I think the head is what is throwing the overall design off... Maybe one of the Cyclops heads from the XMC line (slightly modified?) would help reach the desired affect?

Okay, this feels like a pretty lazy custom. Sure, the Judge Dread figure does have a few similarities with Paladin, but to just repaint it to me doesn't feel enough to turn it into that character, like when you make a custom I've always thought "as long as others can recognize the custom as the character it's good enough" (which is a bad guideline because it can look like the character and still not be good), but this figure I would never guess it's Paladin.
Go ahead and tell me if I'm too tough on you. I don't know how old you are, if you're 10 (which I don't think) it's completly understandible that you might not be able to resculpt the figure to look more like Paladin, but if you're over 20, maybe you should try and get some sculpting material and try it out a bit.
My customs started getting much better after I got some Aves products.