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Once again, I am asking myself what army should I take for the next showcase army? I pretty much nailed it down to Space Marines but I am unsure what chapter to take. Ultras, Crimsons and Dark Angels are nice as well as Space Wolves but I am somewhat unsure. Since the army will be a pure showcase army there is no need for the "competitive part". It's all about a pretty clean and crisp paint job for a showcase.

Other options I am considering is going for a mini diorama using Marneus Calgar and his boys or something similiar. So any suggestions are pretty welcomed. Forgeworld stuff is in the "decision pool" too I may should add.

I think Space Wolves would be a great opportunity for weathering and conversion, but if you are going clean and crisp I think the Howling Griffons make for a great opportunity to show your skill with their quartered design and tendancy to record oaths and deeds on their armor. Dark Angels would provide a nice opportunity for variety among the chapters you listed, though.

Wolves are nice for that but I from my experience it's hard to make good pictures from weathered stuff. I have painted quiet a lot 1:35 scaled WWII vehicles and the weathering and rust effects dumping the pictures down plus I rarely made those clean&crisp paintjobs since I am more in the WHF world and dont like that kind of paintjob for my army/armies. But many customers are like "I want a clean&crisp" paintjob so I like to have some stuff to show them.

If you want clean then you cant go wrong with ultra smurfs.

clean blue whites and golds.

A mixed wing of DA might make a cool show case. Azrael, flanked by a DW Termi squad, a Tactical Squad and some Ravenwing would allow you to do a variety of colours.

Don't know how big of showcase army you want, but you could add more toys from there! Even throw in some light weathering/dirt on the bikes to contrast the crisp clean and newly teleported Deathwing!

DeathWatch?

My DeathWatch guys are no where near legal by game standards but look pretty cool, and gives me a chance to show off different chapters without having a bunch of different color marines all over the place.

Personally, it'd be a toss up between Deathwing and Blood Angels for me.

With the DW, i would go with massively elaborate bases with a solid and crisp bone colour.

And, im my mind, the BA would look really good with a bright red and yellow highlighted from above with blue being a contrast colour (on power swords and PGs etc.) and a snow base. The red/yellow complements each other, and the blue/snow would contrast with the red nicely too.

This is kind of from left field, but why not try pre-LOtD Fire Hawks? No doubt it would be an impressive army to see. Coubray with his melta sword thingy, with a few assault marines/vanguards falling down to assist a partial tactical squad fighting next to a burned out rhino/razorback. The imagery is pretty intense to me. Decent conversion opportunities with a very unique, if a tad difficult, scheme.

Mentor legion. They're not done much and their paint scheme is really interesting. Or the Flesh Tearers.

Flesh Tearers or Knights of Blood. Both very nice color schemes.

Black Dragons have the unique assault unit and replace the winged skulls on the chests with dragons. Crimson Guard have a split scheme of red and gold, similar to Howling Griffons. Marines Exemplar have a much darker red and black look. I think the Red Wolves might have a nice showcase look to them as well.

Sorry if this is a bit much, I know a lot of much less know chapters

Will second Blood Angels. Bright red with gold/yellow, lots of interesting figures. Can be very showy.

If you want to look at the Chaos side, Word Bearers can be pretty showy as well.

Fire Lords. Howling Griffons. Something like that.

Bright colors, hard to paint but looks great when cleanly done, and very eye catching.

I have always enjoyed seeing the Iron Hands if done properly. Especially if done clean. Gleaming bionics, and armor that is maintained by the chapter. Good conversion possibilities with the bionics. Extra dreads and terminators. Plus it's not one of the common armies like murfs or blood angels.

Carcharodons, Red Scorpions, any HH 30K legion, or basically any army that contains a lot of FW.

Crimson Fists are good. Howling Griffons is also an awesome choice if you want to try your hand at a quarted design.

Alternatively you could have a bit of a gander at these pages. You might see a chapter that catches your eye
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Pictorial_List_of_Space_Marine_Chapters_A-L#.UV0F51dELvg
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Pictorial_List_of_Space_Marine_Chapters_M-Z#.UV0G2ldELvg

Thanks for all the replies - can I burn you know for putting so much on the the decision table that I dont know what to pick anymore?
Some pre heresy chapters would be awesome for sure and Iron Warriors sounds like a solid "non SM" army. But IW would be a hell of a conversion project with all those ages old bitz plus the need to convert nearly every single model and the default CSMs are well, not that good looking. The Red Scorpions would be a nice choice model wise but I am a bit unsure about their colour scheme. It's a bit like Ultras just with grey instead of blue. Howling Griffons would make up for a nice scheme for sure and something that is kinda eyecatching - meh, too many choices.
Ultras were my first thought because of the nice characters they have and the fact that I have painted 4complete Ultra armies so far. Blood Angels I have to look up. They were my first army ages ago and their scheme is kinda outstanding.