Monday 4 December 2017

Shadows of Brimstone Dark Stone Hydra

I recently bought this huge monster, the Dark Stone Hydra, for my Shadows of Brimstone game. I was able to buy him for a reasonable price on eBay. In the first photo, I have included a figure of a 28mm scale female to give you a clear indication of the size of this monster. He is huge! Any one of those heads could easily swallow a man whole.
Not all creatures that stalk the canyons and mines around Brimstone are from an Other World. When the resonating horde of Dark Stone blew Brimstone off the map, it released waves of Void energy across the land, tainting the earth and mutating man and beast alike. The Dark Stone Hydra is one such creation; a common rattlesnake, found throughout the deserts of the South-west, grown massive by the twisting powers of the Dark Stone.
With multiple hissing heads, spiked Dark Stone shards protruding from its body, and a brutal Dark Stone rattle,these savage beasts are a terror beyond imagining, made all the more frightening by their common appearance throughout the region.
The Dark Stone Hydra is a gigantic and terrifying beast. It is not only massive, but also fast and deadly as it strikes, slithering between models to change targets and snapping with all of its fanged heads. The Dark Stone radiation that taints this creature also exudes from its body, corrupting those that stray too close, and its ability to regenerate damage offsets the fact that it loses power as you cut off its heads.
This figure came in ten parts, not including its 50mm diameter base. The assembly instructions for it were clear and precise. It went together very well. I copied the colour scheme for it from the box art, but I painted my Dark Stone rattle and shards in gloss black instead of purple. It is a most impressive model and the sculpting and pose of it is first rate. There are a few of these currently available for sale on eBay, with the cheapest being offered for just £20.

22 comments:

  1. Nice looking model Bryan, reminds me of the old spock model kit from back in the 70's where he came up against a three headed snake

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    1. Thanks, Dave. Your memory is far better than mine, but then again, I was never that big a "Star Trek" fan.

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  2. A fearsome beastie at no mistake, Bryan, but clearly not as formidable as Dave's memory - I remember that Spock "AMT" model too, as it always reminded me of the "Aurora" Cro Magnon Woman snap-together kit I used to own where she faced a two-headed snake.

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    1. Many thanks, Simon. I'm afraid the Spock model Dave mentioned must have passed me by because I have no recollection of it. However, I do remember the Cro-Magnon woman you mentioned. How odd!

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  3. That is creepy as hell! Awesome...Very nice brushwork as well Bryan. ;)

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    1. Cheers, mate. I certainly wouldn't want to encounter him in a game or, heaven forbid, in real life!

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  4. Ooooh nice! I'm still waiting for mine to turn up, so I'd not realised quite how big it is!

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    1. As you can see, Paul, it is quite a size. It is just under 70mm tall.

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  5. Well that would scare the living sh*t out of me. I have nothing against snakes but ......

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  6. Excellent addition to the 'monster collection' for your weird west games (and I guess several other genres too) Bryan - though with those stats, it could be quite a "party killer"!!

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    1. Cheers, Greg. It is classed as an Epic Level monster, only to be encountered at the end of a quest. In other words, it's the Big Bad, and it could well be a party killer.

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  7. Superb and most impressive, well done!

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  8. Wow. That's a fantastic paint job. Love the colours on the body and the various shades of pink in mouth in particular.

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    1. Many thanks, Tim. There was a lot of work that went into the painting of this model so I'm really pleased to receive your praise.

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  9. Now that's a big hydra! I've seen a number of such models fail because they can't quite work out what happens when the multiple heads meet the [single] trunk; should the heads/necks be much slimmer than the trunk so as to fit them all or should they be a comparable thickness? This model seems to work well in that respect.

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    1. That's a very good point you raise, Hugh, and I agree that this one works well.

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