3 things I learned over 40K building a scale model airplane

Last summer I took my daughters to the Bong State Recreation Area in Wisconsin. The massive park has miles of hiking and horseback riding trails, large campgrounds, a place to ride your dirt bike, and even a number of model rockets. During my stay I was reminded that it was once an air force base and that it is named after Richard “Dick” Ira Bong, the top United States ace in World War II. He was active from 1941 to 1945 and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions over the Pacific. At the end of the war and before his untimely death as a test pilot for one of our country’s first combat aircraft, he was credited with 40 air-to-air kills.

As a thank you for the trip and the brief history lesson, my daughters gave me a model of his plane – the P-38J, perhaps the best plane of World War II and one of the very latest designs by Japanese model maker Tamija, by the way. It was even made in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and The Richard I Bong Center.

To be honest, I was touched, but also a bit overwhelmed. I haven’t built or painted a model airplane since I was 12 – although I’ve spent the last few years getting back into the hobby of painting Warhammer 40,000 miniatures. As I dived in, I found that taking time off to create something completely different was refreshing—and educational. I also ended up devouring hours of YouTube tutorials and fan-made guides.

So here’s what good old Dick Bong’s double boom warbird taught me about Space Marines – and the people who love them.

Model airplanes will cost much more than 40,000

It turns out that while 40k is considered an expensive hobby, scale modeling can be a bit more expensive.

You can pick up a Tamiya P-38J for approx $70 online and probably less likely at your local hobby store. The board game sized box comes with everything you need in terms of parts and pieces. Of course, color is not one of them. The instructions list 28 different colors – a far cry from the six or eight I used for my last batch of Dark Angels. Most 40K tournaments have a three suit rule, meaning you must have three suits on each of your miniatures in order to compete on the table. Scale modeling, on the other hand, requires much more precision to make each component true to life—especially if you want to get on the competitive circuit.

Realize that there is also a healthy ecosystem of aftermarket parts.

The video I found on YouTube last year – literally the only one I could find that particularly showed off this kit – has had an impact on these add-ons. The build video, created by a YouTuber called Details Scale Models, included a cast resin gun bay, etched brass inner wing components, and several different versions of aftermarket cockpit instrumentation. The amazing thing for me was to learn that there is such a thing as three dimensional printed waterslide decals with raised features for all cockpit instrumentation.

I later found a USAF F-4 Phantom prepared for the summer of 1967 – another plane I have a personal bond with – from user 11bravo on Britmodeller.com. The images are a bit blurry, but the detail on this thing is absolutely stunning. Its year-long build included several aftermarket kits including replacement seats (AMS), instrument panels (Quinta), exhaust nozzles (GT Resin), Mk 117 bombs (VideoAviation), AIM-7 Sparrows (Brassin), AIM-9 (Brassin), wheels (Brassin) and canopies (Airscale).’ I guess the physique set him back at least $350 in parts — Plus the stock kit itself, which applies to $161.

As with Gunpla, your taste for detail in scale modeling seems limited only by your budget. It’s a far cry from the $70 I spent on mine Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought.

Same materials, different tools

Most scale models are made of polystyrene plastic – just like Games Workshop’s kits. But the fit and finish of these components are completely different.

Space Marines are curvy little bastards, and their various components, like shoulder pads and greaves, are layered to hide the seams that connect them together. This is not always possible in the world of model making. One of the wings on my P-38J consists of about five components – a two-piece lifting surface, a two-piece control surface, and a single wingtip that goes to the end. All of these bits must be absolutely perfectly aligned or the seams will show. To make matters worse, some of these misalignments won’t show until you’ve applied a primer over them.

The solution? Lots, lots, lots… and lots of sanding, something I’ve really never done before with a 40K model. It’s just not necessary.

A closeup of the cockpit interior from the manufacturer.

A closeup of the cockpit as assembled and painted by the author.

I started with tiny sanding sticks – flexible, emery board-like material – before moving on to 1000-grit automotive-grade wet sandpaper for the final coats of primer. I ended up buffing off various true metallic tones with a soft cloth and swore to the gods I couldn’t keep my rec room cleaner and dust free. Turns out, spraying highly reflective paint onto a flat surface in a dirty basement isn’t the best way to recreate the gritty realism of a world at war.

In fact, there is so much sanding on some model airplanes that scale modelers often just say fuck it, sand areas smooth, and then hand mold details back into the polystyrene. Scribing tools, as they’re called, can cut fresh, deep plate lines in the soft plastic, but it takes a steady hand to get good results. In the meantime, you can use negative riveting tools to replace the hundreds of individual holes meant to represent the fasteners used to snap ancient warbirds together. Some hobbyists will just grind away all those negative rivets and instead opt for elaborate positive rivet kits — dozens and dozens of custom-made three-dimensional waterslide transfers applied like tattoos to literally every surface of the plane.

A gleaming silver plane on a lazy Susan, a dirty rag in the foreground. — Sand the third coat of metallic paint, then wipe clean with a damp cloth.

Blue and yellow ribbon on a silver plane. — Masking and airbrushing are two skills that I need to work on and that require practice.

However, I developed love along the way Tamiya Extra Thin Plastic Cement. It’s low-odor and incredibly viscous, meaning you can rely on capillary action to glue the inside of the model from the outside – and it’s also handy when creating intricate 40K builds with gauzy details and flourishes.

I’ve also rediscovered how useful a good, sharp hobby blade can be for fine-tuning the fit and finish of a model before painting. After years of using a Games Workshop mold remover instead of a blade, I’m not sure I’ll be going back any time soon.

But watch out for the blade: my fingers have healed well, thanks for asking.

The best accessory for your hobby room

The best part about this little change is that it got my kids involved in my miniature hobby.

My two daughters were inspired to get me this P-38J after talking around the campfire at the Bong Recreation Area about how unique the aircraft was. It meant something to them as I wandered into their rooms late at night for the past few weeks to show the next step in the painting process. They couldn’t care less about chainswords and plasma weapons, and that’s fine. But this little plane was a design we could share.

So it was that I added a new addition to my rec room: a second chair. Now my girls have a place at the table, a seat from which to spend some time with me as I meditate and contemplate the inner workings of a new and challenging piece of the craft. My youngest even tries her hand at miniature painting. First off? Her special edition female wizards of HeroQuest.

I’ve learned that modeling at scale takes a lot of time – just like modeling for 40,000. I may not be able to spend the long winter in the woods with family, but we can still spend some time indoors. No screens required.