From this...
To this...
Well, I also said at the time I was rebasing and repainting my US Combat Command (in 1:1) which amounted to about 500 vehicles. Well, I just passed the 800 mark and am about half way through... (my comparable UK and German forces have expanded considerably over the past 2 years)
From the pics above I guess I should have expected that as the new minis arrived, the old ones would be looking a bit ick, so a lot are being replaced. I have made a few exceptions though; my US armoured infantry battalion has 2 'legacy' companies entirely of Heroics and Ros minis, but the challenge has been to get them to not stand out on a table dominated by GHQ and CinC. This has led me to play a lot more with modification and scratch building, so indirectly the quality of GHQ minis is 'forcing' my hand towards trying to bring other castings up to a 'standard'.
The M3 at the bottom of the shot is a GHQ mini (all 3 of these castings are 30+ years old), the other 2 are H&R. The top left one is the bog standard casting. As you can see, the driver and gun ring area is a solid section. I decided the only way to improve that is to put canvas over the back and hide the rear of the drivers compartment. It is a curious fact the nobody makes canvas covers with M49 gun rings for the M3 series; either gun and open or fully covered, yet the canvas cover was modified for the M49 mount...
Anyway, the M3 at top right has the full kit; hoop over the troop compartment and canvas partly folded back, posts on both mine racks for cam nets or bivouac tentage, packs on the sides and rear, boxes and tentage on the unditching roller at front, .50cal on the gun ring... on the table, they look pretty good, so not only are my scratch building skills improving, the effort isn't being wasted either...
Also, when I started this hobby way back when, H&R were really the only company making aircraft that were available in Australia. This has led to other replacements in my collection... I just finished my first C47 from Raiden... a good casting, but definitely for wargaming (sturdy, very little detail underneath), but oh how much nicer they look than the old things I had.
From this;
to this;
So basically because of the high standards of product on offer these days, lead by GHQ, and the inspiration from the offerings on this forum, I now have better painting and scratch building skills than I had before, and a prettier if somewhat more expensive army to field...