I think I have done about as much with the interior as my patience will allow. I got all of the fiddly bits installed, both scratchbuilt and those that came with the resin cockpit set. I completed the painting, and then did some minor weathering using Tamiya Panel Line Accent and artist's oils. I had originally planned to use a 3D instrument panel that I had for a B-17G, but it wasn't really going to fit well, so I used a decal for the instruments that I robbed from a KitsWorld decal set.
I needed various colors of decal sheet that I could cut up into shapes to add to the interior. I planned to use black decal sheet cut to size to represent the passage between the flight deck and the nose compartment. I also needed some olive drab for straps, as well as some yellow and red in various places. I didn't have any color decal sheet, so I made my own by spraying Tamiya paint from a can onto a sheet of clear decal paper. Then I simply cut what I needed and used them as decals. Worked great.
The resin set had 6 seats that were to be built using resin and photoetch. I needed more seats, so I scratchbuilt several more that would be placed in the radio/ferret compartment. I had a set of KitsWorld 3D seatbelts for this plane that I wanted to try. After watching a couple of YouTube videos on how to apply them, I used the belts for the pilot's seats. The belts conformed without trouble, but the seats didn't take much handling before the belts loosened. In accordance with the recommendations in the video, I applied a little superglue to the belts to keep them in place. So, I can attest that a little superglue is a good idea.
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1. Resin seats, plus 3D decals for seatbelts.
2. Resin seats, plus ProModeler seatbelts cut to size.
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1. Homemade seats for the radio compartment. Promodeler seatbelt decals added. Still needs some clear flat sprayed on.
For the rest of the seats, I used a really old set of decals from Monogram ProModeler. Back in the day they sold several sets of decals that had various instrument panels on them, as well as some seatbelts. Last time I used a set of these decals, the instrument panel disintegrated, so I sprayed them with some clear gloss to renew them. They worked perfectly, but you have to remember that you are essentially making one continuous decal sheet, so you need to carefully cut the decals as close as you can to the belts.
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1. I cut these up to add dials to the various black boxes in the radio compartment.
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1. Belts aren't too bad, but probably won't be visible once the plane is closed up.
Tomorrow I plan to install the seats, as well as the control yokes. After this all dries, it will be time to close up the cockpit. Thanks for tuning in. Cheers.
8 additional images. Click to enlarge.
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1. Radio/ferret compartment. I added some black boxes to represent the ferret equipment.
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1. Ferret operator's scope and desk added.
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1. Large and small oxygen bottles were missing from the resin set, so I scrounged the large ones, and scratchbuilt the smaller ones, as well as the fire extinguishers.
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1. Photoetch doors came with the resin cockpit set. Decals from a KitsWorld decal set for B-17s.
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1. Instruments don't stand out much, but I think it will be OK. Rudder pedals were added using leftover photoetch.
2. Opening to the nose compartment isn't provided in the resin floor. I simulated the opening using black decal sheet that I made.
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1. Passage to flight deck added using my homemade black decal. Dials on the black box came from the ProModeler decal set.
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1. Navigator's chart added using white decal sheet that I made.
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1. Resin added to overhead panel.
