bcauchi

Thanks again guys!  Time for a timely tutorial.
 
How to Install a Resin Cockpit
 
Looking at my finished models, it appears that I have installed about 8 full resin cockpits, excluding added resin detail walls, etc. like Barracuda for my Mustang and Spitfire.  Like most modeling skills, the first few cockpits almost killed me to install, while this F-5E one was a relative breeze in comparison.  While they have all been a bit different, they all shared the following:
 
- Excellent fine detail, but also fragile detail
- Some detail that initially looks like flash, but isn’t
- Lots of tiny parts, some of which never show up in the instructions
- A big mother casting block on the bottom that you need to cut off and
- Terrible instructions, which are sometimes illegible
 
Tools Required:
- A razor saw, with a variety of blade widths
- A Dremel or similar tool with a sanding wheel
- Facemask
- A #11 knife
 
The first order of business is to remove the casting block from the bottom of the main pit.  Using the fuselage sides as a guide, cut off the bottom block with a razor saw so that you have at least 3/8” of clearance on the bottom.  Be careful as you hold the resin to not knock off any fine detail with your hands.  I usually cut down half way, then flip the pit over and cut from the other side to meet the cut half way.  This clearance allows you to adjust the height of the pit within the fuselage, but also to tilt it front to back, as later required.   If you’ve got lots of clearance to begin with, skip this messy and dust filled step.
Tuck the pit up high on one fuselage side to see how it meshes with the kit plastic.  Trim it with the #11 knife accordingly to get a snug fit.  When you’re happy, attach the pit to the other fuselage side and do the same thing.
Next try to put the fuselage halves together with the pit inside, with obstructions removed from the sidewalls, like anchor points for the kit cockpit.  Nine times out of 10 the width of the pit will be too wide, so you need to shave off some resin from the sides with the Dremel tool.  Do this where you can make a dusty mess and always wear a face mask, because that crap in your lungs may never come out again.  Here’s the main strategies:
 
1. Take off as little as possible, which means that you should sand off the resin in thin layers, dry fit, then shave off some more. This might take 20 or more iterations, so take your time!
2. Shave off both sides equally, so that the pit isn’t off-center
3. ALWAYS get the parts to fit snugly without squeezing the fuselage together too hard.  If you do, the fuselage can become swelled and other subsequent parts, like canopies and windscreens, may not fit later.
 
While you’re doing this, shim the bottom of the pit with bits of styrene to get the pit to fit tight to the top of the fuselage halves at the same time, including the front to back tilt.  You are trying to deal with 4 different things at the same time:
 
1. Width
2. Height
3. Forward/ Backward position, and
4 Tilt
The Forward and Tilt positions may involve dry fitting the Instrument Panel (IP) at the same time, to get it in the correct position.
 
After a lot of dry fitting, trimming and a bit of cussing, you should be ready to deal with the cockpit walls.  With the pit dry-fit installed the way you want it with shims and tape, try to fit a sidewall to one side.  If you’re lucky, it’s a bit too tall and if you’re super lucky, it fits right away.  Using the #11 knife, carefully shave off bits of resin here and there on the sidewall to get the wall to fit snugly against the pit on the inside, rather than the outside, which causes gaps.  When you’re happy, mark the exact position of the sidewall and the pit with a pencil, then move to the other side of the cockpit and do the same thing with the other wall.  Next, try to dry fit almost everything at the same time, including the IP and maybe other bits that might get in the way.  You will likely have to do other adjustments to get all the parts to be happy with each other.  When they are, glue the sidewalls to the fuselage halves according to your pencil marks.
 
Next, paint the sidewalls and cockpit separately, including many of the tiny parts that may be easier to paint off the cockpit assembly than on it.  After you have decaled, assembled, detailed and maybe weathered your little work of art, it’s time to glue the cockpit in.  This is when you need to focus on the pit to fuselage attachment more than the fuselage to fuselage join, because you can’t do both at the same time.  With the cockpit dry fit in place with the fuselage halves held together with tape, using shims and tape again to get it fitting just right, ooze thick CA glue down the sides of the pit where it will bond with the fuselage plastic, using gravity to guide the flow, but not run down into any exposed areas.  In most cases, the styrene shims can be glued with the rest of the plastic, assuming they won’t get in the way of other kit parts later.  Hit the glue with CA accelerator, then glue another area, until you have filled much of the voids around the cockpit.  Be very careful obviously, because there is no turning back.
 
Now you can glue the fuselage halves together.  Using a used #11 knife blade, spread the plastic fuselage halves apart and ooze Tamiya Extra Thin cement in the gap, then let the mating surfaces fuse together as you move the blade along the seam, repeating this process in a zipper-like fashion until all seams have been glued together.  After that, you guys know all the rest!
 
Here's my last Black Box pit, fit and glued into my F-15C Eagle
 

 
Good luck and if you have any questions, fire away.
 
Cheers,
Chuck

The instrument panel, attached to the glare shield, is really good too and no doubt derived from the Hasegawa IP on the left.  The Kitty Hawk IP on the right?  Meh…  The instructions don’t tell you what the heck to do with it and the kit even supplies a big IP decal.  I have no idea what you’d do with it, because it will never fit this piece of raised plastic.  Experts will note that the IP’s do not have the later RWR radar warning instrumentation.  I don’t care.
 

 
But would the Black Box resin cockpit fit the Kitty Hawk kit??  Eyeballing it for several hours, I decided that it had a very good chance.  I have a Love-Hate relationship with resin cockpits and here’s the thing I hate the most.  You are better to cut off a bit too much and shim it later than leave it too deep, which could stress the plastic.
 

 
Next, you need to cut off the tabs on the side of the fuselage, which are amongst a moonscape of pin marks.  Good thing they will all be covered later!
 

 
After cutting off these parts including the rod antenna that isn’t needed and after LOTS of dry fitting and trimming, the side walls were glued into place.  The fit isn’t perfect for obvious reasons and while the scalloped tabs on the top of the sill are on the resin parts, they don’t sit high enough to see them from the outside.  The fix, which also covers the sidewall join is to use the kit PE brass, trimmed to fit some of the resin detail.
 

 
Again, after lots of sanding and dry fitting, the cockpit slips into place as a dry fit.  Note that the joins with the sidewalls will tighten up when glued permanently.
 

 
Those fuse box thingies on the shelf behind the seat are just placed there to see if they cover any gaps on the sides.  They do.
 

 
The rear fit is pretty darn good considering this cockpit is made for the Hasegawa kit and I did not need to trim any of the top.
 

 
With the front IP and glareshield dry fit, I wanted to see what the windscreen will cover.  Compared to pics of the real deal, the fit is fantastic.  Again, note that everything is just dry fit with plastic shims in place.
 

 

 
Note the detail within the canopy hook slots, provided by the resin sidewalls.
 

 
So there you have it.  The Black Box F-5E resin cockpit not only fits the Kitty Hawk kit, but the detail is superb and the instrument panel blows the kit one away. 
 
Next up, I will try to fix some of the panels on the sides before I paint the fuselage walls.  The lack of an AOA vane on the starboard side, which would fit into the wrong square panel rather than an oval one at the top, is first on the list.  Thankfully, the Hasegawa kit has an AOA replacement!
 
Cheers,
Chuck

Awesome! When I saw the first picture I thought it was a real plane. I like it very much.

Outstanding work sir. Building a VAC is a true challenge only surpassed by scratchbuilding. Your work is amazing.

Final pics for this build. Here is the complete Dragon model in a small diorama. It depicts a break for the ground crew about to affect an engine change after some rainfall.

Glad you like it Kev. One of my favourites. The dio turned out nice. Mostly experimental. First time I did concrete and rain water puddles.

Final pics for this build. Here is the complete Dragon model in a small diorama. It depicts a break for the ground crew about to affect an engine change after some rainfall.

Here is the finished revell model

 
 
Hope you like it. Will post photos of the finished Dragon model another time.

some more bits and pieces before the painting started.

Brand new engine just out of the crate. It would be supported on c-channels to be taken out of the crate and moved around Note also the temporary legs bolted to the exhaust outlets.
Painting beginsScratchbuilt antenna mounts for the revell G4. the actual antennae are from Master.
That's all as far as the build goes, next photos will be of the finished birds.
 
 

Here is the finished revell model

 
 
Hope you like it. Will post photos of the finished Dragon model another time.

some more bits and pieces before the painting started.

Brand new engine just out of the crate. It would be supported on c-channels to be taken out of the crate and moved around Note also the temporary legs bolted to the exhaust outlets.
Painting beginsScratchbuilt antenna mounts for the revell G4. the actual antennae are from Master.
That's all as far as the build goes, next photos will be of the finished birds.
 
 

Here is the finished revell model

 
 
Hope you like it. Will post photos of the finished Dragon model another time.

some more bits and pieces before the painting started.

Brand new engine just out of the crate. It would be supported on c-channels to be taken out of the crate and moved around Note also the temporary legs bolted to the exhaust outlets.
Painting beginsScratchbuilt antenna mounts for the revell G4. the actual antennae are from Master.
That's all as far as the build goes, next photos will be of the finished birds.
 
 

Superb, Brian!
 
Kev

some more bits and pieces before the painting started.

Brand new engine just out of the crate. It would be supported on c-channels to be taken out of the crate and moved around Note also the temporary legs bolted to the exhaust outlets.
Painting beginsScratchbuilt antenna mounts for the revell G4. the actual antennae are from Master.
That's all as far as the build goes, next photos will be of the finished birds.
 
 

Here is the finished revell model

 
 
Hope you like it. Will post photos of the finished Dragon model another time.

Here is the finished revell model

 
 
Hope you like it. Will post photos of the finished Dragon model another time.

some more bits and pieces before the painting started.

Brand new engine just out of the crate. It would be supported on c-channels to be taken out of the crate and moved around Note also the temporary legs bolted to the exhaust outlets.
Painting beginsScratchbuilt antenna mounts for the revell G4. the actual antennae are from Master.
That's all as far as the build goes, next photos will be of the finished birds.
 
 

some more bits and pieces before the painting started.

Brand new engine just out of the crate. It would be supported on c-channels to be taken out of the crate and moved around Note also the temporary legs bolted to the exhaust outlets.
Painting beginsScratchbuilt antenna mounts for the revell G4. the actual antennae are from Master.
That's all as far as the build goes, next photos will be of the finished birds.
 
 

Kev you are right, I put in the spring just to give the leg the shape.. It was then filled in with putty and sprayed and presto looked like the booth.

Wheel wells next.
Had to buy some metal legs for the revell bird. the kit parts were total crap. Put in the spring
Everything is now primed.
Wheel well doors are made from aluminium sheet hammered into shape since the kit parts were totally off and too small and thick.
comparing the parts from the dragon kit to mine.
thats all for the wings and undercarriage bays. The closing method of the wheel bay doors was pretty complicated with a cable system which pulled both doors shut. I think that this was by far the most time consuming part of the build.
 

Detailing the Dragon Engine. One will be exposed and the other engine just taken out of its packing crate.

 
Next up, work on the revell wings.

 
That's the main work done to the wings.  Next update will deal with the wheel wells.

Wheel wells next.
Had to buy some metal legs for the revell bird. the kit parts were total crap. Put in the spring
Everything is now primed.
Wheel well doors are made from aluminium sheet hammered into shape since the kit parts were totally off and too small and thick.
comparing the parts from the dragon kit to mine.
thats all for the wings and undercarriage bays. The closing method of the wheel bay doors was pretty complicated with a cable system which pulled both doors shut. I think that this was by far the most time consuming part of the build.
 

Wheel wells next.
Had to buy some metal legs for the revell bird. the kit parts were total crap. Put in the spring
Everything is now primed.
Wheel well doors are made from aluminium sheet hammered into shape since the kit parts were totally off and too small and thick.
comparing the parts from the dragon kit to mine.
thats all for the wings and undercarriage bays. The closing method of the wheel bay doors was pretty complicated with a cable system which pulled both doors shut. I think that this was by far the most time consuming part of the build.
 

If i remember correctly the metal legs were from SAC. I just cleaned them up a bit and polished them.