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I'm gonna be starting an SM army soon, and am starting by getting a Space Marine Tactical Squad. I'm merely curious about the contents of the box as the games workshop site is non-too-specific and asking here could save me a car ride to see if the store will tell me XD. I merely wonder what weapon options are available for the Sargeant and if only a Flamer and a Missile Launcher are included or if I have more weapons options. I want to get Tac squads with Multi-Meltas and am on a budget and wonder if I can get these weapons in the box or if I have to find somewhere to buy them separately.

I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask XD

I belive the Tac Squad is like you said:

1 flamer
1 missile launcher
1 chain sword + bolt pistol ( maybe 1 plasma pistol ) for sergent.

It is very lacking compared to the cheap AOBR alternative , would recommend using the money to buy other units. ( devastator )

Yeah, devastator box has the multimelta and the lascannon at least, but as for your standard issue meltagun, idk, they make metal meltagun bitz, or you can glue a round thing to a boltgun barrel. (or buy a sternguard box and use the combi-melta guy as a 'counts as' meltagun marine)

Quoting the Devastator box :

This box set contains five multi-part plastic Space Marine Devastators and eight heavy weapons, including:
a missile launcher, a multi-melta, two heavy bolters, two lascannons and two plasma cannons.

I already have AoBR, but plan on buying several sets this thanksgiving to start my army (Tacticals, Librarian, 2 rhinos, and 2 speeders) I want to use the flamers, but I can get multimeltas and a few spare marines from devastator kits? maybe I'll rework my budget to make room for devastators.

In order for mulitmelta to be effective , they need to be in range for the melta rule.

Since tac / devastator cannot move and fire it , it'll be really hard to benefit from that rule.

Hence the 2 speeder you mentioned you are getting should be the ones geared with multimeltas.

I really think you shouldnt buy the tac marine box because:

Tac Marine Box = $35

AOBR= $75 , for $40 extra you get:

1 dred
1 captain
5 termies

1 ork boss
3 deffkopta
5 nob
20 ork boys

Rule book + accessories .

All the Devastator spare parts can be put on standard SM bodies so you get eight from the box if you sacrifice three of your Tacticals.

I would buy an AoBR, swap the Orks with a friend for his AoBR Marines, buy a Tactical box and a Devastator box, and you've got the core of a decent army right there (except for tanks.)

Kilkrazy wrote:All the Devastator spare parts can be put on standard SM bodies so you get eight from the box if you sacrifice three of your Tacticals.

I would buy an AoBR, swap the Orks with a friend for his AoBR Marines, buy a Tactical box and a Devastator box, and you've got the core of a decent army right there (except for tanks.)

That's more or less my general plan. Thanks for the help .

I thought the SM Tactical box came with MG and PG.

I believe Gornall is right and the Tactical Squad box comes with a flamer, meltagun, and plasmagun.

Ebay is your best bet for Multi-meltas.

I've been going through my codex and after reviewing my budget and going through what I think I can use, I'm probably gonna buy the devastator kit. I can use two of the marines with lascannons and the multi-melta, and whenever equipping my tac squads with these weapons, I can swap their missile launchers into a devastator squad for the long range support. The bonus units will allow me to field a full 1500 point army with the other units I was already intending to buy. Maybe not the best build ever for an army but it's a start and I can work it all in there well under my budget. Which is good, I'm running guess work on how much paint I'll need (and I'm trying saving money by making my army's primary color Chaos Black with limited use of red and gold XD).

How many 12ml tubs of Chaos Black for example would I need to fully paint a tactical squad? That should help me judge how much paint I need to buy? Or is there paint I can use other than the citadel provided paints that can get the job done for less?

Well, first of all you won't need to paint your stuff by hand if it's going to be black. Get some black spray primer. Armory makes a good spray primer that will help a lot. These will lay down a basecoat for your models, which other coats of paint will stick on to.

A black+red+gold color scheme sounds really boring. I've seen tons of this color scheme and it always looks dull. I'll wait to see what you can do with it, but I'm not a fan. Even so, one pot of GW paint will last you a while. I'm still on my first pot of Regal Blue for my Crimson Fists, and I've painted dozens of Marines that color. As long as you don't clump it on in huge, detail-obscuring blobs, you'll be fine.

Brother SRM wrote:Well, first of all you won't need to paint your stuff by hand if it's going to be black. Get some black spray primer. Armory makes a good spray primer that will help a lot. These will lay down a basecoat for your models, which other coats of paint will stick on to.

I was aware of the paint spray but the space to do it is not easily accessible for me. I'd prefer not to start spraying paint in my home XD, nor is the street one I would want to do this on this time of year. I could find the space with a little work if I had too. I know how to paint (I'm no expert but I know how to put down an even coat that won't obscure the details). Is it best for the models to be spray coated for the base or can one be put down with a brush?

A black+red+gold color scheme sounds really boring. I've seen tons of this color scheme and it always looks dull.

Oh I know. I'm actually debating dumping the gold for silver. I was gonna use it for the eagles on the marine's torso and any decor stuff but somehow gold and red on black seems too tacky. Silver in my head looks better XD. I also was thinking it would look dull. I've come up with a few ideas to liven it up. One was to paint streaks of red on the helmets like "tears" and to paint their hands and kneepads red. I don't want them to look horrible, but I really would rather put my financial resources into models than paint. As long as they don't look like crap I'm happy XD.

Using the undercoat as my primary color would really save me money, butt my current budget has left me some extra money thanks to online deals I found. If you have suggestions for a better scheme feel free. How far will 1 spray can get me?

Crimson Fists, and I've painted dozens of Marines that color. As long as you don't clump it on in huge, detail-obscuring blobs, you'll be fine.

Really? I've always been bad with estimations. I'm getting my first models (in addition to the AoBR I have now) over Thanksgiving break as well as the paint to put some color on them. In total I'll need to paint: 25 Marines, a Captain, a Libby, 2 Rhinos, a Dread, and 2 Speeders. My current inexperienced guess was that I'd need 3 12ml tubes to cover them all in whatever base color I eventually go with ignoring whatever my final decision for the base coat is. Would 3 be too little or too much?

I'd strongly recommend against basecoating with Citadel Chaos Black from the pot. If you're using really fresh stuff it's not going to give an even coating. I generally use black spraypaint, but when I'm at work that's not an option, so in that situation i've had better luck with black gesso, which is also a lot cheaper.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Priming_With_Acrylic_Gesso

Alternately, you might want to consider an airbrush if it's the fumes that are a problem, although you're mostly trading fumes for noise that way.


Don't forget to wash the sprues in hot, soapy water before painting, no matter what you use.

You need to wash and prime the models before starting to paint.

Priming can be done by hand, spraying is convenient but not necessary.

I use gesso for hand priming. Here is a useful article on gesso.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Priming_With_Acrylic_Gesso

LordofHats wrote:I'm gonna be starting an SM army soon, and am starting by getting a Space Marine Tactical Squad. I'm merely curious about the contents of the box as the games workshop site is non-too-specific and asking here could save me a car ride to see if the store will tell me XD. I merely wonder what weapon options are available for the Sargeant and if only a Flamer and a Missile Launcher are included or if I have more weapons options. I want to get Tac squads with Multi-Meltas and am on a budget and wonder if I can get these weapons in the box or if I have to find somewhere to buy them separately.

I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask XD

Tactical Squad boxes come with a missile launcher, a meltagun, a flamer, a plasma gun, and a plasma pistol.

Thanks for the help guys, it's really appreciated.

The Gesso is interesting. I could pick that up from my local Home Depot or a hobby shop? I have both in walking distance. Are there any complications to it's application not in the article that I should be aware of?

If I were to buy just the bitz for the multimelta, what would be a good source to get them from? I'm already buying paint online anyway cause my local store only sells paint kits with is a big waste of money for me. If I were to just buy the multimelta bitz where would you go? Any places to steer clear of? I've found BitzBarn (I did find BitzBox but they seem to sell out a lot and their prices are in euros). Anywhere else a reliable place to get the gun and materials to put it on a tactical marine? I might get the Devastator kit anyway just cause of the weapons variety and for experimentation but if I can pick up another multi-melta for a few bucks I'd probably do it.

LordofHats wrote:
How many 12ml tubs of Chaos Black for example would I need to fully paint a tactical squad? That should help me judge how much paint I need to buy? Or is there paint I can use other than the citadel provided paints that can get the job done for less?

I used four pots to basecoat approx 150 marines and 25 tanks.

LordofHats wrote:Thanks for the help guys, it's really appreciated.

The Gesso is interesting. I could pick that up from my local Home Depot or a hobby shop? I have both in walking distance. Are there any complications to it's application not in the article that I should be aware of?

If I were to buy just the bitz for the multimelta, what would be a good source to get them from? I'm already buying paint online anyway cause my local store only sells paint kits with is a big waste of money for me. If I were to just buy the multimelta bitz where would you go? Any places to steer clear of? I've found BitzBarn (I did find BitzBox but they seem to sell out a lot and their prices are in euros). Anywhere else a reliable place to get the gun and materials to put it on a tactical marine? I might get the Devastator kit anyway just cause of the weapons variety and for experimentation but if I can pick up another multi-melta for a few bucks I'd probably do it.

I found Gesso at Michael's. I don't think Home Depot would have it. If you don't have a Michael's near, try Hobby Lobby.

I recommend the Devastator box. If you want something other than a Missile Launcher for your Tacs, you need it. 8 heavy weapons and all you need is the body to put them on.

Scott-S6 wrote:I used four pots to basecoat approx 150 marines and 25 tanks.

Holy crap I was way off on how much paint I would need. I thought I'd need more than that XD.

And I do think that there is a Michael's in town and it's not that far off. I can get there. Thank you.