More colour variation? Hmm, I dunno. I\'m quite happy with the pallette, I think more colours would be counter-productive (bear in mind that these are army minis).
I take your point about the hilites though. My current method for my marines involves more stark hilites on the flames, but less stark on the black (I use 50/50 shadow/codex for the final black hilite nowadays). I think these could use a black wash on the armour, \'cos pure codex grey is too graphic.
The robes aren\'t quite so lack-lustre in real life, but my camera and photo skills let me down a bit there.
I\'ll get some pix of my latest marines for you tommorrow.