Today was filled with academic endeavors in pursuit of this build. My two new references arrived today and helped clear up my seat mystery. One of my references was a reprint of what pilots call the Dash-1, or the pilot's manual. It is the manual for an T-6C/SNJ-4, which should be very close to my plane. There was a very good diagram of the seat which perfectly matched what I thought was the rear seat. According to the Dash-1, it appears this was the seat in both cockpits. I have another reference which showed the seat in a T-6G which matched the P-51 seat almost perfectly. Here is what I think is going on. The early models of the T-6 had the simpler seat illustrated in the Dash-1. The later T-6G, which was designed to fulfill a combat role, had the sturdier seat similar to the P-51. I suspect at some point, the earlier T-6s might get replacement seats that would create a plane with one of the simpler seats and one of the sturdier seats. A few nights ago I found a file for a 3D printer that was designed by a guy who created a digital cockpit for his quarter-scale (really large) T-6 radio control plane. His design creates a really accurate cockpit, so I spent the last couple of days printing seats. I am sure there is an easy way to mathematically figure out how much I need to reduce the size of the design, but I just estimated that I would need to reduce the size of the seat by 90%. My printed seat came out really nicely, but was still too large. I then printed another seat reduce 94% and found it was too small. Tomorrow I plan to find the "Goldilocks" seat size, starting with a 93% reduction. The seat in both cockpits is an early seat. I would still like to put the later seat in the front cockpit, because I think a station plane might have had the opportunity to get another seat. While I was at it, I printed some throttle quadrants, and fire extinguishers.
My next problem is the instrument panels. I have a Quinta set for a T-6G, which I figured was close enough for this build. As it turns out, the rear instrument panel in a T-6G is very different than the earlier models. In the early models, the rear panel was very abbreviated with limited instruments, while the front panel was fully equipped. The rear panel in the early models was much smaller than the front panel. The rear panel in the T-6G was nearly the same as the front panel, which means it was much considerably larger than the earlier rear panels. The Quinta set has this larger panel. I want to display the smaller rear panel, so I will need to figure out how I want to create a rear panel that will match the very nice Quinta panel in front.
The last thing I dealt with was the floor of the cockpit, which is an open framework. I am not sure how much you will be able to see of the area below the floor framework, but I want to add some of the structure that I think would be there, such as wiring, fuel lines, wing spar, etc. While I am on the topic of wiring, the back of the rear instrument panel will be visible, so I need to plan to add some wiring there. Have I mentioned how easy it is to jump down the rabbit hole on a build like this?
After I get the seats figured out, the rest will hopefully go a little faster. The main reason I wanted to build this plane was to play around with its really cool paint scheme, so I am trying not to get too sidetracked. Cheers everyone.
6 attached images. Click to enlarge.
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1. Seat printed with a 90% reduction. It has 4 parts. This is the early seat.
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1. I am not sure how much of this interior will be visible through the floor framework, but I want to dress it up some.
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1. You can see why this is called the Dash-1.
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1. Nice front panel diagram.
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1. The rear panel in early models of the T-6 is very different than the front panel.
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1. This is the early seat.
