Veteran East Coast painter, sculptor, educator, and miniatures enthusiast Bill Merklein is a major inspiration to many in this hobby, and he’s a great raconteur. (You can hear a chat with him on the Small Subjects podcast here and see a small sampling of his work on the pod’s blog here.) He completed one box diorama in the 1970s, “The Legend of Tam O’Shanter,” based on Robert Burns’s epic tale of a drunken farmer and his unfortunate encounter with the mythical dark creatures of Scotland. Bill shared these images, the only existing photos, after he was honored as a Grand Master at the MFCA show in 2026. He’s unsure where the box resides now, so we’d all be happy to hear of its whereabouts!