[daikokunyo]

Clay will certainly be more stable. Don't worry too much... you could make the silhouettes rough and don't bother about feature detail, and paint that on later? Make an easy structure and don't bother carving if it's not as easy as painting? Just a suggestion because I've never done anything like this so I'm not one to give advice really but in case it helps.

I really have NO idea for how much stuff goes around here, I'm such a newb I don't even know the rough estimate of how old an item is... how does 4k sound? Please tell me if I'm valuing it wrong.