Satoshi Kamiya's Sleipnir Cp: base done, now what?

[Mythos]

So, as part of a first foray into the realm of crease patterns, I've decided to attempt Satoshi Kamiya's Sleipnir ( http://www.folders.jp/g/2001/0113.html ) and after several days of trying to figure it out and several of what I believe have been humorously termed "origami rocks" I've managed to collapse the base. Now my problem is that i have no idea what I should try next in order to finish the model.
Thusfar, I've identified which parts of the base are the head, legs, tail ect. but I don't know how I should go bout getting them in the right places.

And so I arrive at several ideas...and that seems to have lead me here.
1.) just start folding! eventually i'll hit on something that works....but it just seems too chaotic, i get the feeling that senseless folding will not help me
2.) go fold a few horses (probably from diagrams) and see if there's any way i can apply that to Sleipnir
3.) go find some simpler Cps....but I've looked at a bunch of them and even if it turns into just practice I'd like it to be something that actually appeals to me, not to speak ill of a large portion of origamis out there, but my current fancy is Sleipnir, or failing that some kind of insect, or dragon, or something equally awesome (but those look even more complex that what I'm currently working with!!)
4.) give up. (a perfectly valid option, but one that i would really rather not have to take)

And on that note I ask: How does one go about getting the base to look like the model?

[origami_8]

I'd vote for one or two.
ad 2) You needn't fold horses only, you can fold whatever model you like, just to get ideas about shaping techniques.

[Kafar]

the best option would be folding and knowing as much models of the author as possible - authors (like Satoshi Kamiya) uses multiple time the same folds ( f.e. Ancient Dragon toes - Wizard fingers - Ryujijn claws - Rooster cockscomb, etc. )
What can you help in finding the way of shaping - having tons of pictures of finished model from different angles.