Nutcracker Soldier Mk. 2 - Part 1

My first attempt at making a mini traditional Christmas nutcracker soldier was, in my opinion, only moderately successful. My main frustration was the way I made the hair. The crazy fluffy albino 'afro'  just didn't work for me as it was hard to attach, lost it's shape easily and would be easy to pull out again...

So I put this project on the shelf and had a bit of a think how I might improve the look.

Well, I'm having a second go and this time I'm making a solid hair-piece out of my old favourite sculpting medium - Milliput. I've been looking at different versions of the nutcracker soldier and some have been made with solid hair rather than the fake fur hair versions...

Of course, these are 'fake' nutcrackers - or rather, they are stylised versions of the traditional wooden nutcracker soldiers - which is why they have 'solid' hair integral to the model. The real Christmas Nutcrackers have fake fur hair that's meant to represent the powdered wigs worn by 18th century soldiers. But at the scale I'm working on, I'd prefer the solid 'hair-piece' painted white...The fluffy hair was just too crazy-looking for me.

The question is now, do I follow through and do the facial hair the same way? I'm beginning to think that beards would look great made with Milliput. BUT, they maybe a little hard to do at this scale because of the way I am stylising the nutcracker's mouth. So it maybe solid hair but painted-on beards or moustaches.

Next: I work on the hats - with their hanging strings - and begin the painting.