I spent the day getting all of the interior parts ready to assemble and added to the fuselage. Only the Revell kit furnished decals for the instrument panel and seat belts, so I used some old school decals from the storage locker to answer the call. Back in the mid-90s, both Monogram and IPMS offered sheets of decals for instrument panels and seatbelts. They are for specific airplanes, but I have used them in the past to stand-in for a variety of airplanes. I did a little cut and piece to make them work for the Hudsons. The decals worked perfectly for the pilot's seat, which has shoulder harnesses. The rest of the seats, which don't have shoulder harnesses, required me to cut off the shoulder harnesses and just use the seatbelts. The extra shoulder harness portions that I cut off came in handy for the pilot's seat, which was taller than the decal shoulder harnesses. The instrument panel was created using pieces of a P-51B panel, a P-51D panel, and a P-39 panel. I think the Frankenstein seatbelts and instrument panels will work fine in the small cockpit. I spent some time doing some detail painting. I finished by sealing everything in a coat of clear flat. Assembly tomorrow.
7 attached images. Click to enlarge.
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1. Handy sheet. They made three or four different ones in 1/72, and several more in 1/48.
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1. These worked for the pilot's seat, but the shoulder harnesses were cut off for the other seats.
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1. Seatbelts with the harnesses cut off don't look too bad.
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1. A little too short for the seat. I used the part cut off from the lap belts to extend them.
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1. Left side of a couple P-51B panels will be used for the left side of the Hudson panels. I didn't notice the extra white gauges until I put them in the water. I left them on and they worked OK.
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1. Completed panel.
2. Shoulder harnesses came out OK, but probably don't need 3 sets of buckles. I will use some paint to cover the extras.
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1. Getting the throttles done. Italeri on the left, and MPM on the right.
2. Italeri has sink marks everywhere.
