This is an army request from a client, not one of my own, but I really really like the idea of it, and just had to post it. I like the stealthy look of the armor and the bluish grey next to the dark angels green. This is an example of making the scheme and theme fit your fluff, as it is a dark angels force in terms of list. Here is what he had to say:
I was inspired by the reference to the "pale horse" or "pale rider" from the Book of Revelation in the Bible where "pale" is meant to describe a sickly green, deathlike appearance. Simply put, the vehicles in this army should be painted in this palette. I'm imagining a ghostly, Nurgle-esque scheme where, while not organic themselves, the bikes and vehicles would take on the "pale" appearance of dead, decaying mounts. The one exception to the this scheme are the dreadnoughts. They should more closely resemble the scheme for the Marines, though being piloted by the grievously injured, I can see them having some elements of the Bikes and Speeders carried over. I trust you to make subtle and intuitive choices with them.
The Marines are/were/might be/might have been elements of a Dark Angels force. They could be living, dead, avatars of the Emperor's wrath or something else entirely. I will be using as little Imperial iconography as possible to add to that air of mystery. You're probably familiar with the color palette of the Dark Angels but, if not, they originally wore black armor changing to all green, the Deathwing becoming bone and the Ravenwing retaining the original black. I'd like to combine a bit of all of these without getting too muddled or too crazy with colors. There's a Vallejo color called Black Green. I'd like something close to it to be the primary color of the armor with elements of bone and black. Any exposed flexible piping can similar in color to the vehicles. The inset of the left shoulder pad, where possible, can be Dark Angels Green.
Most of the Marines will be helmeted but the few that are not should have paler skin tones. They're exactly dead but not exactly healthy either. You can mix skin tones freely. I don't discriminate. 8-) I'd like all helmet lenses to be and emit a hellish, orange glow as well. Details that are skeletal should be bone colored. Anything that represents a wing or wings should be black. Hopefully that will contrast with the armor enough. There are a few robed models in the army. Their robes should be a Rotting Flesh/Bleached Bone combo. Weapons are utilitarian tools and should be colored as such. I'm guessing boltgun metal is best. Regardless of armor Mark, the entire army should have a battle-proven/weary/ancient/ghostly appearance.
The bases I'm using are as seen here: http://www.sciborminiatures.com/en_,shop.php?art=636
Referencing back to the Dark Angels and "The Rock", the stone portions should be that dark basalt coloration. The daemons oozing forth (as in Revelation: ..."and hell followed with them.") can be ghostly, hellish, what have you
Can't wait to paint this one! I'm thinking a nice dusty black with some blue in it for the armor, the PP Coal Black for the wings. For the bikes and vehicles, Traitor green but I will likely bring it up to a rotten flesh/bone color.
