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So, I finally managed to talk my friend Dennis into putting his money where his mouth is, and commit to 40k. He just bought multiple sets of Dark Angels Tac Squads, and a Company Master. I'm going to get him a DA Codex tomorrow, but using my Space Marine Codex, we are trying to guess out a decent 500 point.

1 Company Master -Power Sword, Combi-Plasma
2 Tactical Squads (Squad Don't Roll A One (As coined by our wonderful British friend Jason)) Sergeant w/ Plasma Pistol and Chainsword, Plasma Gun, and Plasma Cannon, w/ Rhinos.

So, will this be a fairly solid starting list for him?

I would take the Libby from Dark Vengeance he's a much better HQ particularly for Dark Angels with access to divination.

Are both tactical squads from DV? Because you're loaded up on plasma but if anyone brings an AV13 or higher vehicle or building you are boned. I would try to diversify the 2nd tactical squad. Personally I'd take melta, combi melta and missile launcher or multimelta. Essentially tac squads need to have a defined role and work best when equipped with that in mind. Always take a matched combi to the special weapon as it doubles your chances on that key turn when you need that special weapon to do its thing. Then take a heavy weapon to match the role.

Ideally keep the squads together rather than combat squad. At 500 points Razorbacks are generally better than Rhinos as they bring another gun.

As for the viability of that core well that depends on your gaming area. 500 points is very rock, paper, scissors esque any way. At bigger points he'll not want to get any more tactical marines until he hits at least 1850 as tactical marines are not a very competitive unit. Their damage output is small and in a game with Helldrakes their survivability isn't even that good. But they are a decent tool to learning the game.

Everything so far is from DV. I told him that he will soon have to diversify, but he seems pretty happy with the basic dark angel necessities. After all, after a couple 500 pt games, he will hopefully figure out what he would need.

Don't take heavy weapons at that lvl.
If you move, which you most likely will have to, the weapon is useless. Unless the Tac's job is to camp an objective.
The Plasma Pistol imo is a waste of 15 points, its just too expensive imo. I cut of that hand and replaced it with something more useful... Like a Bolter Looks weird, but Bolter&Chainsword is a cheap and versatile alternative and I go WYSIWIG as good as I can.
Other than that FlingItNow said everything