writes:Continuing by accident on the theme of green, I wanted to share a pair of Orc Hydras with you.
You first saw this Hydra in last year's article about 3Dprinting bases. These Hydras are from the Mighty Armies product line, and come packaged with 2" x 2" bases. However, I prefer models to fit "inside" the outlines of the base, so I printed up some 2" x 3" bases for them that have the Mighty Armies beveled edges.
These models were painted to my specifications by our friends at Fernando Enterprises. Some of my friends have told me that I should have gone with another color, but my Orcs in this army are green, so having a green Hydra fit into the army look for me.
How much does it cost to get something like this painted? It's complicated, because the painting service requires a larger order than just two Hydra models, you have to consider the cost of mailing the figures to them, plus they will charge you freight and insurance to ship them back to you. But, the charge to paint one Hydra model was $8 USD, and the Orc handler was another $2 USD. So $20 USD total for two Hydras and two Orc handlers.
If I remember correctly, only the central head-and-neck are molded onto the body; the other heads are separate pieces. I instructed the painters to go ahead and attach the heads before painting, which they did. Two of the heads came loose when they shipped the finished models back to me, but the paint was undamaged, and I easily glued the loose heads back in place.
Here (above and below) you can see the second Hydra. Just by gluing the heads in different places, you can get a lot of variation between the finished models.
Of course, there's also creativity involved with where and how you place the Hydra Master figure. Is he prodding with his sickle-stick? Is he following behind? Is he leading the way?
Note that if you face the Master toward the Hydra (which seems a normal thing to do), then people will mostly see the backside of the Master rather than the frontside…
Why two Hydras? One is for my Orc army, and the other one I've promised to Editor Julia as reinforcements for her army. Now, how am I going to pack something fragile like this?
