Acolytes or Metamorphs, or How to Assemble your Hybrids
First, I just want to note that the main theme that I want to convey is that of "measure twice, cut once", or that of planning and patience. This post is born from my frustration in assembling the Hybrids and hopes newcomers to the faction will find it at least somewhat useful.
Whether you're opening up the Combat Patrol box, or a new box of Hybrids, the first thing you're going to want to do is decide whether you want to build Acolyte Hybrids or Hybrid Metamorphs. There are a lot of bits in this kit. More than you'll even use.
To start, you've got only 5 pairs of legs. Clip them from the sprue, clean them up with a hobby knife. I personally like to also hit some areas with a sanding stick, but this isn't necessary. We're just trying to get the mould lines and clipping nubs cleared off so the model looks nice. Glue the legs to the bases. The robed legs are for the leader, if you're gonna build one.
Now, I'll have you notice there are 6.5 bodies. One of these bodies is for a Metamorph Leader, and has spaces for double-arms on both left and right side. The rest of the bodies don't do this, they have only one double-arm space. The half that's leftover is specifically for one heavy mining tool. So, go ahead and build 5 bodies. Use the Metamorph Leader body if you're building Metamorphs, or assemble one body with the back piece that has an indent where a backpack should be if you're going to build Acolytes with Pistols and want to use heavy mining tools. Glue the bodies to the legs.
Acolytes are the ones with arms that are holding manufactured weapons (the leader arms holding either the bonesword or a lashwhip), whereas the Metamorphs have Tyranid-looking mutated arms (and their leader has an arm-pair that looks like it's crushing a skull). Either unit can have pistols or hand flamers. Acolytes don't mix and match their ranged weapons, so choose flamers or pistols and stick with those. Metamorphs don't have that same limitation, mix and match as you please. Regardless of what unit you're building, I'd like to encourage using flamers because they're cool and a little more useful.
Now, if you went with Acolytes, you've got more options to think about. Pistol Acolytes get the option of including up to 3 heavy mining tools. One of these have a special backpack, so make sure you built that torso. Flamer Acolytes get the option of fielding demo units, sorry, demolition charges (I play too much Warframe, sorry) on 2 of the models. One will have left and right arms that are holding sticks of dynamite, and the other has a satchel in one arm and a remote detonator in the other. And finally, any version of these units can have one model holding their Cult Icon (the banner with the Cult symbol on it).
Okay, so clip out the 5 melee arms for the unit you chose (less one for each heavy mining tool if you're building Pistol Acolytes, ideally take all three; Flamer Acolytes get one less melee arm for each demolition charge model you're taking), and make sure you match up the correct double-arm side of the torso you gave it. Acolyte Leader can have either the Bonesword (on the pair of right arms) or a Lash whip (on the pair of left arms), Metamorph leader has the one set holding a skull (on the left pair).
Pistol Acolytes get their heavy mining tools, if you chose those. There's three of them: one is a rockgrinder, another is an industrial saw, and the third is a mining laser. Rockgrinder goes on the model with the indented torso-back.
Flamer Acolytes get their demolition charges, if you choose. There's two: tnt sticks or satchel bomb.
Either unit now gets their Cult Icon if you're taking that, otherwise attach the chosen ranged weapons to your remaining team, taking care to match up the correct arm to the corresponding single-arm side of the torso.
Heads. There's a lot of them. How do you know what to pick? Well, the Metamorph Leader gets the Genestealer-looking head with a pronounced nose crest (head number 34), and the Acolyte Leader gets the ever-so-slightly-less-Genestealer-looking head with the nose spike (number 33). For the rest? Metamorphs are going to have the blatantly Genestealer looking heads (28 through 32; the ballchinian, squid-head, we-have-klingons-at-home, Temu Alien, and I swallowed an arrow). The heavy mining tools team is gonna get the slightly-humanoid-genestealer heads that have protective gear (visor, goggles, breathing mask, etc). The rest of the "plain-looking" genestealer heads (19 through 27) are gonna be for any of your remaining Acolytes.
And if you have enough legs and torsos, you can make a whole extra group out of whatever you chose not to make!