Trojans, Greeks and... skeletons?

Ahoy!

All the models that need basing for the TrOY! game are now based. The basing actually did help to make the cheap plastic toys look less like cheap plastic toys than they originally did, so good news there. The bad news is that they are still pretty cheesy looking. Not too cheesy for this crowd, which is good, but still, I am tempted to touch them up a bit.

Here are a couple of snaps of representative examples.
These nearly-identical photos differ primarily in their angles. The first is from head-on, the second from slightly above. I did this primarily for the figure second-from-the-right, as he is leaning back a bit for reasons I can only imagine are lost to the "sculptor's" imagination.

For TrOY!, the red figures will be the Trojans, and the blue the Greeks. The skeleton in the middle is for the "Hydra's Teeth" card, a nod to Harryhausen to be sure (Cyclopes not pictured, but he's done, as are Zeus, Ares and Hades). :)

My main reason for posting this is to get Thomas' (or any other clever painter sort's) feedback on how I can make the Greeks/Trojans better IN JUST ONE OR TWO STEPS - I.E. THE LEAST AMOUNT OF WORK POSSIBLE. I know what I can do to make the skellies better, but since they are card based and there is no guarantee they will make it into the game, I am less inclined to spend time on them at this point.

Things I'm considering:

1. Painting the Greeks' armor and shields bronze (in lieu of the current silver color).
2. Painting all the spear hafts brown.
3. Ignoring the problem entirely, since we are likely to play this game a handful of times at the most anyway.

There are 24 figures for each side, not including heroes and a few special troops that are not pictured above. The problem with option #1 is that redoing all the Greek's armor will be time consuming, and I still need to paint the two Greek ships, the mat, and the Patroclus and Boagrius figures. Option #2 is a bit problematic as the spears are cast in REALLY SOFT plastic. I know the white glue trick works well, but these are so flexible that it may not work here. Perhaps a quick test case is in order.

Anyway - !FEEDBACK POR FAVOR SIL VOUS PLAIT! The game is two weeks from today, and I am simultaneously working on the Marengo battle and a few odds and ends for Stalingrad too. It's a busy holiday season! Hope I can find time to put up the Christmas tree...

Cheers!

- Rod