@lgardner - glad to know you came through OK.

Super job on the 3D printed items, my friend @gblair!

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). The print is still very fragile, so I'm not sure how useful they will be. I broke off one of the legs just trying to assemble the seats. More experiments today.

I really wanted to get the cockpits sorted today so I could move forward, so I spent a lot of time doing small things. Since the Quinta T-6G rear instrument panel wasn't going to work with this SNJ-3's earlier, simpler panel, I wanted to build a replacement that would mirror the 3D-ness of the Quinta panel. I cranked up the wayback machine and dug out some instrument decals from Revell/Monogram and some instrument bezels from Reheat. I was really worried about the decals, but they worked fine. The bezels were a little fiddly but also worked fine. Photos tomorrow after it dries.

I think I have finished work on the floor frame. I added the foot troughs, and replicated the angle foot stop at the rear of the rear seat troughs. I sprayed some black primer over the frame in preparation for the interior green.

I spent a lot of the afternoon printing some parts that might work in the cockpits. All of these parts came out extremely fragile, so I am not sure I will be able to use them. There are several college football games tomorrow that I want to watch, so I may need to see what I can get done during halftime. Cheers everyone.

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks for stopping by, Louis (@lgardner). Things are moving slowly, but I figure that when all of this prep is done that things will move quickly. The 3D printer is starting to be more predictable and fun, but I still get unexpected results sometimes, and I am still dependent on getting the print files I need from somewhere else. I have created my own print files, but only very simple things.

G's are fun. Training students to deal with G's was fun in T-37s. Not many G's in C-141s until I started flying airdrop. Then you get to pull G's in a much bigger plane.

Looking forward to your joint P-51 build. I have my notepad ready.

All the extras do add a lot to this already beautiful cockpit, George @gblair

Take your time, George @gblair
Preperation is a very important aspect here.

Thanks for stopping by, John (@johnb) and John (@j-healy).

I have a short update for today. On Sundays, my wife and I go to our kid's house and we have a lunch and then play board games after. Of course, the rest of the fun consists of playing with our 3-year old granddaughter. Bottom line is there isn't much time for hobbies on Sunday.

I used some white Gator glue to attach the bezels to the instrument panel, then put a dot of Looks Like Glass in the middle of each instrument. A little touch up paint and it is ready to go. I sprayed some AK Real Color US Interior Color on the fuselage side walls, as well as the cockpit framework. I added a little dark gray to the mix and lightly sprayed the vertical frames to simulate shadowed areas.

Most of my free time was spent trying to get some parts printed for the cockpit. So far, the parts I have printed have proven too fragile to use. The files I am using to print the parts were designed for a quarter scale RC plane, which is very large. I have to reduce the size of the files to produce a print that is 93% smaller than the original. Sometimes the resized files won't produce a viable print. So, the framework around the seats was originally about 1" in diameter, and the seat frames in the plans were reduced to RC quarter scale, or about 1/4". Now imagine taking the framework that is scaled for RC and further reducing it in size by 93%. You end up with supports that are so thin that it is impossible to get the seats ready for installation without breaking one or more of the them. I really like the look of the seats, which are accurate for a T-6/SNJ, so I plan to keep trying to get something usable.

I should have more time to work tomorrow, so hopefully more progress. Cheers everyone.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.