Honestly, the more realistic look was what I was after when I started the force. I was reading a lot of the Foregworld painting books and adopted the weathering and painting tecniques from that. It wasn't until I had the army pretty much done and on the display board that I realized that the scheme just didn't have the impact I was hoping for. Honestly it was my mistake, I should have just picked a brighter scheme to begin with, I was just looking for something different (my last army was imperial fists, which are pretty much as bright as it gets).
Despite my wanting a darker army, I'll probably go back and brighten all the reds and change the base color to something that will provide better contrast.