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... I'm going to start a Space Marine army. I'm planning on making them White Scars because I loved their HH book.

Any tips or lesson's you've learned regarding painting and modelling SM/White Scars would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I don't know that much about 40k marines. but from what I hear, they can have different colours/markings/decals/whatever depending on what they are (librarian/techmarine/chaplain/big gun dude/jet pack man/whatever) and what squad/company they're in. Is there a comprehensive guide to all these little details because I'd hate to get them wrong.

From wikia:

The right plate shows the Squad Badge, which indicates the tactical specialty of the squad the Astartes belongs to and the number of his squad within his company. Veteran Squads use a Maltese Cross, Tactical Squads use an arrow, Assault Squads use four perpendicular arrows pointing outwards and Devastator Squads use an inverted V. Space Marines in Terminator Armour wear the Crux Terminatus on their left shoulder plate, and their Chapter Badge on their right shoulder plate. A Sergeant's badge of rank is the red skull and is often displayed on the left shoulder. The Codex leaves the display of back banners to the Sergeant's discretion. Space Marine helmets frequently display rank and battle honours, either through colour or insignia. Red helmets, for example, are reserved for Sergeants, whilst a white helmet or laurel design denotes Veteran status. Veteran Sergeants typically wear both colours, incorporating a white stripe down the centre of their helm. Whilst company colours are typically displayed on the trim of a Space Marine’s shoulder guards, they can also be displayed on helmets, chest Aquilas, knee plates or even on the squad markings.

But most people just paint them however they want.

Well, my first tip would be to wait for the SM codex drop in a few days

The latest WD has some neat stuff on chapter markings and such for codex compliant chapters (like white scars). I'm sure many pages of the new codex will be devoted to iconography and heraldry. GW is really big on that with Space Marines and IK. Which is fine by me; heraldry and banners on power armored soldiers was one of the first things that were love at first sight with 40k for me.

I also read (somewhere a long time ago) their scouts use an upside down lightning bolt, and only earn the right to the traditional bolt during ascend to full marine...

 Talys wrote:
Which is fine by me; heraldry and banners on power armored soldiers was one of the first things that were love at first sight with 40k for me.

Yeah, that's what drew me to SM as well, I just love how fleshed out their appearance is.

May I offer some advice and resources on painting/heraldry for you and other resources as well for making your White Scars really unique visually.

First, the standard wiki articles on them: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/White_Scars

And: http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/White_Scars

Great resources for history and fluff. Interesting to note that White Scars Librarians are known as "Storm Seers", cool bit of fluff about them.

Next, painting: (Taken from the second link I posted above)

"Chapter Colours
The White Scars' Power Armour is predominantly white, with red trim. This has only varied slightly since the Pre-Heresy days of the V Legion. Apothecaries of the White Scars have their entire armour painted red save for the backpack, right shoulder and the helmet which are all white and have a red vertical stripe painted down the centre of the helmet. The red-coloured squad specialty symbol (Tactical, Assault, Devastator, or Veteran) is indicated on the right shoulder guard while the Chapter iconography is painted on the left shoulder guard. Squad markings are displayed on the left knee plate. Sergeants also bear the company markings upon their armour's right greave. White Scars Bikers' helmets usually display Chogorian tribal markings.

Chapter Badge
The White Scars' Chapter badge is a stylized red thunderbolt with a horizontal yellow bar behind it, exemplifying their style of combat and echoing the facial Honour Scars all members of this Chapter bear. Members of the White Scars' Scout Marines Brotherhood are permitted to wear the thunderbolt on their shoulder plates, but an obscure piece of Chapter law states they may not have the horizontal bar, an honour only given to full Initiates."

Lastly, Have fun with it! Games workshop sells a White Scars upgrade pack with bits to make a commander bike unique, but you may be able to find a source for round mongol style shields and such from an alternate company and just build something up that's uniquely yours.

I hope this helps, and do keep us posted on progress as you make it!

Take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-