Your approach of doing similar sounding articulations that are actually different recordings can be used well, especially with solo instruments (such as horn which I remember using - for example with short portato on hn 2 against staccato on hn 1, or vibrato legato hn against non-vibrato legato hn).
However, a more CPU friendly approach is to use the same articulations, but do a pitch shift and transposition. That is best done up a half or whole step in transposition, and down in the same in pitch shift. This way, you double the number of players but it is much lower amount of CPU/RAM useage.
There was some concern voiced here this would interfere with the Dimension recording technique, but actually, as long as you do it for all 8 players (or 6 in violas and cellos) equally, then you will be able to do the exact same doubling of players used with non- Dimension instruments such as Appassionata strings, 2nd clarinet (non-vibrato - ha-ha!) etc. because they have the same interaction of solo vs. ensemble within each transposed group.