opinions on making SM truly universal for every chapter both specific and bland

I started out with a DA army but am now wondering how much fun it would be to have a bland SM army but I dont want my models to have a million and one paint jobs. whats your opinion have each squad type have a specific paint job or just tell everyone that my Army is a funny color cause I want it to be a funny color... and if so whats the best way to strip paint off your models?

i kinda like the idea of a bolt gun metal and Blazing orange paint job but its a little out there if i wanna run a DA or a BT army however just claim its one of a million different bland SM chapters and it would fit... opinions?

That's the beauty of the concept of the "successor Chapter". Just whip up a name for it and run it as a DA or BT army.

I guess that's true but I also don't see how if they don't have the proper 'ornamentation' they don't really go well with the concept of the armies. but I guess it will be fun to have them be my own colors. marneus augustus calgar will be fun in funny colors though. and an IG matched colors could be fun too bad I couldn't... well actually I could make them a chapter leftover from the heresy ages that showed up after a very, very, very bad jump through the warp

I do this all the time. See my "Eldrad of Biel-Tan" (in green instead of the black Ulthwe) or my red and black Marines Exemplar (counts as Space Wolves, including special SW characters).

It is your army, make it how ever you like.

I've started jokingly calling mine Iron-blood Wolf-knights, cause the paint scheme I use - burgandy and gray (or gunmetal gray) can be used to represent Knights of Blood(Blood Angels), Iron Knights (C:SM), and Space Wolves (ok, its a stretch). I think there is a DA successor chapter too that uses that paint scheme, but I shouldn't have bought that codex... Anyways, point is, I didn't have to make up any of them (not that there is anything wrong with making one) as the colors I like just happened to be in the codexes.

I really hate the sanguinor model, so I use my Emporer's Champion with some Sanguinary guard wings- love that model cause he's like, "you, I am coming to kill you" with his sword. I made a Pedro Kantor from the SM commanders box. I htink I'm going to buy the real models for the SW special characters, though.

I've had 3 separate space wolf armies over the years, and I've never painted a single marine in that hideous baby blue. As long as people can tell what's what, there shouldn't be any problems.

As for stripping paint, if they are metal models with NO plastic parts, commercial spray on paint stripper. If they are plastic an 8 hour soak in Simple Green cleaner, then a toothbrush, rinse and repeat til clean. Pine Sol works too, but it will eventually warp/soften teh plastic. I've had models in simple green a week + with no softening.