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I'm looking to convert tactical marines into sternguard. What bits would you recommend I put either on the bolterguns or on the marines to make them appear as such?

Just find cool bits you have and start from there. Cut off the magazines from vehicle stormbolters and put those in place of the banana clips on their boltguns. Use the cool helmets, chest pieces, and shoulder pads you'd normally use on officers. Get chapter-specific shoulderpads from GW if you want. Stick scopes, bayonets, or kill markings and trophies on their boltguns. Stick those random icons you get in every kit on their backpacks. Cover them in purity seals. Paint them slightly differently, whether it's different colored helmets like the Ultramarines, a different piece of armor like the red gauntlets on Crimson Fists, or a different scheme altogether like the Deathwing and Ravenwing.

Here's a handful of mine:

Brother SRM has it pretty much covered, but I'd also add in older armour marks, helmets with extra targeting arrays, sights, and even lights like the Apothecary head, it really sets them apart as specialists. Adding on Purity Seals looks really good too, just a couple extra in the right place.
And finally, even just painting the bolters a different colour can make them look like special guns too.

I think the most important thing is to make their bolters look different. There are a few third part makers that do parts you can use to convert your bolters. From the top of my head I can think of anvil industry http://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=60_103 and http://zinge.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=20_72 but I am sure there a ton more out there. The second thing to remember is that they are veterans so they should have better equipment and more personal individual marks. On a tactical squad I tend to try and make them all look the same, on a veteran unit you want exactly the opposite every man should almost be unique.

Go all out on spicing them up, if your army has a preferred enemy either story-wise or actually, make sure to decorate them in trophies or have them stomping them into the ground or such. Makes it just plain awesome.

Definatley add a few scope sights to some of the boltguns, being as model ina strenguard unit can take a cimbi weapon add sone of them too. Make your own if needed using left kit bits. then just pimp them up with badges etc. Oh yea n get a power weaopn for the sergeant.

In theory, you could get by with as little as just painting the trim on the armor white, to denote veterans from the first company.

But you don't want to stop there. Sternguard are an excuse to empty your bits box. All the extra pouches, seals, clips, etc. you have can find a new home. You want to differentiate them from the standard tactical trooper. You don't need to buy third party bits, or add-ons, but if your were going to, this would be the place.

Some battle damage would not be out of place if you want to rough them up a bit.

They are one of the places codex marines can stretch their modeling wings. Kitbash as far as you are comfortable.

To me Sternguard represent the hardest of the hard soldiers. They have done planetfall in a drop pod and gone screaming out into certain death and survived so they could do it again.

If you can build a few new models heres a few things I am in the process of doing to make a sternguard team.

BUILD
-use assault squad legs to give them motion rather than the standing around tac marine legs.
-use different armor types in the unit and even mismatch on single characters. I assume these guys would just swap out damaged armor parts constantly as they are in the nastiest fighting constantly.
-don't overload them, but make them look ready and self sufficient. these are vets, they know what works and what doesnt, they probably carry extra grenades, a sheathed knife on the lower leg, bolt pistol on the back of the belt. they probably dump thing like aspex. scout parts like smaller pouches and rope coil might be a cool addition to some models.
-these guys will have honors, purity seals or even the small crux terminatus from the TDA kit, even small banners, but make sure it never interferes with how they would fight. they may move everything to a backpack or the non weapon shoulderpad. the other grunts can see it but it won't slow them down.

PAINTING
- battle damage, again these guys have been around, and they should look like it, dings, scrapes and gouges all over the armor.
- weathering, lots of it.
- slogans or personal creeds, if your free hand is good you could put messages or slogans on shoulder pads or knees.