How I Sculpt a Tail - Hairing the Tail

So here is the continuation of my previous post on how to sculpt a tail, which covered the basics of creating a tail bone. This post will cover how to create the hair texture.

What You will Need:

• Apoxie
• Sculpting tools (you can use anything from a toothpick to actual tools you buy at art supplies stores for sculpting)
• Water or Rubbing Alcohol
• A soft paint brush
• Your reference photos

First you will need to mix the apoxie evenly. The easiest way to do this is to create two even balls and the kneed together.

Once your apoxie is mixed you want to make a base for the the tail. You need to check out your ref picture to see how thick or thin the tail is. That dictates how thick you can make your base. Some people use painter's tape hardened with super glue and baking soda, but I find that it is to flimsy for my taste.

I usually create the base of the tail front to back
I feel that it gives it a more 3D look

The next thing you want to do is choose your sculpting tools - since the horse I'm using is around the size of a large stablemate, I'm using two toothpicks. Choose your tools according to the scale of your model.

The next thing you want to do is roll your apoxie into thin snakes. Press these snakes onto the base you built in the earlier steps. Vary the length of the snakes in order to create visual interest.

Once you have your snakes secured to your base, start making grooves in the apoxie. Start with deeper grooves, spacing them out randomly. Next start making shallow grooves, always starting from the top of the tail. Vary the lengths to create visual interest.

You may notice that there are little balls of apoxie building up. To get rid of them, and to smooth down the starkness of the hairing detail, by dipping a soft cheap paint brush into rubbing alcohol or water and brushing it up and down the length of the tail. Next brush it side to side to soften the grooves.

Let cure for 24 hours and repeat on the other side of the tail.

The finished product

Congratulations! You just finished making a tail!