Repaint vs. Touchup

I couple of months before we moved to Albuquerque, Ken surprised me with a new Ravenwing Darkshroud model that I prompted painted and added to the display case.  I began thinking of how I could best incorporate it into my games and quickly realized that I didn't have a lot of Ravenwing models in my collection to benefit from its support abilities.  Therefore, I have decided to completely overreact and build an entire Ravenwing Force.  While I wait for the mass amounts of landspeeders and bikes to arrive, I pulled some of the old models out of their transport boxes (because they are not worthy of going in the display case) and set to enhancing them.
One of my favorite Ravenwing models is the second-edition, tornado-version landspeeder.  I happen to have two of them.  Unfortunately, these were painted during my first year in the hobby (20 years ago) and have my most unskilled level of detail.  Instead of stripping and repainting, I decided to try a much quicker touchup.  I feel that the most boring part of miniature painting is the application of the base coat.  My old, rudimentary paint jobs were essentially just a base coat because they lacked the extra shading and details that I now include.  Question: can I get a modern paintjob and save a lot of time by just picked up where my 20 year-younger self left off.  Below is an image of the two old models. Before starting the project this morning, both models were nearly identical.  The one on the right received 3 hours of attention,looks great, and probably saved me the 12-15 hours it would have taken to strip, reassemble, prime, and completely repaint. 

 

Pathfinder Card Game Mini

This is the 3rd and 4th model painted for the Pathfinder Card Game: Skulls and Shackles.  The first two weren't worth posting.  Miniatures are not required for the game, but make it much more fun, IMO.  The bases are supposed to look like rocks on the edge of the sea.  Unfortunately, I haven't discovered the magic painting trick for making shaped and painted spackle resemble a convincing wave.  On a completely different note, this is the first time I've taken the image with my IPhone and I was surprised how closely it would focus--it behaved almost identical to my other camera in macro lens mode.  The colors and focal point are not bad.  I did not have a tripod or equivalent and I believe this is to blame for the slight blur.  If I can find a way to steady the phone, this will likely become the new way I capture miniature images (it is much simpler).