I started collecting Empire back when I was 12, I had a unit of knights panther (for some reason I was mad about those guys) and the empire war wagon! I got back into the hobby a couple of years ago and due to my Daemon army getting all the love, decided that 2011 would be the year of the Gunpowder Monkey. I wanted to keep my list fluffy so, despite having a yearning for a green and white Stirlander paint scheme, decided that with all my artillery and some Empire celebrities that the obvious approach would be to create an Altdorf colour scheme!
My plan is to paint up one unit at a time before starting the next one, hopefully this will mean I actually finish some units! I also plan to paint up a rank to nail the colour scheme before finishing the rest of the unit. Painting around 4k of Daemons last year and a short attention span has resulted in a lot of half finished units/models and a lot of stuttering around with paint schemes. Luckily my girlfriend enjoys the painting so she has begun helping me out this time.
I've begun working on my unit of Reiksguard Knights and have finished the front rank and an arch-lector/warrior priest (conversion from the General plastic kit). Despite the bad press, this large unit have been doing the business for me so far and are proving extremely hard to get rid of! The flaming banner is useful against those bloody regenerating units (such as hydras) and a warrior priest/archlector helps mitigate rubber lance syndrome).
CHAAAAAAAARGE!
Here is the Warrior Priest on his own.
My girlfriend has been given a unit of 25 Greatswords which represents the Reiskguard Foot regiment (hence the colours) and an accompanying warrior priest. She is still halfway through, so I don't think its a fair example of her skills yet. She has OCD levels of neatness so any messy patches will be gone before she considers them finished! These guys have yet to really pay me back in points cost per game but they do make a lot of players think twice about charging in with a single monster or unit. Defensive buffs are my usual choice for these guys as the re-rolls and str 5 attacks chomp through most things pretty nicely without enhancement.
Warrior Priest close up, I gave him one of my Daemonettes heads and a Great Weapon - I'm a big fan of converting my characters to make them unique! Most of my characters have defensive load outs, they are in units to give buffs and not to cause damage so I want them to stick around.
I'll get the finished regiments posted up soon! My plan is to paint a unit of Flaggies next. I love the models so I have been looking forward to them. I figure the Altdorfian Warrior Priests will have picked them up while giving sermons in the surrounding local villages.
My girlfriend and I are then going to have a mini Wizard painting contest. I've converted a Grey wizard and my girlfriend is going to be doing a standard Amethyst Wizard. She has free reign with the scheme so it should be interesting to see what she comes up with!