I have finished painting the Hydra which, as in the Ray Harryhausen Jason and the Argonauts, guards the Golden Fleece. This Wargames Foundry model is very much based on the one from the film. The model comes in several parts for the body, plus separate heads but did need a bit of filling on the joins. In the different versions of the legends the fleece was guarded by a dragon or serpent that never slept and whose teeth, when sown, would turn into warriors.
In the original Greek myths the Hydra lurked in Lake Lerna, the entrance to the underworld. The number of heads it had varied from account to account and, later, a regeneration aspect was added so that if one head was cut off two would grow back. In the end Heracles was sent to kill it as his second labour and succeeded by cutting off the heads and cauterising the stump, preventing head re-growth. So it can do double duty as part of the Labours of Heracles.
