Drakespawn Knight part questions

[Overread]

So I want to use the heads off cold-ones instead of the War Hydra's default heads - since the cold one heads already have scale effects and are about the right size and hold far more detail and teeth than the default Hydra heads.

 

So first up I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good bitz stores in the UK (or europe or usa with good postage costs to the uk). I've done some googling but the ones I can find basically list nearly everything as out of stock (which isn't encouraging to consider how long it might take to get one kit in, let alone 6).

Secondly I'm wondering how many coldone heads come in the normal box. I ask because I've seen the "leader" head listed separately on one or two sites which makes me wonder if there are 5 heads or 6 in the box.  Whilst it is a waste as a consumer to buy new boxed sets just for the heads alone, it's good to be aware of the maximum potential cost when costing up buying parts alone (esp with postage and packaging costs as well). At least then I know if I were paying basically the same as just getting the whole box. 

Finally I wonder if there are any other alternative heads or 3rd party head sculpts that could be used instead of the cold-one heads from GW. I know there's a few hydra out there, but I'm not as aware of any suitable heads alone (most heads I find are for human/bipedal creatures) 

[Kronos]

Mierce do some great Hydra's. More importantly they also do a fair amount of bits on their range, have a look through as some of the Hydra heads are available separately as bits.

Kythons Range

Hydra

Another Hydra 

Another other Hydra

Suitable head bits.  more of the same

[syph0n]

I know I have a couple of spare heads from two boxes, but I made my cold ones up such a long time ago I couldn't tell you what came spare. My feeling is probably only 1 per box spare, so you can make up a none leader box. The hydra heads are significantly bigger though I think, honestly don't think they'd match having recently built a hydra up. Maybe you've tried though, so fair play. 

[Overread]

I've seen the old metal hydra done with the coldone heads 

www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?161116-Lord-Azoth%B4s-Dark-elves-Painting-Log/page6

Though the metal was a bit smaller than the new plastic on the neck area;  though the cold one heads look a touch large on that conversion so I was hoping that on the plastic they'd size up better. It's more about thickness of the head than length, so long as the head has the right thickness it should work. 

[syph0n]

I've got the old, old metal Hydra and you're right, the new cold one heads are probably about right size wise. I thought I could perhaps convert it to a a Kharybdyss with the spare parts from the new hydra but they're much bigger than the model. 

The previous metal Hydra had a giant set of pointy heads and was probably similar in size to the newest one.