Persian Diversion

I should be painting the last few remaining units to complete my 10mm Macedonian/Successor however I have drifted a bit in my focus. This always seems to happen at this stage of a project for me. As an example, I'm still staring at the last few partially painted government units for my 6mm Killiecrankie project. 

Anyway, I decided to paint up a unit of Persian levy who will ultimately be facing that Macedonian army. I just wanted to paint something different. 

I chose soft, dirty pastels for these guys. They don't look particularly "martial" in their appearance which is probably appropriate looking at their stat lines for To The Strongest. I suppose I'm happy with how they came out but the inking process left them a little "dirty". 

Here is the same unit from the rear. Getting back to that inking process and the dirty effect it left....i typically gloss varnish after painting and then let the varnish cure for a day before inking. For the longest time, I used Testors gloss varnish and it always seemed to cure hard and handle the ink wash well. Recently I've been using Vallejo acrylic gloss varnish (my hobby shop was out of Testors). I feel like the Vallejo varnish absorbs some of the inking to make the figures look dirtier. Perhaps it needs longer to cure than the Testors? I don't know....all that I know is that I need to finish that Macedonian army.