I am going to collect a small army of about 1000 points of Dark Elves but the problem is I don't know what colour scheme to paint them.

It doesn't matter what colour they are, as long as it isn't too dumb of a colour scheme. I would like 3 posts of different colour schemes so that I can do tests on 3 Dark Elf models that I own.

Any help is appreciated

Golden Yellow for light stuff, Regal Blue for dark stuff, and of course, Chaos Black. I love Regal Blue - it's what I use for my Shadow Warriors. Nambulis has been nice enough to let me borrow it. B)

Boltgun metal highlighted with chainmail for the armour, with bronze edging.

Purple for the coats

red warpaint on the witch elves- just paint a red band over their eyes, it looks pretty cool

Liche Purple and Scaly Green look pretty good together. Use Chainmail for metal areas, and a bit of black doesn't hurt the appearance, either.