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What do you do with old models?


Tibus367

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I started this hobby about two years ago.  At the time I carefully reviewed each faction, picked out what I thought were the best looking models, and got to work with my demons of Khorne.  It was fun even if I lost most of the time and misunderstood a lot of the rules.  Since then I have moved on to Sylvaneth, and now my third army is my Gutbuster Ogors.  Not to mention Warcry and Beastgrave.  I love them all, but my Khorne army is special.  Blood, skulls, and heavy metal rock.  What is not to love?  Of course my painting skills have gotten better over the past two years.  The stuff I paint now looks way better than a lot of my first Khorne models.  Sometimes I get out a Blood Warrior and just cringe at how horrible it looks.  I feel a little shame putting them on the table when I have so many other better looking models.  Not everything is horrible, but most of them would look so much better if I were painting them today.  So I have been thinking about what to do with my beloved first army.  Should I attempt to repaint them?  Expand my Khorne army in some new way and just keep my old models in the back where no one will see them?

What every happened to the first set of models that you ever painted?

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I still have them and yes they are terrible in comparison to today.  But I would never consider repainting them.  They are part of my hobby history and memories, and chart my painting progress.  Without them, how can you really appreciate how much you've improved?  If you don't want to put them on the table,  get some replacements to paint up and play with.  They will still be there if you need a reminder of improvement, or simple nostalgia for fondly remembered events.

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I find that an army painted cohesively looks fantastic even if on closer inspection you realise that each individual model is painted quite roughly. 'Quantity is its own quality' is the aforism here. I'd avoid repainting models and enjoy the charm of what you have done if you can.

I can't recall a single model I've repainted and I have been in this hobby for ages.

Edited by Greyshadow
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I started with slaves to darkness two years ago and as I got better and new updated minis came out I sold the whole lot on ebay for probably quarter of what I paid. In hind site now having repainted it all back up I wish I had kept at least some of the Chaos warriors as I feel I have now lost a sense of perspective that I had when I started it all. 

 

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I prefer to keep old models as they are. I love them to bits, so wouldn't dream of selling them on. I could strip and repaint, and would for second hand models. Things I've painted myself are a great way of seeing how far I've come though. I think if I didn't have them to look back on, I'd lose sight of the fact that while i.I'm still not the best painter, I do make progress year on year. Some of my conversions from 20 years ago have a charm to thdm which I take things far to seriously to replicate now!

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2 hours ago, Matt Effect said:

I started with slaves to darkness two years ago and as I got better and new updated minis came out I sold the whole lot on ebay for probably quarter of what I paid. In hind site now having repainted it all back up I wish I had kept at least some of the Chaos warriors as I feel I have now lost a sense of perspective that I had when I started it all. 

 

This hobby can last a lifetime, so in thirty years you'll still have some early models.

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My first army from 3rd edition 40k Eldar is still in the field(most of the kits still being the ones GW sells), boy howdy are they ugly compared to my current paint skills but I still love em and I like seeing how I've progressed. I may someday do some touch ups(shade, edge highlight) but don't plan on strippin cause that keeps me from doing more projects and removes a part of my hobby journey

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Clearly there is only one answer to this: 

warhammerburning.png.c0fcc1e0155786a0bfcd246f1d3c8984.png

Jokes aside, I have all my old High Elf models stored in all their ugly painted glory. In my case it's less a case of reminding myself how far my painting skills have progressed since then, but how far the technology in paints have come since I first started : ) . I just have a lot of fond memories attached to them. 

 

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9 hours ago, Tibus367 said:

What every happened to the first set of models that you ever painted?

I still have them, complete with their original paint. Never, never, never strip your own paint jobs. Keep them around so you can remind yourself that you've improved over time.

Don't feel shame about new-shiney chasing. As long as you have unpainted models, you can never die. I have roughly 20,000 painted models. I've sold another 5,000 or so painted models. I have roughly 80,000 models in boxes, on shelves, in bins, etc. all unpainted. I am immortal! :)

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I regularly strip and repaint, and occasionally sell. I feel tied down when I have too much stuff, and it always feels amazing to clean up 😃

When selling I usually get things to a tabletop standard. I’ve found that if things look reasonable you don’t have to sell at cheaper than MSRP (I mean technically you end up commission painting for free this way, but I like to think of it as more practice! Its like I get to practice on someone else’s models AND get rid of junk in my house???)

At this point I’ve sold 2 armies, have 2 painted ones on shelves that I’m OK with keeping for now, and have 3 slow grow armies in progress. Of these 5 I own, 3 are full repaints. (Not to mention dozens of individual repaints when I’m testing out schemes.)

Edited by Ggom
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I have given/sold them away, except for a few that are usable in d&d or frostgrave. I don't care about the game, and a friend does. When it's painted, I no longer have a use for it. I'm not going to display 80 guards and Handgunners, but having 10 for some guard company my party might have to face is useful.

I did save a model of about every three montgs I've painted.

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Varies completely depending upon the model, my mood and all sorts 😊

If it's a model that I wasn't happy with when I painted it or simply dislike every time I put it on the table, I'll strip it back and re-paint.  If not then I'll generally pickup a new one and paint it from scratch.

Army wise, I have heard where people have basically bought a new copy of the army and painted it from scratch.  The original gets put into a display cabinet and is a lovely way to see how far you've come on.  It's what I'm tempted to do with my Space Wolves at some point, as I know I could struggle to replicate the paint job I did at the time.

If I were in your shoes, I'd be tempted to pick up some more Blood Warriors and add them to the army.  You then have the choice which unit you want to play with (with the option to play with both!).  For my own Khorne force, I'm currently looking at trying to add some centrepieces - I've always wanted a Slaughterbrute and a Khorne themed Mega-Gargant is tempting at some point in the next year!

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Duncan Rhodes did a video about this on his new channel. He still has the original space marine he painted as a 12 y.o. Yes, its horrible, but to him its special and that is all that matters. For me, I have done everything listed here numerous times. I don't have the first model I painted and wish I did. It was a Tau Fire Warrior in black and orange and it was awful; however, as a reminder from where I have been it would be nice to see. 

Or just take pictures of those first ones so you have the memories, and then strip them and repaint to match the rest, or sell and buy again. I would still keep one though. Make it your car god or something that you will see and it will make you smile every time you look at it.

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In my opinion stripping and start over is a terrible advice.

There is something extremely satisfying to have your first miniatures with their original paintjob. You can see the progress you made in your hobby journey. Obviously it is a little cringy at first but it the feeling will become more affectionate with time. And between those first minis there is some in the middle that can have a little improvement. Without stripping, the paint, a little patch up where you missed a spot, add some quick highlight and shadow can make an old model pop in amatter of minutes when the full process will make you waste hours. 

Plus the strip and repaint is extremely boring. Doing the same minis you 've done before is a chore. You will always progress and you will be tempted to do it over and over again. Stale and trapped in your hobby. You are not, Sisyphus, I am not imagining you happy about that.

Edited by ian0delond
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Thinking about it, I actually did ultimately repaint my first ever warhammer models. They are the old monopose Gretchins for 40K, which I got from a  friend. When I first got them I naturally painted them with normal human skin tones, because it didn't occur to me that space goblins should be bright green!

Later when I got into warhammer properly. I expanded on them to make a full Ork army, and at that point they did end up being changed a bit to fit in with the rest.

I do sometimes wonder what my Orks would have looked like with tan skin though, and whether I should have stuck to my guns rather than going with what the book said I should have done!

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Still got my 3rd edition 40k starter set marines (which bizarrely were black templars according to the painting instructions, for some reason  I heard the call of my spiritual liege and went ahead and painted them as smurfs though :) ). Stayed with 40k until maybe 5th edition at most but pretty much converted to WFB from 6th ed onwards.

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