I'm continuing to push the likeness closer and closer to the reference. Thankfully, Lukas Kutschera was able to give me some amazing feedback that really helped push things forward.
Push Pro is a modifier for 3ds Max that pushes vertices outwards or inwards while preventing self-intersections from occurring unlike the standard Push which produces a lot of self-intersections. Surface details are also preserved very well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfE-SVHkg3A Get it from…
Make a box, convert to poly, make some cuts, push vertices to closer represent final form. Repeat cuts and moves until you satisfied with how it looks. Sculpt over it for fine detail. Bake to lowpoly.
my advice would be 1 - smooth, push, move, smooth push, move, smooth... push... move... 2 - bring the mesh to max/maya and move those verts of the base mesh, fix in zbrush after importing it.