Golden Demo 40k Squad

I painted up a squad for the Golden Demon two years ago and did not win (although they earned a finalist pin). The five models I entered took me a painfully long time to paint and I still don't have the energy to try painting up a whole squad again. Instead, I'm going to give this squad a makeover and try again. I believe I made two significant mistakes with the squad the first time. The first mistake was the use of gloss varnish and the second mistake was insufficient "wowness."

I normally spray all of my freshly painted models with gloss varnish to provide a durable protective coating that I then over coat with a less durable but matte, dull coat spray. In the past, this dull coat layer was enough to remove the shiny look but not this time. Successive layers of the dull coat have proven unsuccessful :-( Nevertheless, I have strong plans for fixing the "wowness" issue. If you've heard me rant on this issue before, you can probably guess that I mean more contrast and bolder hardlines. Below is one of the models that received the wowness makeover.
The image on the left is before the makeover. The middle image is after the first round of hard lines and highlights. The hardlines came our really rough, so I spent several more hours on the squad smoothing them out. Additionally, I added more highlights to the greens and painted runes on their forehead. I like the results (minus the irremovable shine).