New Dark Elves Hydra - Unboxed and first looks

So the Courier arrived a little early with some goodies...

I got to unboxing straight away

The Hydra kit comes on two large sprues, just like the Black Dragon kit

I took a close look at the Hydra heads since there has been so much nerd rage about them

  As I thought the scales are just over highlighted on the Eavy Metal paint jobs

If you take a close look, you will see needle link teeth in the mouths of the heads. They look very sinister and I think is a brilliant deviation from massive fangs everywhere.

 The only way to kill a hydra is to cut off all its heads

 So I just glued them all on again...

The model is very dynamic

 A different angle of the heads for all those haters out there

I plan on building a much larger rock for the Hydra to be climbing on. I think this is the main thing people do not like about the model. The rock is very tiny that it is climbing on.

 More heads of the hydra. The model is a little bigger than the Black Dragon, of course sans wings.

One final close up. You can see the needle teeth here along with the variations in all the heads. This is a very nice model in my opinion. 

So next up we have some of the new warriors.

Small box, so pricey...

 Upon opening we find two different sprues, instructions and nice surprise...

 A full transfer sheet. Nice. Positive side here is we don't have to buy them separately like the High Elves, but on the down side the shields included in the box all have moulded skulls on them. Fail Games Workshop! Guess they want us to buy the plain shield upgrade pack...

First sprue is the command sprue. All the Elves have the head attached bar one, which you have 3 options for heads.

 All the weapon options are crammed into the two sprues, which is pretty good. Pitty about the cost...

Hopefully the courier brings me more presents tomorrow. I am very keen to build the Cauldron of Blood. 

My conclusion is the hydra looks alot better in person than it does in the White Dwarf and Army Book pictures. There is some alternative pictures in the army book with different colour schemes which vastly improve on th cover art. 

The warriors have a lot on the sprues compared to most other ten man kits for core. All the heads are molded on and have flowing hair down the backs, so while it is possible to do head swaps as I plan, you will need to be prepared to shave/greenstuff over this.

I am looking forward to painting the Hydra! I just need to work on how I will base it and increasing the size of the rock it is perched on.