I usually make a very reliable armature. However, I recently decided to sculpt a horse. I can tell you this... never... never try to sculpt in paper clay without an armature. I started sculpting the horse head, then the neck. I was just getting the feel of how doing a horse might be. So I wadded up some aluminum foil and sculpted the body. Now I have been sculpting for about 4 or 5 years now and I know better. I started sculpting the legs. Well I now have a horse with broken off legs. I think I am going to cover the whole thing with strip paper mache. That should strengthen them. Of course the whole horse will be more bulky. It is hardly refined yet. I have reattached two of the legs and that is drying.I think I will finish her as she is before I attempt to reconnect the other two legs. I may just have to keep this one, because of not first doing an armature. I just go so carried away with the sculpting. Never again.I had thought of drilling into the legs and the body and inserting a wire armature. But I was worried that the gap between the wire and the paper clay, however slight, might just cause another new problem. So if I drill the legs and insert wooden skewers coated with pva glue, that would eliminated the problem of internal movement. I have talked to several folks about this and they seem to think the horse will survive.
