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Yeah, the Monogram Merite series - I thought they looked familiar! I have a couple of them, the D-Day paratrooper and a Japanese infantryman. Thanks Stephen for the memory jog....

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Yep-- those Merite figures are where I first learned how to paint miniatures back in 1968 or 69-- I had the Falschirmjager and the Berdan's Sharpshooter-- they came with a very thourough and fully illustrated painting guide with photos, including how to do faces and uniforms step by step. Why can't figure manufactures do that today? I went on to to the Soldier Shop in NY and Imrie-Risley 54mm figures, then on to Bugle and Guidon and Series 77-- but Merites were where figure painting started for me. As I recall, Monogram only released the 1/32 (54mm) Sherman, a Grant, a Mark IV, and the Whirlbelwind in this series, where there any more? Shep Paine was the builder for many of the later "white box" boxings, but I think there was an earlier blue box version too. Someone mentioned that Tamiya may have kept Monogram from doing more, but remember that Monogram was first with several 1/32 releases-- the M-16 half track, Weasel, Eager Beaver truck, Jeep and 37 mm gun (I still have mine, with the box), and the M48... and frankly they were better than the equivalent Tamiya stuff at the time-- It's just that Tamiya had more German WWII stuff out-- even though it was crap (anyone remember those rubber band tracks?). Anyway-- I'm following along with the rest of you on this "nostalgia build"-- it looks pretty good to me. Keep it up-- maybe there should be a campaign on the old stuff.
VR, Russ

Hi Doug, what paints do you use for the figures acrylic or oils!?

Doug,

That is superb work. I cannot even begin to tell you how envious I am with respect to not only your painting ability, but your imagination in handling this kit.

I'm in the process of building the Screamin' Mimi version of this kit and I'm just hoping to not have too many visible seams and to have figures that look at least vaguely like human beings.

good brushes are essential so I use Windsor Newton series 7, 0 and 00 most of the time.

One technical question, because I'm trying to learn how to paint figures as best I can: what size brushes did you use in painting the eyes and the shading on your figures? I'm very tempted to experiment with your technique of doing shading first on the figures to see if I can paint something that looks like a human being.