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In my 2,500 point army I already have a maulerfiend and I'm wondering should I get abother or a soul grinder. Also is the soulgrinder a good antI aircraft

The soul grinder is BS3... Not the most reliable anti-air. I love a soul grinder with phlegm bombardment! Baleful torrent can be pretty good too. Warp gaze suffers from BS3 and the sword is useless.
Maulerfiends are pretty awesome IMO. They destroy vehicles and buildings and they are quick!! The problem with them is that they become a fire magnet. Fielding only 1, it will probably get destroyed before making it into combat. Typically, fielding at least 2 insures that at least 1 will make it into combat.

Soul Grinder or Maulerfiend??? - it kinda depends on what the rest of your force looks like and what your tactics are. Both can be good choices, the better choice depends on how you intend to use them.

Soul grinder is a solid workhorse that's good at everything, but not great at anything. I wouldn't take one solely for anti-aircraft (its not accurate or powerful enough to be reliable in that role). Theyre great because they have high durability, good punchy and shooty capabilities, and are pretty cheap.

Maulerfiends are great rusher units, but expect them to die pretty often in most games, as they just draw a lot of fire. They also arent too spectacular in combat and mostly good for grinding down weaker units or cracking open vehicles. For them to really shine, they should be in pairs or more, and need a list built to follow them up. They excel at rushing forward to tie up or break open enemy units while the rest of your army closes in to do the heavy lifting, if you leave them out alone they'll flounder pretty easily.

Given the choice of the two, I'd go with the grinder. It really is a good all-around unit that does well in almost any situation, and I've rarely been disappointed by its performance. Put phlegm or torrent on them and walk them towards the enemy shooting, then charge stuff whenever it's close enough. Be careful of terrain, as they have a giant footprint and no move through cover, difficult terrain rolls can really bog them down.

OK this is gonna get technical.

When you look at both options, both seem to have their niches, however you'd be surprised how ineffective they might be at them

Let's start with the Maulerfiend. As a model that is supposed to get into CC in order to make its points back, it has a WS3, hindering it greatly at any attempt to do so. Against other walkers, even the lowly Penitent engine, the Maulerfiend simply fails to perform. It has a base of 2 attacks and the nagma cutters in order to make the utmost use of your extra attacks with them, you must hit with all of you attacks, that becomes an issue when you charge because you'll have 3 at an equally as bad Initiative of 3. Like people have suggested run them in pairs or even 3s. Take lasher tendrils on 1 so you can mitigate the amount of attacks you will receive.

Soul grinders suffer from the same problems as the Maulerfiend. This all stems from the poorly written Daemonic Possession USR as they are WS/BS 3. Don't expect to hit much with your harvester cannon, even if you did most noteworthy competitive flyers are going to be AV 12 anyways. Requiring a5 just to glance them. The upside to the grinder is that it can be a dedicated Daemon. I'll explain this in a moment. Due to your vast, but rather lackluster (or just bad) weapons upgrade options, you have only 1 that will be consistent in taking. That's the torrent flamer.

The best option, and with most synergies, is a Nurgle Grinder with Torrent. Standing in cover, you have a 2+ cover save. If you deepstrike the Grinder withing 6" of a banner of Nurgle, you won't scatter. If you run some Plague drones, with a banner, into your opponents front lines, you can effectively drop 3 Grinders into your opponents face, torrent them up to 12" away, and push wounds with decent survivability having 4HP and IWND!

Again, in CC its not too amazing, but does have more attacks. If you come across LRs or fortifications you have the easy option of simply attacking them, if you get the drop on any infantry, expect them to deal heavy casualties with pushing wounds
Hope that helps!

Thanks for all the opions, I think I'm going to get another maulerfiend and a soul grinder and pass on some of the other models I was planning on.

Maulerfiends have two power fists which awards them an additional attack, so they actually have four attacks on the charge plus an almost guaranteed extra hit (if geared with magma cutters).

That said, for something that is supposed to be an angry close combat specialist daemon machine, it's not that great. They're likely to crack non-walker vehicles open with ease, but if you want them to do something you'd better get at least two in the list, because a single one is likely to attract a lot of enemy fire and not survive for long.

Still, inmensely better than dreadnoughs. Because you simply can't be any worse than a dreadnought right now.

 Korinov wrote:
Maulerfiends have two power fists which awards them an additional attack, so they actually have four attacks on the charge plus an almost guaranteed extra hit (if geared with magma cutters).

That said, for something that is supposed to be an angry close combat specialist daemon machine, it's not that great. They're likely to crack non-walker vehicles open with ease, but if you want them to do something you'd better get at least two in the list, because a single one is likely to attract a lot of enemy fire and not survive for long.

Still, inmensely better than dreadnoughs. Because you simply can't be any worse than a dreadnought right now.

Last I checked under the walker special rules they do not gain extra attacks like infantry. Walkers gain an extra for every melee weapon after the second. For instance, a walker with 2ccw and 2 attacks has 2 attacks, 3 on the charge. A walker with 3 ccw and a base of 2 attacks has 3 attacks and 4 on the charge.

Rulebook, pg. 91, third paragraph.

Indeed, walkers gfain an additional attack for EVERY additional weapon, not just after the second

Gosh.. That honestly makes them even worse IMO... How often do you think you'll hit with 4 attacks on the charge on a WS 3 model? :-/ half the time my Maulerfiends die to Dreadnaughts due to that measly WS and Initiative... But with 3-4 you find yourself missing even more, lacking your benefit of using magma cutters :-/

Seeing the other threads the OP has started - I'd suggest maybe just buying or borrowing the relevant books, making a proxy out of cardboard or something and throwing a bunch of dice. See why you like and go from there. Ya know. Make a choice for yourself and be a little self sufficient.