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If having 1k+ of DA marines is truly your hobby goal? Then go for it.

Like others, I'd suggest building it 1 co at a time, investing in a good airbrush, and building an awesome display case. Please post pics as you go.

If you want it to be canonical, it's basically impossible for Dark Angels.

It's been stated that no one knows how many marines they have, as they make it impossible for anyone outside the chapter to get a proper count. It's been speculated that the Deathwing alone may have as many Marines as a whole normal chapter.

You have a much easier time collecting a Codex Compliant chapter basically!

BrianDavion wrote:

dhallnet wrote:
Dark Angels are hidding their true numbers afaik so it's kinda hard to say "I completed DA's chapter !" (and successors are taking commands from DAs, so it kinda is a Legion).
Anyway, I wouldn't because there are other armies I like too and I would rather spend time on them rather than taking care of minis I won't be able to do anything with but if you enjoy this more than starting another army (or another game or whatever), then why not.

no they're not. the dark angels legion building is more due to their massive amount of ties to their sucessors. this idea that the dark angels some how have a billionty marines is pure uninformed fan spank.

It would be if codexes were written by fans I guess. Deathwing, ravenwing & scout company numbers are undisclosed and it's explicitly written in it that successor chapters take their lead from the DA's Supreme Grand Master since they are all "Unforgiven"(there is even a fluff quote from an inquisitor about them being possibly "Legion building").
So.... yeah, they probably don't have a Legion's worth of marines at their disposal, particularly after recent events, but their numbers are basically unknown and probably much bigger than what is expected.

Umm that's precisely ties to successors he was mentioning...having close ties to successor chapter is not same as 10000 marines in dark angei livery.

tneva82 wrote:
Umm that's precisely ties to successors he was mentioning...having close ties to successor chapter is not same as 10000 marines in dark angei livery.

Yeah, that all stands.

But still, it is heavily implied that the Deathwing and Ravenwing are significantly over strength. I'm not saying it's 10,000 but they certainly have a lot more than 1,000

Yes, but do it with epic scale minis.

Heck, thanks for all the input guys, even the negative ones. This really made Me consider about this project, and i'll probably go with it building one Company at the time. As I have read from the newest codex, Dark Angels have very similar structure, than other codex chapter. I'll be sure to update photos in My blog (there should be a Link to it in My autograph, dont know if you guys see it).

tneva82 wrote:
Umm that's precisely ties to successors he was mentioning...having close ties to successor chapter is not same as 10000 marines in dark angei livery.

So he just said what I first said while saying I was wrong. Then nevermind.

I plan on building the entire SW chapter (however, I plan to go the route before Primaris and when the 13th company was still lost)
I've got a pretty good start and this is a lifetime goal, not anything that's going to be finished anytime soon.

I also plan on having a corner of the house dedicated to displaying the chapter when/if it's complete.
The hardest part of the SW is they don't follow the normal marine company structure, it's more each company is it's own army.

Cheers, fellow marine collector. Yeah, the Company structure differs alot with space wolves. Do you have any other goals within your project? Mine, for example, is to maximize lascannons ..

Basically it's to build each company around the personality of each lord. For example, Ragnar is supposed to be headstrong and rash, so I'm thinking a lot of fast attack and close combat based. Whereas Logan Grimnar will field plenty of heavy support and terminators.

 Spreelock wrote:
Cheers, fellow marine collector. Yeah, the Company structure differs alot with space wolves. Do you have any other goals within your project? Mine, for example, is to maximize lascannons ..

If you are going for an over the top collection, diversify.

Realistically it’s never going to hit the table in it’s entirety. So there is no need to maximize one aspect. You can just take squads from different places depending on what you need.

So gear the 3rd battle company for anti hordes, the 4th for anti tank, 5th anti elites, etc. Mix and match squads in the reserve companies. Or some combination. But make sure you have a healthy amount of all the options modeled. This will help you weather edition changes.

Spamming the strongest option works on an individual list level, but from a large collection POV you want a little bit of everything.

Hatachi wrote:
Build the Lamenters Chapter. You only have to build about 50 marines and you're done.

50 Marines, and over 950 Primaris.

Thats a good point on mixing weapons between companies. I'll just might do that. I'm still glad that the votes are quite balanced, nearly 50-50 of people that voted. I'm excited about this, might even start doing some armylist .

Resist the call of heresy!

If you like the idea and know you will see it through, do it.

I'm personally assembling an Eldar force that will probably stop around 100k points (already at 50k, about 20k painted to a high standard).

It makes zero sense, I probably only get to deploy part of it a few times per year for an Apocalypse, but I don't really mind.

It's an awesome collection, I play different parts of it in regular sized games (when I play - I sometimes don't for 6 months) and I know I can get an Apoc game if I want to see it all that's painted on one table.


Besides, it's not really that expensive (a hundred bucks of miniatures every month for ten years maybe) if you don't pay anyone to paint them (I do, it's kind of expensive if you want it well done).

Here's an old shot of all that was painted in my army a few months ago:



Since then, I've had 30 assorted WraithGuard, 3 WL and one WraithSeer painted, and there are 8 WraithKnight currently being painted - maybe it's time for a better and updated shot.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Nevelon wrote:

 Spreelock wrote:
Cheers, fellow marine collector. Yeah, the Company structure differs alot with space wolves. Do you have any other goals within your project? Mine, for example, is to maximize lascannons ..

If you are going for an over the top collection, diversify.

Realistically it’s never going to hit the table in it’s entirety. So there is no need to maximize one aspect. You can just take squads from different places depending on what you need.

So gear the 3rd battle company for anti hordes, the 4th for anti tank, 5th anti elites, etc. Mix and match squads in the reserve companies. Or some combination. But make sure you have a healthy amount of all the options modeled. This will help you weather edition changes.

First of all, yes it can hit the table in its entirety, that's why we organize Apoc games.
You just need a few friends to each take 10k of your army for that game.

With regards to gear ... .forget about it. It's a collection, for pleasure, what matters is the looks / spirit.
I prefer not to WYSIWYG for fun games anyway, and I've found that the wysiwyg-nuts have kind of loosened lately.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Elbows wrote:
No.

Two reasons.

1) Building an army like that doesn't serve a purpose other than collecting and occasionally showing it off on the internet. You'll never be able to use all of it in a game, or even 1/10th of it in a game.

.......

This is a full Ultramarines chapter (without a ton of additional tanks and support guns they'd probably have). It's not 'rare' that it would ever hit a table...it would never hit a table.

Spoiler:

Even when GW did this, they assigned a couple squads per retail store...

Of course it can hit a table.
It's not because you're not into Apocalypse that nobody is.
Besides, it's a great idea, go for it if you have the patience OP, you'll have something unique that you care about. It's a lot like a piece of art though, you can't really say it has "purpose".

But then what's the "purpose" of a fully optimized flavor of the month 40K army.
I don't see anyone questioning that.

At least art, collections, stuff you care about, has true value to you for an extended period of time.
If the journey and the destination bring you joy, it's hardly a bad decision.

If you are asking a Forum if you should do something, you don't need to do it. It's not like you need any of our permission to do what you want to do.

morgoth wrote:

First of all, yes it can hit the table in its entirety, that's why we organize Apoc games.
You just need a few friends to each take 10k of your army for that game.

With regards to gear ... .forget about it. It's a collection, for pleasure, what matters is the looks / spirit.
I prefer not to WYSIWYG for fun games anyway, and I've found that the wysiwyg-nuts have kind of loosened lately.

a) generally apoc games are more akin to 50k. Have you got any idea how many points marine chapter would be? 50k doesn't even cover thunderhawks let alone all the tactical, assault, devatator, terminator etc marines nor rhino's, razorbacks, land raiders, predators etc etc etc. Not many have possibility of playing like 150k game, have big enough board for that(200 feet wide as a minimum probably...) which they then can leave for a week or so as the game will take loooooong time to play.
b) in apocs specifically you want to have wysiwyg. When you have 44 tactical squads alone(I'm assuming he uses squads of 10 as per fluff) you don't want to start comparing army list and whatever you use to specify which squad had what weapon. Or the 18 devastator squads or 18 assault marine squads or 10+ terminator squads. Incidentally in this big game there's even no real need to NOT have wysiwyg as you have so many models just for these games that you don't NEED to min-max so can just field random weapons and not suffer really. Especially as in 150k+ games who goes first wins anyway due to IGOUGO.

I'll echo those who've said "You'll never use it all".

It'd be a neat project... but probably not worth it, in the end.

dhallnet wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

dhallnet wrote:
Dark Angels are hidding their true numbers afaik so it's kinda hard to say "I completed DA's chapter !" (and successors are taking commands from DAs, so it kinda is a Legion).
Anyway, I wouldn't because there are other armies I like too and I would rather spend time on them rather than taking care of minis I won't be able to do anything with but if you enjoy this more than starting another army (or another game or whatever), then why not.

no they're not. the dark angels legion building is more due to their massive amount of ties to their sucessors. this idea that the dark angels some how have a billionty marines is pure uninformed fan spank.

It would be if codexes were written by fans I guess. Deathwing, ravenwing & scout company numbers are undisclosed and it's explicitly written in it that successor chapters take their lead from the DA's Supreme Grand Master since they are all "Unforgiven"(there is even a fluff quote from an inquisitor about them being possibly "Legion building").
So.... yeah, they probably don't have a Legion's worth of marines at their disposal, particularly after recent events, but their numbers are basically unknown and probably much bigger than what is expected.

uindisclosed doesn't mean they have a ton of them. EVERY codex chapter isn't limited on the size of their scout company (and the Ultramarines and Ravenguard are both noted in codex space marines 7th ed as having larger then normal scout companies) so that could mean something, but the idea of a thousand strong death wing and raven wing is completely idiotic. it defies basic reeason. the people who insist that seem to think that the inner circle is bigger then the outer circles. Something that pretty much breaks the entire point of a secret order within the chapter. Common sense people. use it

I say when you take on a project like this, it's just like any other collecting hobby. Collect stamps? your never going to use them. Collect bottle caps? never gonna use them. Collect sea shells? never gonna use them.
It's the joy of watching your collection grow, getting closer to your goal.

I know if I ever finish that I will never use them all, but it's not the point

Heck, I haven't used any of my current collection at all yet and haven't played in almost 20 years :(

kaotkbliss wrote:
I say when you take on a project like this, it's just like any other collecting hobby. Collect stamps? your never going to use them. Collect bottle caps? never gonna use them. Collect sea shells? never gonna use them.
It's the joy of watching your collection grow, getting closer to your goal.

I know if I ever finish that I will never use them all, but it's not the point

Heck, I haven't used any of my current collection at all yet and haven't played in almost 20 years :(

Exactly. Whether an enormous collection like this appeals to any one person depends on their motivation in the hobby. All the folks pointing out that you'll never use it all in a game, that's very true - but a lot of us are more collectors than gamers anyway. That's the great joy and diversity of this hobby, that there's so many different aspects that you can get out of it. Personally I've played a grand total of 1 game in the last 2 years, but I've bought and worked on rather a lot of models in that time. Collecting an entire chapter is definitely a challenge for somebody who's more into the collecting side of things and has nailed their speedpainting technique.

It's not practical, it will never see the table in its entirety and will be difficult to even display all of it. But it's definitely a cool idea to the more collector-minded of us and even if it realistically won't happen for 99% of the folks that contemplate taking the project on, some will take it on and see it through. And spend an even more absurd amount of money on GW than most of us do. It's worth remembering that whatever you personally find cool is one of the best motivations to work on something. I stand by what I said in my previous post here. Try not to think about the whole chapter, just expand your army for as long as you enjoy expanding it. If you buy too much at once, it can sit on the shelf and feel daunting and actually hinder your progress. If you get to the point of having several entire companies, that's perhaps the point where you've proved to yourself that you'll be able to stick it out to an entire chapter.

I've kinda been building my guard army towards being a full infantry company (4 platoons of 4 Infantry squads + command squads and 3x HWS) with squadron sized attachments of vehicles/specialists etc. I currently have about 2 platoons built and in the process of being painted, I already hate myself a little and am sick of painting everything in the same colour scheme.

Projects like this are awesome to plan out and are awesome when they're done (from an aesthetic viewpoint), but they kinda suck to actually do, the greatest obstruction to me completing this project is having to everything I've already done a second time.

Also as others have said practicality figures in as well, that company wouldn't be deployed as a full formation in anything but apoc and even then depending on the scale you field in apoc it may not. And in normal 40k do you really want x copies of the same unit? wouldn't it be better to instead grab some of y and p instead for some variety and for more combo's and setups etc?

End of the day it's your money, your choice etc but try to remember that sometimes it's best to be a bit realistic about hobby projects.

Yeah, this hobby is so much more to Me than only gaming. I like painting also, and now I actually managed to pull off an armylist for this project . Its just a starter, and is most likely to change. It came around 2500 Power level, which is about 50k. During last summers convention, we played an Apocalypse game of 140k (70k each side), so it might an oppoturnity to see the entire chapter on the field.

It'd be one hell of a diorama, but that's about it.

If it's the size of the game that appeals to you, I'd consider looking at the Epic rules. If it's the modeling aspect, building as big a Dark Angels group as you can would only be fun so far - I'd shoot no bigger than a company, myself. If it's a mix of the two, diversify - either do sections of several marine chapters or a couple of imperial armies you could ally together.

Over 30 years of gaming/collecting, I've found myself personally with four companies of marine figures, stretching back from RT models to Primaris. It's a pain to store, and it isn't even 100% painted - to tabletop quality at best. I constantly find myself wondering why I don't purge some of it down to make space for other games or armies I'd get a whole heck of a lot more use out of. I'd really discourage you from this sort of project; it sounds like a fun idea putting it out there but the execution would be at best tedious. As much as you're spending, break it out for other things you'll get the chance to get more enjoyment out of and that are more likely not have to be kept on a shelf and never see the light of day past the day it's brought home.

I voted yes - which means, if you want to do it there is no reason not to. People spend their lifetime collecting stamps and coins, and you can't play with them either, and they are a crap load less pretty to look at. It would be an awesome thing to have on display, so if you have the inclination then go for it.

How much pride do you think you would have after its completion? Do you think you will reflect on your time spent as a wise and joyous experience, or a dour waste of your time? What people say on the internet is irrelevant, what matters is how you judge your own actions.

After so many attempts to start a new army, and ending at selling the models, I figured it could be better to focus on a single project. Undoubtly, I might have intrests for other armies as well, but this "entire chapter" thing could be for long-term.

 Spreelock wrote:
After so many attempts to start a new army, and ending at selling the models, I figured it could be better to focus on a single project. Undoubtly, I might have intrests for other armies as well, but this "entire chapter" thing could be for long-term.

Hmm those two lines of thinking don't match up in my view. At least if you're finding it hard to stick at any one army - sticking at a huge whole Chapter is going to be a massive task way beyond that. I know I struggle to remain fixed on one army (without getting distracted with other things or going after another army). Unless you're a die hard Marine fan who just gives up other armies and ends up buying more marines anyway?

 Overread wrote:

 Spreelock wrote:
After so many attempts to start a new army, and ending at selling the models, I figured it could be better to focus on a single project. Undoubtly, I might have intrests for other armies as well, but this "entire chapter" thing could be for long-term.

Hmm those two lines of thinking don't match up in my view. At least if you're finding it hard to stick at any one army - sticking at a huge whole Chapter is going to be a massive task way beyond that. I know I struggle to remain fixed on one army (without getting distracted with other things or going after another army). Unless you're a die hard Marine fan who just gives up other armies and ends up buying more marines anyway?

Agreed.

I think there's a real danger of getting like 10% of so into this project and just getting sick of painting the same models with the same schemes.

I'd say set a more realistic goal of collecting a Company, then if you stick that out start thinking about the next Company. Or switch to a new project if you feel you've had enough at that point, happy in the knowledge you have a complete Company, which even then is something cool and rare that very few people manage.