UPDATED: Cool old minis Xerxesbates the distractions!

 

       I would love to blame some medical condition for my gnat-like attention span but I must admit it is the product of a near total lack of discipline. Having dug out some minis from the Mountain of Shame I foolishly decided to catalog them. Seemed like a nice, orderly sort of thing to do as long as I had them all out. What a mistake that proved to be! Half-remembered projects from years (decades!) gone by left me nostalgic for the days when Hinchliffe was the King of Minis and hordes of new releases were announced monthly in the British wargaming magazines. 

          Then I stumbled across this pack (actually there are TWO of these, The Lord alone knows why I thought I needed two, I no longer recall). All bets were off and the cataloging project fell away like leaves in the Autumn. I NEEDED to paint this set-piece for my buddy The Housemartin (he being in possession of a Persian army).

 

unlike the freak depicted in The 300, 

Xerxes was actually a pretty chill dude who liked to dress in the latest fashions

 

although his taste in carpeting might be considered garish!

          I am currently tracking down historical examples of Persian kings dress. I know the delighted in fancy patterns and colors so I'm looking for something to guide my brush.

UPDATE  The Housemartin was good enough to provide some images so I went ahead and painted the minis to the best of my abilities. This took me back in time, the almost Impressionistic style of the old Hinchliffe minis demands a very different approach that I tried to lean into. 

 

 

 

 

        Now I have to decide if I'm going to paint the other one or just put it up on Ebay; the old Hinchliffe minis posted there are selling for absurdly high prices.