U.N.E. paint them clean or dirty?

Hi, new guy to the forum but have had the game since 1st printing.

So I've been itching to get Legions of Steel back to the table and film a play through on youtube. I have not played in years and had originally given all the miniatures the bare minimum of a paintjob so it was definately time for an upgrade. I gave them all a bath in simple green and set to work. I was really quite inspired by style of the Legions of Steel PC game.

I attempted my machines in a more clean style (fresh of production) and internal red glow (assuming from some kind of reactor that powers them) just like the ones in the promotional shots for the video game.

I still think the models hold up, even if the Assault Fiend seems a bit more like a living creature with the belt pouches and more fleshy bulk.

I'm still thinking what to do for bases as the figures are attached already will make it challenging. I considered some kind of marking to show facing and also I think i'll try and stencil or decal M1 through M10 on the base surfaces like it is a sector marking or something, but use it as a way of identifying them rather than on the models themselves.

I'm working on my UNE now, again inspired by the art from the video game I slightly converted the figures and adopted a similar scheme.

Here they are with the basic colours blocked out, before washing/detailing.

I find myself at bit of a crossroads and stumbled across this forum while searching. So I figured I'd ask for opinions from the experts.

Firstly I'm a bit nervous trying to freehand text or symbols on the shoulder pads as I'm not the greatest painter. So I found some old GW space marine transfers and thinking of putting a SpaceWolves wolf head on 4 of the squad, and the dark angels Winged Sword of the other 4. Also number each set of 4 from 1-4 with decals next to the symbol. Using the GW stuff isn't totally ideal, so was wondering if anyone had any other ideas for a simple (and achievable at my level) approach.

Secondly I need to decide whether I try and keep them clean looking or dirty them up. I had considered doing a burnt umber oil wash over them to make them look much more battleworn. I figure the machines are straight off the production line, but these commandos are grizzled veterans. Maybe they shouldn't look so clean.

PS - I wish I had found this site earlier as the painting guide would have been super useful.

Also the new sculpts for the new edition look awesome. Moved it more away from Terminator look alikes but still very menacing. The floor tiles are obviously a big upgrade too. Nice work and look forward to picking up a copy when I'm in a position to.

Okay apologies for the novella, just excited to get back into it.