Howdy all!
Okay; the photo turned out craptastic. But I finished up and dipped the British sailors I've got here (a buddy of mine is clipping the bases off another group of them for me... nothing like an antique bone clipper to get the job done!) and frankly, in person they look AWESOME. They are definitely dark, but I think that will look nice in the diorama itself... I'll just have to be sure that the ship itself isn't too light colored, making the guys really stick out.
I'm also going to play a bit with the light in the display, and using the figures around it to help show off the light and dark... the parts of the figures that are in shadow will be painted a bit darker, and the parts in the light will be given a nice light highlight to show it off. I won't actually be doing object source lighting, but...
Anyway... more updates as I have more done!