Forge World Hydra - Build Guide

In this post I’m going to try to help you go from the bag on the left to the model on the right quickly and easily.

This could be a very offputting kit if you are an inexperienced modeller or if this is your first hydra. but it needent be, a few simple fixes for some of the kits issues will see you autocannoning your opponents into dust in no time.

What you’ll need:

• clippers
• scalpel
• file
• sculpting tool
• clay shaper
• glue
• greenstuff
• plasticard
• lube
• a hairdryer

The first thing is to use the hairdryer to turn the badly warped cannon you can see in the bag into the much straighter cannon you see before you.

Heat the part, one bend at a time with the hairdryer until it becomes pliable and bend it into shape, let it cool and viola. repeat as many times as needed and in small bends untill it looks spot on.

 

Next, assemble the chimera chassis to this point, its worth noting here that this is my first time building the “new” chimera and wow is it an easy kit. brilliant!

 

Attach the hydra top plate to the back piece, creating two sub-assemblies, this can take some fenegling and the pieces may need some heat to reduce warping.

 

Its important to note here which chimera back peice I have used and that I have removed the two big locating studs. this makes the rear panel fit much better imo.

 

Glue the two sub assemblies together. You can now begin to see why I say this isn't a beginners kit, even unwarped and assembled carefully the kit is flawed.

 

But the back seems to fit okay.

While that sets up, assemble the guns. please take pains to ensure that the barells are level with each other.

For this model I’ve decided to add the crewman you can see, simply because on the FW website he looks so comfy in the hydra :)

 

Time to dress the chassis. I’ve gone for heavy bolters here and the usual hatches

 

I did however decide to shave down the internal ring on the cupola so it would sit flush to the hull, I felt this helped the profile of the tank and didnt distract from the turrets.

 

All the panels and hatches in place.

 

The first stage of dealing with this awful holes is to glue some plasticard in place. just sit it inside the seam and run some glue down.

For ease, leave a log strip until the glue is set, then trim off.

The tracks on this generation of chimera couldn't be easier.

 

Just clip off and lay them out for ease of planning. (make sure the track direction is consistent on both sides)

 

And there you go. beats the old one hands down.

 

The its time to infill those holes, and to run some weld seams into any other gaps.

 

Start with a sausage

Flatten and smooth until happy.

other small gaps can either be invisibly mended or run in GS and roughly smooth into ridges to resemble weld seams.

 

There we have it, two Hydra. If I wanted to add more detailing I could do that now, but I’m feeling these as a fairly basic pair, I’m going to let the turrets do the talking.

Next up for assembly, another elysian squad. these guys are getting grenade launchers, which will be harder than the plasma, and the sgt is going to be a real headscratcher as I cant have both elysian sarges have mechanical arms.

The problem is twofold, theres no fat at all ont he squad, no spare bits, and the elysian codex (therefore kit) gives the sgt a lasrifle, which we cant do with the new IG codex.

I’m sure I’ll work something out, stay tuned to see what :)