How about a thumb pin like this? Â
Pretty tough? Â Not really! Â Start with your basic cylinder with about 172 by 100 divisions:
Now a little masking using Ctrl-drag:
Invert  (ctrl-tap outside the model) and inflate (Deformation subpallet):
Now for some stripes. Â On the masking subpallet, Mask All, and then set sel and skip to 3 and 8. Â Hit Col for a nice striped mask:
Let’s restrict to our inflated area plus a nice little edge:
Pretty good, but I like ’em all twisty on thumb grips. Â Grab and invert a quick selection:
And Twist a couple of times (Deformation subpallet):
A quick mask and deflate on the body, add a texture, and it’s done:
Time to model, about 3 minutes.