Gustav cockpit question / update

[Astro32]

Hi everybody!

Last night I did some more work on my Gustav's cockpit. I re-painted the seat harness because I felt the color I used wasn't quite right- it was a mix of radome tan and armor sand, so I re- did the harness in a mix of Gulf War armor sand and Olive Drab (from the basic Testors line). This comes real close to a photo of an original harness I got from the White One Website. Now the contrast is much lower so I'm happy! The Cutting Edge resin 'pit is a great improvement. I'm adding a few bits from the Eduard photoetch set, like the chains for the trim-wheels, oxygen system gauges sub-panel, etc., and some additional wiring and stuff. I was considering using the Eduard set's instrument panel, but I had another look at the C.E. set's panel, so I think I'll use it.

But I do have a question: I know that 109's weren't real heavy on cockpit placards, but there is one on the cannon breech cover that's fairly prominent. Does anybody do the appropriate placard for this? Or, I know it's small, so is there a good generic red placard that looks good in this application?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Ross

P.S.- getting a digi camera soon! I promise photos when I have it!

[LSP_Ray]

I like Archer Transfers stuff for placards: http://www.archertransfers.com/AR35215.html

US stuff: http://www.archertransfers.com/AR35210S.html , http://www.archertransfers.com/AR35210X.html , http://www.archertransfers.com/AR35210W.html Sure it's not actually aircraft related, but you can't read them anyway.

 

Unfortunately, no red placards, but Eduard has those in some of their sets, as do Hobby Decal, but they are mainly exterior stuff.

 

You can take a white stencil and paint it red with Tamiya Clear Red, that works pretty good.

[thierry laurent]

Note that this stencil was far from being systematically present on the MG151 breech cover...

 

if you cannot find one that is close enough, here's how to do it yourself: buy some aluminium tape in a DIY shop, cut a rectangle corresponding to the stencil plate, glue it, paint it black and use a fine needle and/or the tip if a very pointy scalpel blade to scrape edges and simulate letters. I used this tip and the past and if you work cautiously, you can obtain very good results!

 

Another, more technology-oriented variant asks for making a stencil pattern in MS Word and printing it on decal paper to glue it on the aforementioned alu tape strip!

 

HTH

[t.valdez]

Super Scale makes an HO and smaller scale of train placards which are indistinguishable from typical cockpit placards of the era. Check out your local hobby and train shop to see what I am talking about. Waldron had some placards for the Fw-190 and while it has been awhile since I revieed the set, there might be a placard suitable for the MG. But hurry, they will soon be out of business and not available.