Working on Marines

So I have taken a step back from playing and been putting my feeble modeling skills to use.   I decided to concentrate on my marines as my IG have had way too much play in the last few months.  I have assembled my Ironclad at long last.  I could no resist getting it any longer though it is not a very powerful piece, I do like the concept of it.  The real nice part about it, is that it come with complete arm assembly for all the main weapon options, so you do not need to do any magnet work.  Though I may revisit the melta/Heavy flamer options to add on to the piece. 

I moved on to my Pred which has been sitting in a box for 3 months.  nothing much special though I did mag the main turret weapon which turned out poorly at best, table top as dan would say.  I am debating on if I want to take a stab at the side sponssons or just go with las cannons and call it good?

My new concept still requires me to get 3 Drop pods, and Pedro to fill out my 1500/1850 lists

1250 results

Well what started off promising ended up sucking for me. 

Game 1:
Got an all DS Dark Angle army in game one.  That was really a one sided affair, it was dawn of war and I started in all off the table, he put 2 units and a hq up right on the line.  then I rolled in and started shooting, he just tried to servive in cover, his only anti tank was 3 auto cannons.

Game 2:
Space wolves with 5 man thunderwolf Calvery squad (5 man complex unit of toughness 5 2 wound pieces.
Rune priest, Vindicator, long fangs and some normal marines.  He stole turn one and destroyed one of my vendettas.   Objective game, I manage to pin then eliminate his closing troop choices to get an extra contest in on him, with us each getting 1 KP.

Game 3:
At this point I am tied for second, 1 kp behind dan.  So of course I draw dan and not the other guy, we tie, Dan drops from first to second, I drop from second to forth.  Really ruined the entire event for me.  To the point where I am thankful I will miss the next couple events

1250 Tourny is coming, and Divine inspiration has come to me

I was making my army, trying to figure out how to make a solid list.  I was building off my 1000 list and had the following as my core

2 Vendettas
2 Battle Tanks
1 Plasma command squad + officer of the fleet (chimera)

The problems was troops, I could not afford to put both my 2 plasma chimera squads out there + my 2 melta squads in my vendettas.  I had a few options

1  Drop Command squad down to a psyker  (saves points, gain a lot of str 6 shots) lose plasma and tank
2  Run an empty Vendetta (  lose scoring mobility)
3 Drop one plasma troop squad (lose plasma shots and 1 las cannon

So I decided to go with 3.  Purchased my troops
1 Vet (Chimera 3 plas, 1 LC)
2 Vet (3 melta)

And with my left over points
Marbo is back to lay havoc in the backfield to those loots hiding and trying to shoot me.

So my army looks like this
2 LRBT with LC add on
1 Command squad (3 plasma + Chimera)
1 Vet (3 plasma +chimera +1 LC)
2 Vendettas + 2 HB
2 Vet (3 Melta, In vendettas)
1 Marbo the all powerful

I am toying with dropping one of the plas from the command squad and changing it to a Las Cannon using the last of my 5 remaining points

The last option I am toying with is dropping a LRBT and going with a Manicore.  I lose an armor 14 piece but get some big alpha strike str 10 capability (d3 big blast barrage + indirect fire).

Any thoughts on this