down just a little to make it look better with the parts, still going on a cavalry base. The heads are too small to use as hydra heads but i'm thinking if i make like 10 heads for the hydra it will look more "natural". So saurus heads as hydra heads. Will cut up a saurus body to make a tail and maybe claws. I will use the scales on the saurus shields as the "armoured" scaled part of the body of the hydra. Then i will use green stuff to model the underbelly which i'm assuming will be the easiest thing to model myself. And to melt it all together even more green stuff.

Thoughts? Any suggestions to what i can do instead? Have spare parts from a couple of armies, lizardmen were the only parts i found that i thought would work.

If if decide that this is viable i will ofc post the progress and results here.

[cultofkhaine]

Sounds good - I would like to see some Wip shots so we can comment further as it progresses.

I have seen a baby hydra from GW Warmaster range that some people have used in the past which my be a good reference point for you scale.

[Hillbilly Carl]

For the necks you could use the tentacles from the Mutalith Vortex Beast, I'm not sure of the scale but they seem like they'd be well-suited for saurus heads.

That or the tails of the medusa maybe.

[Liquidedust]

Sounds good - I would like to see some Wip shots so we can comment further as it progresses.

I have seen a baby hydra from GW Warmaster range that some people have used in the past which my be a good reference point for you scale.

Isn't that the old warmaster Hydra?

[stuaker]

Sounds good - I would like to see some Wip shots so we can comment further as it progresses.

I have seen a baby hydra from GW Warmaster range that some people have used in the past which my be a good reference point for you scale.

Isn't that the old warmaster Hydra?

Yes, he said it's from the Warmaster range

[Trosfuktaren]

Thank you for The feedback Will probably start working on it this weekend.

Meanwhile... Here's The treeman i made out of wire, clay, putty, Green stuff and adhesive treated Moss! OBS! The flash makes the highlights brighter than they are.

screen shot on windows


screen cap

Btw the clay model jerking off in the back is an old school project.

[Silvershadow]

Very nice treeman for being built from scratch, I especially like the sinister eyes.

For the hydra I was going to suggest some Dollar Store dragon or dinosaur as the base but then I saw your name and knew you must be in Sweden You could probably find something similar in a bargain bin at an ICA Maxi or Åhléns or some such though if you wanted to.

As for the clay model, I don't recall anything like that on the curriculum back when I took crafts...

[Trosfuktaren]

Very nice treeman for being built from scratch, I especially like the sinister eyes.

For the hydra I was going to suggest some Dollar Store dragon or dinosaur as the base but then I saw your name and knew you must be in Sweden You could probably find something similar in a bargain bin at an ICA Maxi or Åhléns or some such though if you wanted to.

As for the clay model, I don't recall anything like that on the curriculum back when I took crafts...

Haha, The thing i'm the least satisfied with on the treeman is his eyes
Yeah gonna check that out

Well i was kind of à rebel trying to make the teachers mad. However.. The subject was self acceptance and love and my art teacher was amazed, i mean We were like 14 and everybody else had made like hearts and geometric shapes. But i made a man masturbating to à porno.

[Trosfuktaren]

First image!


how to take screenshots

So first part of the skeleten is finished. Bitz from lizardmen saurus infantry showing in the background. Decided that i will use saurus heads as heads for the hydra. Cutting up parts of lizardmen bodies and shields as scales for the back, necks and tail of the hydra. Will try to model feet and belly by myself. The body will be fat and drag in the ground as the hydras front legs will be on the higher ground of the base. The tail will be made longer, so worry not.

Any input is welcome =)

[T.D.]

Ambitious

Looking forward to the projects development...

[Trosfuktaren]

Second image



Did not post the second part of the skelton, basically i just filled up the body with wire and a wrapped extra wire around the necks so that the clay would stick more easily.

So what i've done here is that i've added the first layer of clay. Tomorrow, when the clay has dried, I will add a second layer of clay.

I added clay to the base to add texture to the ground. The tail of the hydra will be longer, he will have a lizardmen body/tail as tail. I will start to cut up bodies and shields to get pieces of scale to add to the back. After the second layer of clay i will attach all the parts before i start to green stuff this shiz up.

So as you can see, the heads are not big, but there are eleven of them (Hercules did not understand the concept of "If you cut off one head of a hydra, two will take its place".)

Any input is welcome =)

[Trosfuktaren]

Third image.



So... I couldnt wait for the clay to dry completly. Have added the tail, the front leg is not stuck, because i want opinions.

I can think of three things i wanna to with the legs. The options are as following:
*Model my own, like the lizardmen ones but much thicker and larger claws that will grip the stony terrain.
*Use lizardmen four lizardmen legs.
*Use more than 4 lizardmen legs, making him look look like a freaking centipede.

On a sidenote, two of the heads are going to fight, one biting the other one in the neck. I've prepared a head especially for this. Will probably look super rad and shiz.

I just realized that if i'd made him into a Kharibdyss, the clay on the base could have been carved and painted as water, which would have been awesome. But i want the hydra.

Any input is welcome =) PLEASE tell me what you think i should do for the legs.

[Drek]

This is awesome!

Personally, I think the lizard men legs look a bit spindly. They don't seem thick enough for that massive torso. That's my opinion, but I think you could use the lizard legs as a base and sculpt them up the thickness they need.

[Trosfuktaren]

Fourth image.



So I've added som scrap scales, going to add some more, then but the second layer of clay on the heads with some green stuff, then apply the heads and then green stuff some more shiz. Will take a fuckload of time but it's fun as hell and I'm amazed that it looks better than what I hoped for.

Drek, I think that I will thicken the legs, that will probably look better yes =)

BTW, since i've ordered 30 execs, 1 COC, 2 units of DARK riders and warlocks and corasairs and shiz, none of which i have painted, help me get inspired for a theme for my new army. The hydra will go with the theme. SO WHAT THEME SHALL IT BE?

[Elvenstar]

Personally, I think it may look better with flippers than legs as the body sits very low to the ground.

[Strollinthewoods]

I have been afk from these forums for quite some time, so when I read your initial post I thought, yay, I can give some advice on this topic, then I realized you are already well into the sculpting process so any advice is maybe a bit to late.

I dont have any really good pictures of it - but I did make a "royal" warhydra a little while back. And I always wanted a 3 headed hydra - and are tempted to sculpt in 2 new heads that are regrowing now that the new rules are out.- I was ofc hoping for a return of the royal warhydra option to return =)




My best advice would be to use plastic in the detailed bits - like the head. Use Wire for the skeleton - with foile wrapped around it to build up volume. Then a thin layer of fimo - and straight into the oven. Whith this skeleton ready - I would add another layer of fimo, an on this layer I would "insert" all the plastic pieces and remove them again before burning a 2nd time. The last step is adding greenstuff on top.

Used exactly the same method for my spider after making the hydra to my dark elfs. And then for the black dragon, and then for the wyvern - same procedure for all of them.





Good luck, and happy sculpting

[Trosfuktaren]

Strolininthewoods, your work is really inspiring! =) I will try to use your method on my next project, dont have access to that red clay you have! And i've got my plan calculated =)

[Trosfuktaren]

So, the image flow continues!


Basically going to green stuff the frig out of that fucker. Scales while take a while seeing as i'm going to add them to the necks as well, OH JOY!


Heads up! As you can see, one of the friggin hydra heads is attacking another, which is cool. They've developed enough intelligence to understand the concept of their mythological ability "growing multiple heads" and thus biting each others heads off to create more. Either that or their opinions of the twilight saga differ.


And here we've got a shot to show the legs of the hydra which i have thickened. Scales will cover the upper part of the legs and i will green stuff some claws and shiz.

Right now i'm making scales for the body and the tail, i will slowly move towards the necks, will start on them but then i will wait for the green stuff to hard so that i dont ruin areas by accident.

[Karond]

Nice effort so far. What are you thinking for the colour scheme?

[Trosfuktaren]

Nice effort so far. What are you thinking for the colour scheme?

Thank you =) I've got no idea, currently thinking of how i will be theming my army as a whole. The dark/light green transition with streaks of red is boring imo. I'm thinking about black / darker blue with red/orange/yellow touches for a "volcanic" theme but I will probably not go for that.

Any input is welcome =)

[Trosfuktaren]

So yeah, pretty much has happened, take a look.

Done with the scales on the body, decided to take care of the heads last since they will be a biatch. Also started carving out the belly, pretty sloppy work but I've got an unsteady hand, no experiance, adverse wind and caffeine levels in my blood that could kill a small dog. What do you want from me? Fuuck off. But seriously though i'm pretty proud.


And here you can see some more sloppy work. One foot is done and all of them will look like that. Wanna spike up the necks since I will have to put down a fuckload of work on them already I decided that I could do even more.

Tell me what you think, should i try to sweeten up the sloppy parts or should i just be satisfied?

[Silvershadow]

You should be proud, I'm impressed at least I confess to having been skeptical to the idea of using lizardmen heads but that looks like it'll work very well!
The belly looks good and the sculpted scales fit in well with the plastic ones. The legs look like they are the right size now.

I almost feel like I'm getting brief glimpses of news from back home by reading snippets from the newspaper you're using as your workspace

[strategem]

very impressive. can't wait to see it finished

[Lord_azoth]

nice nice nice, like a lot the conversion...can´t wait to see it finshed

[Artfactial]

The saurus heads indeed work very well for the monster, great idea.