Spears!

Finally got the weapons added to my test levy:

I painted the spears and then used the Army Painter Dark Tone Ink Wash to shade them. I could have brushed on the Quickshade varnish, but I only have the Testor's Dullcote spray and didn't want to have to spray down the whole miniature again just for the spears. I guess I should get some brush-on matte finish, but this seemed to work fine.

Since I had already painted the hands I used an X-acto to scrape off the paint inside the hand and a bit of the spear to get a good metal-to-metal bond. I followed advice I'd read somewhere that suggested a drop of green stuff (I used the GW liquid greenstuff) along with a drop of super glue to set the spears. Seems to have worked a charm. I haven't really man-handled them yet, but they seem plenty sturdy.

As I had to go back and touch up the hands with my trusty Barbarian Flesh, I figured why not try a little dry brush highlight on the faces? So I did a bit very gingerly on the face of one of the levy. It looks pretty good. I have to say, it really livens the little guy up after that bath in grey grunge. I'm still not entirely confident in my ability not to screw the figures up at this stage so I don't want to go too crazy with highlights, but I can certainly see the benefits of it.