Baseline ... Knowing where to start

Warhammer 40,000 – I've been working on my Space Marine army off and on since 2005. In that time I've continued to build and base coat models for this project without actually finishing anything. I've finished lots of other projects but this pet project is the one that I can never just finish. I think it's probably a subconscious thing as I've told myself this is going to be my go to 40K army (also I set my goal at finishing a company, eventually an entire chapter ... maybe). I'll have my Slaaneshi Daemons as a backup but this is going to be the one army that I will hold onto and use going forward. Which means is I ever finish it I won't have things to build for 40K, silly as it is since new stuff comes out constantly for marines which means I'll always be adding something I think that might be what holds me back.

Anyway the point is to finish this project I need to know where to start. I've tried a few different goals, doing a unit at a time, building a core list etc. None of these have kept me on track, so what's my baseline? Bases of course! When I decided to do a company I went and made little name decals for every marine in my army, these will fit on the little scroll I sculpted on the front of each base. [Interesting fact: the name of each battle brother in my force is based on the genus or species of a bird.] 

My thought is if I finish painting all the bases and put the names on them I'll be motivated to finish up the squads so I can pin them to their final base and seal them with matte varnish. I started the tedious process of painting the bases and realized that I ran out of chestnut ink. Given this army has been in progress for almost a decade I've run into the issue of paints and inks being discontinued. Unfortunately there's not a good GW replacement for Chestnut ink, none of my local stores carry Reaper paints so I had to go to their website and order them direct. This time I'm stocking up with enough to finish the project (just in case).