Well, to start off I created one segment of the body by reshaping a sphere. I then duplicated this shape several times to create the body. To do a deformation on this shape SSP requires that you convert the shape to a poly mesh, so this was done and then a line of bones was laid down within the mesh. This is a bummer as it negates the possibility of animation. So, after the body I created the tail and the head in a similar way.
Shapes are a great way to work, easy to organize.
The spines were created with a path extrude object that is converted to a skin object and then unskinned, the ribs scaled down and then re skinned, this gives the taper. I did not simply apply the hair to the object, generally I'd create a lathed arc that was just the size I needed. I'd then embed this shape in the object such as the foot or the face and use it for the hair object. Keeping this object small I was able to keep my hair count down to a manageable size and it was very easy to reposition. Texturing was a very important aspect of making the model work, but more on that later.