Thanks guys much appreciate the comments! With each piece I'm learning, figuring out stuff.
Here's some pics from the process, never made an sculpting armature quite like this before, worked out great.
I cut slots in a tube, and crimped each pair in....
It made a nice flat profile doing it this way, as opposed to a bundle of wires.
I sculpted & baked the legs in pairs to preserve detail when handling such a small thing.
I then sculpted the body, baked, then added the tail. The clay is a mix of pink super sculpey, firm super sculpey, and premo black. Seems to work for me.
Thanks.