Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Looking to expand my 1st space marine army. So far i have the Battleforce box set, plus a Commander and a single space marine bike. Thinking a box set would let me expand while also starting a 2nd army. I can get a Dark Vengeance set from my local comic shop, but it seems like fixing the DA guys to look like regular space marines might be a pain. If they where seperate pieces , I would just get the bits I needed, but being mostly done means a lot of cutting and sanding. So my other option would be to spend about the same and get a Assault on Black Reach set. The SM would be less hassle, plus I get orcs! Any input for this 40k n00b would be great....

Yeah, if you're after regular Marines, the Black Reach set is probably the better option. Although the DV minis are prettier.,..

It sounds an awful lot like you just justified the Black Reach purchase in your post! The models aren't quite as nice, but they're not chapter-specific so they'll look fine no matter what you do.

I would say black reach if you have easy access to it. Or just buy individual boxes of marines

The AoBR minis look pretty bad in comparison. Can you justify the DA minis looking more flash in your army somehow? Squad leaders, vanguard/sternguard veterans, command squads, assault marines, devastators etc? They really do look much better.

 Yonan wrote:
The AoBR minis look pretty bad in comparison. Can you justify the DA minis looking more flash in your army somehow? Squad leaders, vanguard/sternguard veterans, command squads, assault marines, devastators etc? They really do look much better.

Well, you also need to file off all that Dark Angels iconography, which depending on your converting skill level might make them look worse.

 -Loki- wrote:

 Yonan wrote:
The AoBR minis look pretty bad in comparison. Can you justify the DA minis looking more flash in your army somehow? Squad leaders, vanguard/sternguard veterans, command squads, assault marines, devastators etc? They really do look much better.

Well, you also need to file off all that Dark Angels iconography, which depending on your converting skill level might make them look worse.

This was absurdly easy. Youll never get good at converting till you start, and the termies have better weapons. Plus he already has a bike

Depends. Do you want generic SM with bolters? If so, go AoBR. You have 8 bolters, 1 Flamethrower e 1 Missile Launcher. The terminators (except for the sergeant that has a power sword) are all equipped with Stormbolter and power-fist. The Dreadnought is very easily magnetized so you can have lots of options. The Captain is a cool looking mini for generic SM to boot.

The advantages of getting DV is for WYSIWYG purposes and firepower. You'd have to spend some time sanding away iconography (and when our painting time is so limited, it's a pain) but you get SM with Plasma gun, Plasma cannon and a Sergeant with Plasma Pistol (to be fair, I'm not even sure Vanilla SM tactical squads can have this load-out). Much more powerful than the AoBR options.
One terminator has an assault cannon and another has a chain-fist instead of a power-fist. Not only that, you get 3 bikes.
The Company Master (the HQ) will be an absolute pain to convert back to Vanilla SM, but the Librarian is pretty cool looking and should be easier to convert to vanilla SM.

Thanks for the input! Think i may just get DV and put the work into it if the AoBR stuff is not as nice. I've been modeling ffor 20+ years, so I should be able to handle it. I'm just new to 40k Maybe I'll get some green stuff to play with too. Plus, getting DV locally supports my comic shop (which is where i play 40K) vs some random person on ebay or what ever. Once i get these going,i'll post some pics.

I would go with just a regular box of marines if you want to go Vanilla Marines. All the marine figures in AOBR aren't posable. You just stick the bolter on and that's all you can do. If you don't mind an army where ALL the guys look the same, sure, go for it. You get a cheap dreadnaught and some generic termies. Personally, I think you'd be better served just getting a force box.
If you don't mind the non-vanilla look, get DV.

I agree that getting some DV guys would be a good place to start getting practice with some knifework.

I think the main problem is that you're looking at buying an entire, irrelevant box set just for a couple of marines. Were you able to use pretty much anything else in AoBR, then that would be fine, but it doesn't seem like a good idea just to avoid shaving some plastic.

In all honesty, though, the best place to start with cheap marines is eBay, and not just buying DV stuff. There are plenty of people out there with poorly-painted space marine armies and units that you can buy for really cheap and strip the paint off of. That way you won't have to do any filing off of anything, and you still get the marines for cheap.

 Ailaros wrote:
I agree that getting some DV guys would be a good place to start getting practice with some knifework.

I think the main problem is that you're looking at buying an entire, irrelevant box set just for a couple of marines. Were you able to use pretty much anything else in AoBR, then that would be fine, but it doesn't seem like a good idea just to avoid shaving some plastic.

In all honesty, though, the best place to start with cheap marines is eBay, and not just buying DV stuff. There are plenty of people out there with poorly-painted space marine armies and units that you can buy for really cheap and strip the paint off of. That way you won't have to do any filing off of anything, and you still get the marines for cheap.

By poorly painted do you mean...

Like this?

 Ailaros wrote:
I agree that getting some DV guys would be a good place to start getting practice with some knifework.

I think the main problem is that you're looking at buying an entire, irrelevant box set just for a couple of marines. Were you able to use pretty much anything else in AoBR, then that would be fine, but it doesn't seem like a good idea just to avoid shaving some plastic.

In all honesty, though, the best place to start with cheap marines is eBay, and not just buying DV stuff. There are plenty of people out there with poorly-painted space marine armies and units that you can buy for really cheap and strip the paint off of. That way you won't have to do any filing off of anything, and you still get the marines for cheap.

What he said. "Simple Green" is great for stripping paint off of figures without damaging the plastic. (if you can find the stuff. I had to go to an industrial cleaning supply shop.)

 Kain wrote:

By poorly painted do you mean...

Like this?

 Brother SRM wrote:

 Kain wrote:

By poorly painted do you mean...

Like this?

The scariest thing is that most of those were made by one painter, who for some reason felt proud enough of his work to show it to the internet.

I dunno, if you can get another Battleforce for close to the same price as DV, I'd go there. You can get the DV rulebook and templates etc for under $30 on ebay if you're patient.

Something else about AoBR, you can ally the orks with the SM, not so for DV.

 Kain wrote:
The scariest thing is that most of those were made by one painter, who for some reason felt proud enough of his work to show it to the internet.

Still better than my first model. That poor...poor...Shadow Warrior. He never knew what schlack of paint hit him...

On Topic: I'd go with the Dark Vengeance as the load out on the Marines/Termies is a bit more resonable and the HQs actually come with reasonable upgrades as well(Combi-Plasma on the Company Master if I remember right). That being said, I did buy some AoBR Marines/Dreadnaught from others to flesh out my Dark Angels. If you do not have a lot of expendable income, buying the AoBR Marines can make your army quite large with little cost except for vehicles.

i really was looking to add a terminator squad and 2nd tactical squad at the minimum.....thought one of those sets might make it go quicker....got a couple days to payday to decide my plan of action....try to get some pics of my SM so far...all i have is some cellphone pics right now

Go with DV, then you get both the tac and termies, plus some useful bikes

I'm watching a few things on ebay that could be stripped and repainted. Building up my battleforce box was fun, but I'm done with everything except the scouts. And thats only because I lost the sprue with the weapons and arms. D'OH!! I managed to get the right bits for cheap on ebay luckily. Just waiting for them to get here.

I can't take Dark Vengeance seriously due to the Gail Simone run of Birds of Prey.