High Warden - Rider, Wings, Base

The rider is mostly finished.
Some minor corrections will be needed, but I'm not planning to change the overall look.

I wanted to challenge myself and not use metallic paints on this model. All parts painted with regular matt acrylic paints using washes, layering, and minimal drybushing techniques.

The model is still in subassemblies, almost nothing is glued yet (push fit)

The idea is to use cold colors on the rider and warm colors on the Griffon. I picked the green-blue color scheme on the armor because I can follow that later on the Spireguard models. I'm also planning purple on the Swordmasters so this scheme will go with both and the final Elven army will look great together.

The basing is finished in the same theme as the whole army is planned and which I also used on the temple ruins scenery pieces. The greenstuff tentacle vines will hold up the model making it look more natural than the original plastic stick.

It already looks good but I added some Vallejo earth texture where the bricks are missing and painted everything.

Finally static grass, grass tufts and some red flowers were added to finish it.

Painting the cape was the first hard part. Finally I managed to do the smooth transitions I wanted with a mix of feathering and wet blending. It looks much better in real than on the photo, actually holding the model it is hard to notice that the shadows are painted and not cast by the light itself. It worked out great.

some paint is rubbed of from the sides but that will be corrected easily later

the runes are so tiny, it took some time to do them right

The cape is too big flat surface to leave it as it is, so I did a little freehand painting on the bottom. Just some random runes on one side and just some lines on the other side. I'm not sure about the neon green color, but considering both sides of the cape I still don't have any better idea for a color which goes with the light blue and the dark purple as well.

Painting the wings was the easiest, fastest and most awesome looking part so far.

top side

Dark and light feathers are matching the body colors. The brownish-red colors and the lighter beige spices up the overall scheme, the red feather ends goes as far as bright orange highlights to finish the effect and make these wings stand out.

bottom side

The bottom side is a little darker because of the light comes from almost top and I'm trying to make the models shadows accurate.

I enjoyed the fast dry brushing technique which gave a good base for the final touches for edge highlights.

Now coming an interesting part, the body of the Griffon. I have an idea which can look awesome, but I'm not sure yet if I can make it to look right. I'm going to try it anyway and show you the outcome soon!