After gluing the torso, legs, and arms together, I used 3M Acryl-Blue Glazing Putty to fill the seam between the parts. I then spray painted the assembled body and set it aside.

I glued the helmet on the figure’s head, and then painted this assembly by hand. Individual pieces of equipment were then painted and attached to the figure using CA glue.

The desert camouflage scheme was a challenge for me, but a good set of paintbrushes and a little patience will go a long way. Model Master’s paints were used overall, and the box art’s photograph of a completed model served as a guide during the painting process. MM Dark Tan lightened with white was used for the overall uniform color, then Olive Drab, Dark Brown, and White were used for the desert camo pattern.

The body armor, on the other hand, was painted in the jungle camo pattern seen on so many Desert Storm troopers (I’m guessing there wasn’t enough time to produce sufficient numbers of these with a desert camo pattern to support the buildup for Desert Storm, so the Defense Department went with the jungle camo. Any of you former Desert Storm participants might enlighten us on the discussion board if you have the real scoop on this). Additional equipment was painted with lightened OD. I painted the division patch on the left shoulder OD with black lettering and freehanded a small American flag patch on the figure’s right shoulder.

I chose MM Gloss Black for the goggles to represent bright sunlight lenses (I think these goggles have interchangeable lenses to accommodate various visual situations and conditions, but I could be wrong. Again, I would love to hear the “true skinny” from any Desert Stormers out there about this particular item of soldier equipment). The face and exposed arms were painted using artist’s oils. This is the most difficult facet of painting figures, and I must admit I am not too good at it.

 Eyes seem to be the most difficult part of the facial anatomy to reproduce, as making them look realistic is a real challenge. The saving grace on this figure is that the helmet brim, coupled with the sculpted “squint” of the soldier, tend to hide this problem much more so than on other figure kits. Once assembled and painted, I used a variety of darker shade paints to highlight creases and other features on the model.

 The SAW was painted using MM Gunmetal, then lightly dry brushed with MM aluminum to highlight it.

As a final touch, I mounted the figure on a pine base that I purchased at a craft’s store. I stained the base with wood stain and then covered it with a light coat of marine varnish.

As I stated earlier, this model provided excellent therapy for a real bad case of the syndrome. After completing the kit, I even broke down and bought several more figures in Verlinden’s series (including their WWII Luftwaffe and U.S. Navy fighter pilots) to put aside for another time when I will need a therapeutic fix.