Amazing looking interiors, Louis @lgardner
It is a pitty to get them covered with the fuselage halves.

Spiros, @fiveten
Tom, @tcinla
John, @johnb

Thank you gentlemen for the compliments. I am very pleased with how these two are turning out. Today I didn't get a whole lot of bench time in, just enough to finish up one of these cockpits. So please stay tuned as I have another update coming right up. Thanks again.

Stephen @stephen-w-towle

Thanks for stopping by ! I had mentioned your name earlier about the information you had told me about the restoration of the Mustang named "Sierra Sue". I spent hours digging around their website, and I picked up numerous tips on how to make these two models look even more realistic. So once again I sincerely thank you for that. Using this information, along with what I have personally gathered from being around the "full scale" 1 to 1 Mustang warbirds, it was like icing on the cake.

Now as far as detailing the rudder pedals and seat: This is absolutely a necessity I believe. I couldn't agree with you more. So earlier today I did just that. I scratched up the seat and made the rudder pedals look like they had been used too. One more thing I have been thinking about doing, is adding a little bit of dirt and grime on the floor and seat. These pilots entered the cockpit, and while doing so, they almost always stepped on the seat bottom first before crawling the rest of the way in. Sometimes it would rain, leaving the primitive airfields a mess. England is known for it's foggy / damp weather. So I would think that on occasion, the seats and floors would get a little bit grungy too, in addition to the chipping of paint.

The men who made the history behind what we build are the priority. Getting their story told, in a truthful and realistic manner are of the utmost importance, followed by the machines the flew (and sometimes, more often than not),have died in as a very close second.

Believe me, all of the information you have sent my way in the past, (like with Sierra Sue, and the info on the various turrets used on WW2 American aircraft), has definitely been put to good use. I wouldn't consider this as materials to be filed in the "round" cabinet. In fact it is just the opposite, as I value what you have to say.

Sincerely, I thank you.

Great progress, my fiend @lgardner! Looks are getting more and more realisic!

"The men who made the history behind what we build are the priority. Getting their story told, in a truthful and realistic manner are of the utmost importance, followed by the machines the flew (and sometimes, more often than not),have died in as a very close second."

To me this what modeling is all about, half the fun is the adventure of learning history, engineer and something about the pilots and the ground crews. Going to museums and reading up on the subject.

Louis, the cockpit looks even better. I've seen photos of and have scene Warbirds with the rudder pedals polished bare by pilot's boots kicking and pushing the pedals. One thing about sweating/ doing the details in these build articles/'blogs is that your "Teaching a man how to fish", by photographing and documenting your progress. Nothing is lost in the process and your informing the reader of the environment pilots sat in. The dirt is a good idea, rarely do you see that mention. Pilots sat in a office that sometimes smelled like vomit and if the aircraft was inverted the dirt and grime would drop from the floor and rain down on the head of the pilot. Guy's where pulling G and blacking out too. You can only go so far in your attempts of reality.

Folks will pooh, pooh the details not scene when finished but, with a blog and photos there are teachable moments.

OK here we go !
First off, I used the HGW seat harness set in the second cockpit.

This is supposed to have a paper backing that peels off the back of the harness. As luck would have it, I couldn't remove it from my example. Believe me, I tried. For several HOURS I tried, to no avail. I wanted to pose one of these Mustangs with the seat's shoulder harnesses drooped outside the cockpit on one side. So now this is not going to happen.

But I am very happy with how it turned out.

This cockpit is using the "Yahu" instrument panel. I wanted to keep all of the Eduard "LOOK" aftermarket cockpit products in one aircraft, while using the Yahu and HGW stuff in the other plane. Here is a close up showing the Yahu panel. I used a kit part for the lower center section of the Yahu panel. It was carefully painted and installed using CA glue.You can also see how the seats were chipped, and foot traffic patterns were "dirtied" up some, using a Tamiya weathering deck. Both cockpits received this treatment.

Thanks for the input here Stephen. @stephen-w-towle

Once these items were completed, I buttoned up the assembly by gluing the outer sections to the inner cockpit. It now looks like this:

Here is a few close ups showing how I draped the HGW fabric seat belts. They are much more detailed that the Eduard set is. You have to actually assemble them before you can install them.



This next picture shows the two completed cockpits sitting side by side.

Underneath is a set of oil, hydraulic and coolant lines. These parts were glued in place and will be slightly visible from the landing gear bays when done.

Here are my thoughts on using the Eduard "LOOK", Yahu and HGW seat harness sets.

1. The Eduard "Look" set has a nicer looking IP than the Yahu set. Others may not agree with me, but this is what I think. They're more 3 dimensional like the real thing.

2. The painted steel Eduard seat harness is not nearly as nice as the HGW set is. However, you don't have to spend two days building it either. The Eduard seat harness is very acceptable, and much faster to use. The downside is it is not as easy to position as you would like to. The upside to the Eduard "LOOK" set is it is much less expensive than purchasing the individual Yahu and HGW sets. In this manner, you get a lot for you money.

3 The Yahu instrument panel is very nice. It looks very good, but lacks a little in the 3 dimension area, since it is mostly flat. What I like the most about this set is how crisp the instruments are, and how nice the glass covers for the instrument dials are done. This looks top notch in this aspect. It was not as expensive as the Eduard "LOOK" set was, but it didn't include the seat harness either.

4. The HGW seat harness is an absolute gem ! I am very happy with how it turned out in the end. The down side was I was not able to remove the paper backing. I don't know if I ended up with a defective set, as this is possible. The other thing to consider when going this route is you will spend some considerable time assembling this seat harness set. You are paid handsomely once completed though, as it look magnificent to me. The other down side is the total cost. You get what you pay for, so the choice is up to you and how much you want to spend.

Since Revell didn't sell these kits at a very high price to begin with, you can affort to add some aftermarket things if you so desire, and still not break the bank, or get yourself in trouble with SWMBO. Quit smiling, you know exactly what I mean. 😉 I promise honey, this is the last kit I'm buying this year. Now we are in 2022 so things are good again.

As this comes to a close tonight, I feel very good about both of these options. The kit provided IP is also very nice, so in reality, you could probably just get away with an aftermarket seat harness if you took a little time. I'm thinking about adding some wiring to the biggest box located behind the pilot's seat, as shown in this next photo.

As always, comments are encouraged. Good night.

I have to say, to my eye, having been around plenty of old airplane seat belts, the Eduard set looks better. That HGW set doesn't look very real at all - I know you had problems getting it off its backing, but that's not what it is. The seatbelts just look like flopping cloth, and that's in the design, not the a problem from the applier.

Other than that, the cockpits look overall excellent.

https://warbirdsnews.com/warbird-restorations/dakota-territory-air-museums-p-47-update-june-2020.html

American Aviation is restoring a P-47 Razor Back . . . is using a 70+ year old airframe as a template to make a flyer. As long as the build plate is attached its original or some percentage of the original DNA can be found on the airframe. If you follow their blog they ordered up to 800 pounds of rivets to build this project. This might be of help in your research Louis.