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All,

After being intrigued by 40k for about 15 years, I finally decided to make the plunge. For Christmas, I was given a copy of Space Hulk, Dark Vengeance, and Betrayal at Calth. My hope is to use these games to get some friends into the hobby too.

As you all know, these three games feature different chapters/legions of marines (ultra, DA, BA, etc.). I am about to start painting and a thought hit me - if I paint all of these armies the default legion/chapter, I will be left with several small forces. My thought is to instead consolidate into (hopefully) one choice of good guy space marines and one choice of Chaos space marines. While I am a noob, it is my understanding that some of the models can't just be painted any color without violating the fluff (like the DA models from Dark Ven have hoods, which the Ultramarines don't use, I think; also I think some of the models have legion markings). I'm not sure if this is an issue for the 2 chaos forces.

So now I turn to the experts:

1. Can I, without violating the fluff, consolidate all my good guys into one legion/chapter? Same question for Chaos? Would I need to buy other parts or manually change the models? (I have some extra heads from Calth for example). Is this hard? Are there any distinct markings that I need to specifically look out for?

2. If I can consolidate, what good guy and Chaos chapter/legion should I choose? Are any choices more powerful than others? As an FYI, I don't really like the bike models that much so bike armies are likely out. I imagine I will want to use a dreadnought or two in any army. Also, if possible, I would like to pick a first founding legion (for both Chaos and good guys) so that I can play 30k and 40k. To keep the fluff for betrayal at Calth consistent, I wouldn't mind making my armies Ultramarines and Word Bearers (do the Word Bearers still exist in 40k?).

3. Can I use the space hulk terminators in 30/40k? If so, do I just need to get the right sized circle base? Do I need to fix the arms or anything?

Thanks in advance.

Also, if you have any other tips for a new player, please let me know.

1: You can make your own color scheme/chapter for your loyalists, your own warband for your chaos marines, and you can always make a custom legion with the two 'unknown' legions. Try to keep the color schemes uniform, try to keep the chapter icons uniform, but other than that, go crazy.

2: The most powerful loyalist chapter is out of Codex: Space Marines, the White Scars Gladius Battle Company. Part of the aforementioned Gladius would have Dreadnoughts in drop pods.

If you want to use the Ultramarines legion/Chapter, you could still use the White Scars chapter tactics if you want. If someone gives you a hard time, they probably aren't the person you want to play with anyways.

And yes, the Word Bearers still exist, and their Primarch Lorgar is a Daemon. They are one of the few Traitor Legions that still operate as a Legion.

3: Just glue them to a 40mm base. Nothing else needs to be done: the Space Hulk terminators are good for having some more unique looking Termies.

As for a tip: Do what you enjoy. We can tell you all day about how this or that is better, but if you don't enjoy the color scheme/army/theme, then you will get less out of the game than if you are doing something you enjoy.

Unless what you enjoy is winning, then sell your marines and play Eldar.

Thanks for the reply. I understand I could make a new chapter, but as I want to play 30k and I do like the fluff, I want to pick two cannon chapters (one loyalist and one traitor/chaos). How do the codex space marine chapters stack up against the chapters with their own books? Is there a tier list of the various choices?