Defenders of the Glade - Sabertooth cat Wild and mount (WIP)

Hello everyone!

-- Update November 19--

Added more detail to the body and to the face. 

In the pictures, I have added a Closeup of the face and the props that you will be able to glue on the finished model. I also added a picture of the body, changed a few parts, and added a few hair clumps.

I wanted to create something between a Phanter and a Tiger but, the truth is that I did not like how it was looking with lots of hair. I am still trying to figure out how much hair I should put. For now, I have added "knee", neck, and cheeks hair. 

This is the last update until the posing and final render are done. I will now pose the model and move forward.

-- Update November 18--

I have sculpted the Shoulder pads, Bags, and sleeping bag and adjusted a few other parts. Changed the color of the Cat body, to me it looked better than white/grey. 

I think it was completely unnecessary but I have added details to the saddle.

Now I will be moving to the Moon shoulder pad, Front paw armor and then I will finish the head and Helmet. After that, I will be ready to pose and finish sculpting.

-- Update November 17--

I started to block out the shapes of the armor. 

In defenders of the Glade I never really spoke but my idea was to make an Elven Outpost, where everything would have a bird shape, I began sketching the Cat armor using this idea but as I progressed in blocking out shapes I gave up on this, I was going to make a Bird helm for a cat... 

The colors are not final, they are just to guide me during my block out.

I will be making 2 head options for this, Open mouth and closed plus one extra with long tusks to be Troll proxy. 

Side Bags, Sleep roll, moon, and Shield will be optionally printed to be glued on the model. Once I make the sentinel I will add the MGlaive to also be glued.

-- Update November 15 --

I have adjusted slightly the length of the cat's torso and neck, increasing just a tiny bit. Repositioned the saddle to a more stable pose. Marked the muscles.

Regarding the Cat design, I have settled on a more bulky cat like a tiger (also closer to W3), I am still going to reduce the shoulders a bit more, to give a better frontal silhouette.

After I'm done with muscles and proportions I will begin the saddle and armor. Once I have that I will go into posing and sculpting the Cat body.

For the head, I had the idea of making a positive ball joint on the neck and a negative ball joint on the head. This will be very useful in the case of making more head options for the cat (Like open mouth and closed, helm options also). I will see if I can pull this out. 

For poses, I think I will go with the classic crawling and a more aggressive running stance.

What I haven't decided yet is about fur, if I make a furry or without furs, I still have time to decide on this because I will only add furs after the posing and body sculpt.

--End of Update--

Today I have finished the last archer from the Archer pack and also finished the discarded pose to create a fourth random hooded archer (Since it was there I just had to change a few things and it was ready, better than discarded). Both versions are test printing now, probably they will be available tomorrow.

While they are printing I decided to start searching for references and block out the main shapes and proportions for the Sabertooth cat. As you can see in the picture it's in the early stages and a lot of things can change. Above him, it's my Night Elf body block out and a temporary saddle, he is above a 50.8mm round base.

What do you think? Should I change something about scale or some other proportion?

I will be uploading a new WIP as I progress on this sculpt in this post.

Best regards,

Ivo