Overall the models are not as bad as I had feared with "storm of magic" in mind. I love that every kit provides so many options.
The Griffon does not look as bad as I though it would, however his head is too small in comparison to the body.
The war altar and the 2 magic carts are goofy. From what I see they have lot's of lovely parts and bits and the characters look great, but as a whole model they look goofy. Shoping carts in hardware stores are bigger than those. Expanding 10m in the air, doesn't make up for such a small base area.
The characters on foot look nice for the most part ... I hope they mark the end of the ill proportioned cartoon models GW unleached in the 7th edition (Ludwig Schwarzhelm, the captains on foot, warrior priest with 2 handed hammer and absolutely worst of all Marius Leitdorf). The Witchhunter really stands out though.
The Gryphon knights also look better than expected, but that's not saying much. They are not bad models per se, but don't really fit in the empire the way that I see it. Lot's of lovely bits though .. hmm.
The empire seems to change quite a bit again. I hope that those releases don't also translate towards the rules (again), where in order to have a competitive army you have to use big monsters and all the Magic/Religious gimmicks. What made the empire interesting for me in the first place was, that it contrasted other armies by not having all the fancy fantasy stuff, or at least not as much, but instead relying on steel and courage to overcome the enemies. I liked the empire best in the 6th edition, but those days are not coming back it seems
. At least I save money ...
