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Once you've got your IoB HE half all painted up ready to go, what's a decent first place to look in terms of expanding on it?
Obviously buying another HE half of the box set give double what you have but would you get more "bang for buck" by getting a load of archers or spearmen etc instead?

you need more core troops imo.

Yeah, 10 Spearmen (yes, you'll use those LSG as Spearmen), or even 20, aren't going to be enough. I'd pick up another box of Spearmen or two to beef up that core unit. A unit of Archers/Silver Helms may be useful for expanding the core as well. And I'd definitely pick up another Mage and a BSB.

After that, you need to decide what list you're going to build, as pretty much everything works, as long as it has the right support/synergy with the rest of the list. White Lions, Phoenix Guard, Swordmasters, Dragon Princes, Sisters, RBTs, Frosthearts are all good units you can include.

Would it be wiser to just get one battalion rather than 2 iob sets?

Hmmm... You'll have to do some numbers, but I think the Battalion gives you a surplus in Core, which is not great with HE. It's a good buy if you're looking to do multiple lists in the future (i.e. you have your Silver Helms for a cav list, your Archers for a shooty list), but if you're just aiming for the one list, then I'd decide on your Core, and go about buying the units individually, which'd probably work out cheaper, especially if you scoured eBay for some good deals.