JayW Posted February 28, 2015 Author Share Posted February 28, 2015 A cockpit update. What you will see here may not look like much but it is. The RH side wall is done, and the LH sidewall is done save the engine stand, which will be a major effort. Here is what I am trying to improve on (the 21CT parts): This shot shows the completed RH sidewall with the SCR-522 HF radio equipment, side window crank, a difficult wire bundle that feeds the radio equipment, and the flap control: Also, look for the equipment behind the seat on trays - the flare gun kit is in view; the first aid kit on the other side is not. Also, without the RH sidewall installed, you can easily see the red handles to the fuel selector dials. Home made decals are on the dials, with printing you cannot even see it's so small. Behind them is an electrical box for the fuel selector system, and behind it is some sort of stowage box (radio tubes?). I just don't know why I bothered with that one; it will be well hidden in the shadows. Here is a shot of the relatively bare LH sidewall, with its window crank, outside air vent, and drop tank / bomb release control: You will also see a black bracket for another piece of equipment that (I am told) probably was taken out of ETO aircraft, but the bracket stayed in. The control wheel and its post (or whatever you call it) sits there in its glory ready for installation later. It is scratch built entirely of plastic stock and .06 tubing for the steering wheel, wrapped around an appropriately sized round object (I think a pen). The boot on the bottom is made of putty. Do you see the Lockheed decal? It is a little fainter than I wanted but the best I could do. This shot shows the dry fitted LH sidewall. You can see the big blank spot for the engine stand. And what do you know - the first aid kit shows up behind the seat. I have three major projects left in the cockpit, and a minor one: Engine control stand Instrument panel Front switch panel Gunsight Wish I had more time - these are going to be difficult and time consuming. Later. sandokan, lacee02 and Rdrunner 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 That control column is awesome Jay! I am completely aware of how long it takes to make some of these details, my B-17 cockpit is progressing soon slowly Keep up the good work mate, Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted February 28, 2015 Author Share Posted February 28, 2015 Oh - my list of projects remaining is incomplete! The center console, with it rudder trim and O2 equipment, and the rudder pedals. Good grief - how many of you guys really like doing cockpits? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRutman Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 Oh - my list of projects remaining is incomplete! The center console, with it rudder trim and O2 equipment, and the rudder pedals. Good grief - how many of you guys really like doing cockpits? It is actually my favorite thing! J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnycrash Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Your work is just incredible. I'm surprised that the gear doesn't actual WORK. :-)Quick questions: Where does one get ahold of this aircraft "toy", and how much?? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 JohnnyCrash - E-bay is the place I would look, and be prepared to shell out some coin. They do no come cheap. I have not checked lately but $140 USD would not surprise me. Thanks for the kind compliments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnycrash Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I have not checked lately but $140 USD would not surprise me. Hole. Lee. Crap. Well, I just checked. Only two there right now. $300.00 and $350.00. So much for that idea then. I plan on chopping it up, and even if not... I don't think so Tim. Anyone got a badly broken one they will sell for cheap?? I need a 1/64 747 wing as well, so since I have to scratch build that, I guess I'll scratch P-38M to go with (same project - I'm a Sci-Fi modeler mainly). It will be cheaper to get all the parts laser cut than get this toy. Yikes!! Great. now I have to hunt down a set of plans with cross sections for a P-38M. Ugh!! Too bad the engines are so completely invisible here. I would love to see what you could do with those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Well I tried to post some more progress and it apparently didn't take. Let me try again. Work has begun on the instrument panel, and it's going so well I thought I would provide an early post on it. I was sweating the panel detail because the material is .015 plastic sheet, and the holes are kind of large - .1875, .156, and .125 inch diameters, and kinda close together. Lots of opportunity to mess up. So I tried sandwiching the thin material between thicker material (.040 sheet), and using my mini-lathe/mill as a drill press, in an effort to geet clean accurate holes. Here is the sandwich, with some .036 plastic pins keeping things from shifting: This picture shows the sandwich set up and clamped on the drill press, and hole drilling has begun: There is a 1-inch block of wood underneath it, and you can see all the little drill starts I used to properly position the drill bits. Must not drill the wrong size hole! And here the holes are done: The holes turned out great. Here is the raw part cut to shape: And to finish the detail off, I added some .02 x .02 edging and black paint: That was a load off my mind. The panel is ready to accept the 24 instruments (yes 24) now. I have created some decals for them, but much work remains. I am pretty excited about the progress - the IP has the potential to be a real standout in the cockpit. More later. sandokan and lacee02 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 As I'm building an instrument panel myself right now I feel qualified to say - exceptionally well done mate! I know just how hard it is to put a while heap of large holes quite close to each other and I have to say you nailed it Looking forward to seeing the rest of the panel Craig JayW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Let's enter the micro world of a 1/18 scale instrument panel. This is one of the reasons why I like doing this large scale model - you could not do this in 1/32 or maybe even 1/24. Here is what I am after: The P-38 had alot of change on the instrument panels over its lifetime; this one is supposed to be good for a J-15LO. You saw the IP panel last post. Now I had to provide the instruments themselves. I will show you how I made them (I hope the detail is not boring; it's kind of scratch-build 101): First I made decals by designing them on PowerPoint, and then scaling them down on a decal making software program I have, and then printing them on white decal paper. Here are some of the decals: In this scale it is a fortunate coincidence that Waldron punch sizes .16, .12, and .089 inch diameter work pretty good for the different sized instruments. That allows me to fit the "glass" into the ID of the aluminum tube housings - .1875, .1562, and .1250 inch diameters, which also are faily good scale. Here is a tube (.156 dia) ready to be cut to size (see scribe mark): And on the saw mitre box: Here I show punching operations on .010 thick clear plastic - this will be the "glass": I carefully cut out the decals and just left them on their backing - they will be glued onto the "glass" prior to being slipped into the aluminum tubing housings. Here are the parts ready for assembly: What you see there are the middle size (.156 dia tube). The toughest ones are the small ones (.125 dia tube). To finish the instrument, I bond in some plastic rod stock from the back, to hold it all together. Here are a couple of finished instruments - each are four pieces: They will go into this partially completed IP: After all the instrumenets and buttons and other little widgets are installed, and after some touch up, and adding future to the "glass" of each instrument, it looks like this: Here is a shot using my electron scanning microscope: At that level, all the little flaws show up, but I am betting the average eye will never see that. MOF, the IP might not be that visible at all. That was a large project - the IP consists of some 120 parts or so. It will gather dust for a while now, as I start my next project - the engine stand. Stay tuned. sandokan and Rdrunner 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 MY GOD !!!..........Harv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamj Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Fantastic....looks the real deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Just fantastic. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRutman Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 That is soooo cool, J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Boillot Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Nice work. One thing I found out when doing my own dials, at least in 1/32, was that the (white) details need to be fattened compared to to-scale appearance, to beat the limitations of the printer ... and of the human eye. Hubert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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