How do you make figures look less shiny and stiff?

On the shine, the usual culprit is the molding itself. Even after varnish, that plasticky gleam often survives because the surface is smooth as glass, so the light bounces straight off it. I do a two-step job on mine. First a thin coat of matt varnish or even brushed-on matt paint thinned right down, then once that's dry I hit them with a very light dusting of matte spray from further back. Faces get a dot of flesh tone over the factory paint because the moulded colour always looks like a painted doll otherwise. If a figure still looks glossy after that, I leave it, because at normal viewing distance nobody can tell anyway.

On the pose question, it depends what they're moulded from. The softer plastic ones can sometimes be gently warmed in hot water and re-bent a bit at the arms or legs, but the harder ones just snap, ask me how I know. Cutting them apart at the waist and regluing works too, though my first attempt ended up looking like he'd lost an arguement with a level crossing barrier. For the twenty figures, I'd say spread them out unevenly. I model a goods yard so I only need a couple of shunters, but when I visit layouts the crowded bits are always where people actually gather, the platform, the crossing, and empty in between. Twenty along six feet all spaced evenly would read as odd to me, but bunched in twos and threes it'd look right.

On the count, I stopped worrying about it once I noticed my eye only picks up the clusters anyway. I've got a platform that's probaly too busy and a stretch of country line with just a farmer leaning on a gate, and both look right. The trick I stumbled on was giving every figure a reason to be there togather. Twenty blokes standing alone looks like a queue to nowhere, but a mix of walking, sitting and chatting reads as a village getting on with things. Squint at it from across the room, if a figure doesn't earn its spot when blurred, out it goes.

Repainting from scratch was the thing that changed mine. Bought a cheap set of fine detail brushes for somthing else entirely, tried redoing one figure's face with them and never looked back. The factory paint on those little heads is basicly a smear, but a couple of tiny dots for eyes and a line of colour round the middle does more than any amount of varnish on top. Takes me five minutes a figure now while I'm waiting for glue to dry on something else. Faces are the only bit I bother with though, coats and trousers ussually survive the box as they are.

I'd push back on the 'leave it, nobody can tell' bit. Under layout lighting that shine sticks out like a sore thumb, especially if you've got any spotlights or a low evening sun angle across the scene. I found one thin coat never killed the gleam on mine, it took two or three thin ones before the plastic finally stopped catching the light. And I'd disagree about the viewing distance too, because you spend half your life with your nose pressed against the fascia anyway, admit it. If a figure still shines after proper coats, my suspicion is the varnish went on too thick and went glossy again as it dried.