Thanks - on the re-work of Kai (the first inkling of which is shown above) I've decided to work from the ground (er.. bones) up. I need to shade in the skeleton sketch I have, but then I'll post it then work on muscalature.
Still need to work more on just figures though. I think once I get this design eked out, I'll probably work on were-izing the poses from VP3. Would be good practice with this body template.
-Kai.