Newbie looking for painting advice

Fairly new player here looking for some feedback/tips and help with a colour scheme.

Thanks to yourselves, various podcasts and some friends I am well and truly hooked. So far just with painting but hopefully soon I'll manage to get some games in. In the mean time I picked up a cygnar battle box, shortly followed by a troll warpack.

Cygnar WIP: http://imgur.com/a/UdRtw (sorry for the phone quality pictures)

I'm pretty happy with my progress but even with attempting some highlights / washes by jacks are looking a bit flat. I over did the charger (too bright) and had to rework him so he is just flat blue for now, but now I think I'm being to restrained with the ironclad. Any suggestions?

Also any general criticism is more than welcome :)

As for the trolls, I'm not convinced I want to go with the standard scheme so I've been hunting for alternatives, there are some nice red and even grey schemes out there. I've used an old warhammer orc as a quick test (4th pic above) Was hoping to do red with grey/black details for spikes etc. but I'm not sure if all the silver/grey/brown would just all run together on a table top.

Not sure if I want maybe a couple of different tones of leather? brighter metals? some yellow or orange for a light underbelly? coloured cloth instead of leather? or just a different approach?