Swallow Riders: news from the workbench 4

Hello There and thanks for checking in!
Today we have a quick update from the work bench. I've been able to find a few hours in between studying for finals.

First we have the Swallows. They are nearly done.

They are nearly done, and I am very excited. These are the first two birds I have ever sculpted and there were a handful of lessons learned, some outstanding puzzles that I still need to figure out as well ... and lots of mistakes. I tried to make their necks the right size for gnomes to sit atop, lining things up just so before I added texture, but there is still a garish gap, so this means the Swallows will be getting some saddles and tack. On top of that, even though swallows tuck their tiny feet into their feathers, I still need to sculpt some feet onto the bottom.

Next we have even more gnome riders to augment the 8 poses we already have.

First up we have the female apprentice illusionist. Her conversion is relatively simple from the original on foot version. I sculpted some riding legs, raised her left hand, lowered the staff, and got rid of her ponytail. She's also gained a pouch to cover up an area that didn't come out as I would have liked.

Next we have the heroine clad in mail. She was a very simple conversion, I simply cut one of the mounted spearmen gnomes in half and took his legs and did the opposite to the heroine on foot. I then sculpted a belt between the two halves and added a pouch to cover up an area I didn't like. 

Moving right along, we have the elder illusionist. This conversion work was a bit trickier. In order to make the model a bit more interesting I opted to pose her riding sidesaddle. This meant sculpting little legs and redoing all of the cloak work below the waist. I also removed the pipe as it felt odd to smoke while she rode. I then added a sack to cover up an area I didn't like (but I think it also acts to counterweight the model a bit and make it fit on the fox mounts a little better.)

Finally, I have added a fifth mounted gnome armed with a spear and lightly armored. This was another easy conversion. I cut a spearman in half, sculpted riding legs, gave him a longer hat, a mail coif, and then rejiggered his beard a bit. For some reason he came out feeling a tad big, but not beyond reasoned tolerances. I felt this pose was necessary because the other rider poses weren't quite aggressive enough, and another pose did not fit neatly on the first two swallows (spear running into the wing) so I felt this would give more variation.

Feel free to leave comments on how I can improve or what else you'd like to see in our growing line of gnomes.