I missed this thread until now. Fantastic! Back when you were considering adding more black... I would have said that you could paint the body a dark color (even black) and then dry brush a lighter color on top of that, to make highlights. So only the deeper groves would stay dark, making them look more recessed and in the shadows.
But really, that doesn't even matter with the lighting you have for night time display. The lights cast a lot of shadows on the bodies, because they have so much texture. So that's perfect! The style of of the face and head are also great. I hope to make one (or more) of these one day.
