Beginning of the tails

This is my first time sculpting tails from scratch so we'll see how they will turn out when done. I needed an armature to sculpt the tail around so I found some rather thin steel-wire, pliers, a wire cutter, a lighter and a candle.

I wasn't quite sure on how to attach the tail to the horse but the baking soda and superglue method seemed like a good idea. Only problem was I have neither and I didn't really have an opportunity to buy it so I had to do it some other way.

I twisted the wire so that it would be sturdier and I told myself that the apoxie would stick better to the wire if it was twisted. I then lit the candle and held the twisted wire with the pliers over the candle until it was warm. I then pushed it into the backend of my poor model where I wanted the tail to sit. 

I had some stupid idea that I was going to try and bend the wire a bit after I had attached it. Stupid idea since the wire was still quite hot... Oh well, at least I learnt not to try that again :) 

So instead I let the wire sit until cooled (by then the plastic around the tail had cooled too) and the tail  seemed to sit quite secure.

I then used a few reference photos to help me get the wire in the right position for the tail I was after. When the wire was in the right position I strengthened the attachment with some apoxie, as seen in the pictures. 

I used pretty much the same technique for the paso mare but used a much shorter piece of twisted wire and warmed one end to push into the tail and the other end to push into her bum. I had to be careful while warming up the wire after I had attached it to the tail so I wouldn't melt the plastic on the tail. I put some apoxie to the gap between the bum and the tail to strengthen the attachment.

Unfortunately I noticed that the apoxie had cracked a bit when I unpacked her back at uni so I guess that I have to sand it off and do it again...

Oh well, at least I can start sculpting tails for the rest of them :)