"New Troops for Old Armies" Topic

Most of us, I would guess, have at some point found themselves in the postion of adding new troops to an army old enough that one's painting style has changed, hopefully improved, significantly in the interrim.

So what do you do? Try and replicate your old style for visual cohesion? Stick to your new style and simply accept the discrepancy? Repaint the old figures? Something else?

At various points I've gone for all three options, although repainting has been restricted to adding a wash and similar minor improvements, never stripping the paint and repainting from scratch.

I've also been known to rebase the old figures because I couldn't stomach putting the new ones on bases in the old ugly style.

The very oldest troops in my 15mm Napoleonics armies are strip Minifigs 15mm French line infantry, ca 1975 or so. They've been rebased twice, each time with some touch-up paintwork as my techniques improved over the years.

New gamers, it cannot be overemphasized – use only PVA (white) glue to base your figures. You WILL want to rebase some day.

I just paint the new ones. The most important thing to remember about uniforms is that they aren't.

If I touch up old figures it is because I wanted to touch up those figures, not because they need to conform to some other newer figures.

And, since we are talking about it, 40+ years without rebasing (except for damage repairs).

I might not repaint the figures but I do rebase them so they all match at the "arms length vision" I now have.

Recently, I rebased old Minifig and Battle Honours Napoleonic figures I was given as my engagement present from my ex-wife. They have been around for 35 years.
Ten times longer than her ;-)

Current SWMBO buys be nice AB figures ;-))
Life is good.

Have fun.

As above will rebase but not repaint – although I do touch up when needed

New gamers, it cannot be overemphasized – use only PVA (white) glue to base your figures. You WILL want to rebase some day.

AGREED! Just going through rebasing a number of troops now

I can never get PVA to hold very well. Even the 15's I glue on to painting sticks with PVA fall off.

To keep PVA-attached figures from falling off, let a little dab of the glue lap over the edge of the figure's base on each side. It's always worked for me.

Never worried me. My painting was crap then and it's still crap now…

I stopped advancing/working on my painting style, decades ago. I block paint, then I apply either Magic Wash (non-brown/black washes) or The Dip Technique. My figures look remarkably similar in painting styles since around 1997.

I, too, like numbers. Style and quality are not major issues for me -- I prefer less detailed mini's, as I am all about quantity, which has its own quality. Cheers!

Just paint the new ones, they add a bit of variety. You can't tell when they are on the table anyway. I do try to maintain a consistent basing style though, as nothing is more jarring than a wierd mix of different colour bases.