Like so long as you don't mix them in sqauds it can look fine. Alot of people I know use them to designate different regiments such as using 03 cadians as catchan proxies.
I have about a half and half army and if you do the same paint scheme its honestly not that noticeable until you get close and even then, it just adds height variety. Make a short kings squad supported by the Giga chads!
I have a combination of 90s metal, 00's plastic and modern plastic, looks fine if the same paint scheme. If it eases your headcannon just say the older ones are PDF and the new are guard!
From a gameplay perspective, there's probably not gonna be any major difference while looking at them from above and I think you shouldn't realistically expect any objections or bitching from even the mostest anallest of Those Guys, if you decided to mix and match grumpies and new Guardsmen.
https://preview.redd.it/32fcbbvr6osc1.png?width=818&format=png&auto=webp&s=abac033d67d00f28d85e5ef6e909e55281c2d605
From a hobby/modeling perspective, it's an entirely subjective matter. How focused on/dedicated to unit coherence are you? That's open YMMV waters there. Personally, I don't mind but I still prefer my blobs coherent: I had the luxury of running into enough oldscale bits and bobs for all the infantry and Command Squads I will ever need, but I'm not above kitbashing on them stuff from the new ones (like those fancy new DF Autoguns and new special weapons, since the old-school special weapons were only briefly available on those **A̶͚̙͉̔͑̒͌̈́C̸̩̾̎̍͘C̸͚͔̀̚Ȕ̸̡̜͚̋̃Ŗ̸̻̭͋̔S̸̛͚͚͜Ḙ̸̮̈́̃͋̚D̷̡̠͈̎ ̸̢̺̺̆̂2̸̱̌̋͝0̴̨͇͔͈͓͛̄̾̕2̶̡̖̙̊̑̀̔1̶̘̥̘̈́ ̶͇͍͙̘̾Ć̶̨̱̖͋̎͂͆Ǎ̴̮͖̘͕̺̽̾̕D̶̥͖̿̄̃̌I̴̢͍͕̤͚͗A̴̟͉͆̈́̑N̵͓̂̀ ̸̺̪͉̈́̐̾̚͝ͅS̴̘̗̲̔̆Ḫ̶̽̕Ǫ̶̙̪̌̿̏C̶̥̘̔̽̆̍̚K̵̢͇̪͚̏͘ ̵͉͆͘͠T̵̨͖͔̑͒̓͋̃R̶̲̅̄̆Ő̸̪̗́̍̚O̵̢̠̮͛̊̋̒̏P̵̛͍̰͑ͅS̶̛͓̥̻̒̂̐̚ ̶̫̗̀̃U̸̫̺̼̿ͅP̸̯͈͉̃̚͝G̴̘̒́̀͂R̷̭̠̐̿Ȁ̴͉̝͍͈D̸͙̕E̶̝͎͚͎͕͂ ̷̠͎̱͓̌͋̒S̵̗̩̔Ṕ̴̰̬̑̆̐Ŕ̷̞͎̼͎̾̈́̆̔͜U̶͇͓̓̓Ȅ̶̢͚͋͆S̴̲͙̳̆ͅ**) or running Kriegsmen/FOBs/crewed Dorn tanks alongside them.
Centuries old war front and an older veteran regiment just got new reinforcements. Older vets with older looking equipment seeing and meeting ‘modern’ troops. Neither will stop a bolter round is what the old salty troops will say lol.
Honestly mine just becomes a sea of green and khaki from a distance. I mostly use the old models as Infantry squads and the new ones as the Shock Troops, and I have an old metal Command Squad along with the new one that blend in with either.
Cadians are cadians
https://preview.redd.it/stf0ea2u2osc1.png?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ef3d654d279a646d3f33a54a0779db8aa5303ee
Jokes aside, they look completely fine
So.... this is key factor to me as well (and my brother, we share our army).
What we currently have is 20 old metal cadian, around 30 catachans (mostly plastic, but a few metal as well and the newest characters too), a steel legion squad, old kasrkin... and the bulk of army is 2003 plastic cadians. ALL these fit together perfectly, once you paint them in a scheme color that fits everyone (grimdark-ww2 for us).
What we want to do is ditch the plastic cadians and replace them with new ones. We believe they go perfectly with old metal models because of their shape. Catachans... will be weird though, I hope for a new killteam for them. But I believe we could actually keep the plastic old cadians if we wanted.
We'll also keep the cadian characters and such, like Creed&Kell, Comissars, cadian snipers (metal), and other random stuff. But we'll eventually sell the old plastic chaff, not because we dont like them, but because of space. We cant keep so much stuff around already jajjaja
The biggest problem of 2003 cadians are their big heads, arms and legs. But the models itself are perfectly fine for their age, similar to Catachans (these have weird faces though, but with alternate heads they look gorgeous and much better than cadians).
I think they'll look fine together really. Best solutions I can think of for them and their differences would be to either run the new cadians as cadian shock troops and the old as generic infantry squads (or possibly one of the other squad types) or alternatively if you want to run them all as the same type really mix in the models together in the squads. Especially from a lore perspective on Cadians this would make sense for the differing equipment as having your homeworld literally destroyed is bound to cause supply train issues!
Like so long as you don't mix them in sqauds it can look fine. Alot of people I know use them to designate different regiments such as using 03 cadians as catchan proxies.
I use 95 catachans, 03 cadians as infantry squads and new cadians side by side and they look fine.
I play both sculpts in my Army, even the old Metal cadians from the 90s. Doesnt look bad at all!
Old metal look better actually. But they repeat once you have 2 units. I use them as veterans.
Old metal cadians best cadians.
They look fine to me.
I have about a half and half army and if you do the same paint scheme its honestly not that noticeable until you get close and even then, it just adds height variety. Make a short kings squad supported by the Giga chads!
I have a combination of 90s metal, 00's plastic and modern plastic, looks fine if the same paint scheme. If it eases your headcannon just say the older ones are PDF and the new are guard!
From a gameplay perspective, there's probably not gonna be any major difference while looking at them from above and I think you shouldn't realistically expect any objections or bitching from even the mostest anallest of Those Guys, if you decided to mix and match grumpies and new Guardsmen. https://preview.redd.it/32fcbbvr6osc1.png?width=818&format=png&auto=webp&s=abac033d67d00f28d85e5ef6e909e55281c2d605 From a hobby/modeling perspective, it's an entirely subjective matter. How focused on/dedicated to unit coherence are you? That's open YMMV waters there. Personally, I don't mind but I still prefer my blobs coherent: I had the luxury of running into enough oldscale bits and bobs for all the infantry and Command Squads I will ever need, but I'm not above kitbashing on them stuff from the new ones (like those fancy new DF Autoguns and new special weapons, since the old-school special weapons were only briefly available on those **A̶͚̙͉̔͑̒͌̈́C̸̩̾̎̍͘C̸͚͔̀̚Ȕ̸̡̜͚̋̃Ŗ̸̻̭͋̔S̸̛͚͚͜Ḙ̸̮̈́̃͋̚D̷̡̠͈̎ ̸̢̺̺̆̂2̸̱̌̋͝0̴̨͇͔͈͓͛̄̾̕2̶̡̖̙̊̑̀̔1̶̘̥̘̈́ ̶͇͍͙̘̾Ć̶̨̱̖͋̎͂͆Ǎ̴̮͖̘͕̺̽̾̕D̶̥͖̿̄̃̌I̴̢͍͕̤͚͗A̴̟͉͆̈́̑N̵͓̂̀ ̸̺̪͉̈́̐̾̚͝ͅS̴̘̗̲̔̆Ḫ̶̽̕Ǫ̶̙̪̌̿̏C̶̥̘̔̽̆̍̚K̵̢͇̪͚̏͘ ̵͉͆͘͠T̵̨͖͔̑͒̓͋̃R̶̲̅̄̆Ő̸̪̗́̍̚O̵̢̠̮͛̊̋̒̏P̵̛͍̰͑ͅS̶̛͓̥̻̒̂̐̚ ̶̫̗̀̃U̸̫̺̼̿ͅP̸̯͈͉̃̚͝G̴̘̒́̀͂R̷̭̠̐̿Ȁ̴͉̝͍͈D̸͙̕E̶̝͎͚͎͕͂ ̷̠͎̱͓̌͋̒S̵̗̩̔Ṕ̴̰̬̑̆̐Ŕ̷̞͎̼͎̾̈́̆̔͜U̶͇͓̓̓Ȅ̶̢͚͋͆S̴̲͙̳̆ͅ**) or running Kriegsmen/FOBs/crewed Dorn tanks alongside them.
They look fine, don't worry.
They do, if you close your eyes, or look from afar.
Centuries old war front and an older veteran regiment just got new reinforcements. Older vets with older looking equipment seeing and meeting ‘modern’ troops. Neither will stop a bolter round is what the old salty troops will say lol.
Nobody has ever noticed in my games, when you run 100+ models in the same colors
Honestly mine just becomes a sea of green and khaki from a distance. I mostly use the old models as Infantry squads and the new ones as the Shock Troops, and I have an old metal Command Squad along with the new one that blend in with either.
I think they look fine together. But I also think the old cadians look better than the new ones so you may think otherwise depending on that.
Cadians are cadians https://preview.redd.it/stf0ea2u2osc1.png?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ef3d654d279a646d3f33a54a0779db8aa5303ee Jokes aside, they look completely fine
So.... this is key factor to me as well (and my brother, we share our army). What we currently have is 20 old metal cadian, around 30 catachans (mostly plastic, but a few metal as well and the newest characters too), a steel legion squad, old kasrkin... and the bulk of army is 2003 plastic cadians. ALL these fit together perfectly, once you paint them in a scheme color that fits everyone (grimdark-ww2 for us). What we want to do is ditch the plastic cadians and replace them with new ones. We believe they go perfectly with old metal models because of their shape. Catachans... will be weird though, I hope for a new killteam for them. But I believe we could actually keep the plastic old cadians if we wanted. We'll also keep the cadian characters and such, like Creed&Kell, Comissars, cadian snipers (metal), and other random stuff. But we'll eventually sell the old plastic chaff, not because we dont like them, but because of space. We cant keep so much stuff around already jajjaja The biggest problem of 2003 cadians are their big heads, arms and legs. But the models itself are perfectly fine for their age, similar to Catachans (these have weird faces though, but with alternate heads they look gorgeous and much better than cadians).
They actually look pretty decent if you just use new heads on old bodies. It’s mostly the helmets that look distracting.
The old vehicles look fine alongside new infantry The new infantry definitely contrast with the old
I think they'll look fine together really. Best solutions I can think of for them and their differences would be to either run the new cadians as cadian shock troops and the old as generic infantry squads (or possibly one of the other squad types) or alternatively if you want to run them all as the same type really mix in the models together in the squads. Especially from a lore perspective on Cadians this would make sense for the differing equipment as having your homeworld literally destroyed is bound to cause supply train issues!