Hot glue to fix spears in place

I'm back after a long-planned holiday. After nearly 2 weeks of catching up with anime and other vital things I picked up my Celtiberians project.

This next batch are mostly either from Carthaginian Command or Roman Auxiliary,  both by HaT. Both use the 'open hand' sculpt HaT often uses, and the 'fist with pin' for attaching shields.

I am using Italeri Gaul shields for this batch. They feature raised ornamentation. I use thick dark varnish (which doubles as base coat) to glue the shields onto the pins temporarily, then building-grade pva glue applied with a cocktail stick to lock them on once the base varnish is dry.

The spears are attached using hot glue. Not strictly hot glue, it's 'cool' hot glue designed for delicate craft. My glue gun is a pretty pink: I think the target market might be tweenie girls :)

These 1:72 spears are much more delicate than what the gun is usually used for and the point of the gun burns through a couple. It's still plenty hot! The main risk is that a blob of glue is left and difficult to clean up.

Here's one example:

It's a bit difficult to see but this chap has an extra vambrace of glue just below his hand grip.