Cado Ezechiar is a vampire of Neferata’s brood, though he’s hardly a loyal footsoldier. He spends most of his nights pursuing revenge against the Chaos worshippers who killed his family and toppled his kingdom, only fighting for his nominal masters when their goals align.
Such a compelling figure makes for a great painting project – particularly with a brilliant new miniature that evokes his character. Daz is a sculptor in the Warhammer Design Studio – recently seen round these parts for his work on Aeldari with sculpting tools and paintbrushes – who has been inspired by the new Blades of the Hollow King box. He’s graciously sharing the inspiring results with us, as well as a few of his thoughts on how we approached the painting.
Daz: I decided to paint Cado Ezechiar because I loved the pose and intent of the miniature. The way he's drawing his sword about to do combat is a great pose that does a lot of storytelling, showing action is about to begin!
For the colour scheme I referenced the artwork on the novel covers. I wanted to replicate the bronze armour that he has but decided to render it in the non metallic style. This was done with tones of cool browns, I started with a basecoat of Steel Legion Drab then shaded down with Dryad Bark and Abaddon Black, before working up the highlights with Tallarn Sand and Wraithbone.
Once this was done I glazed over the entire surface with thinned Iyanden Yellow. To add some cooler tones to the armour I then glazed some Kabalite Green into the pitted areas of the armour followed by a little Gauss Blaster Green.
I wanted to have a strong contrasting skintone against the deep red cloak so I decided to go for a pale bluish tone for an otherworldly feel that pushes Cado away from the natural skin tones of a mortal human. For the base I decided to go for an autumnal forest setting with leaves added to the tree and ground – this compliments the colours used in the rest of the miniature without overpowering them.
The Blades of the Hollow King are available for pre-order tomorrow, along with a whole dynastic melee of vampires and their creaking undead servants. If you still need some inspiration, why not check out what some painters from the wider community got up to with their Soulblight Gravelords miniatures?
You can read about Cado’s exploits in The Hollow King and The Dead Kingdom by John French.
