does anybody have some advice on painting insturment panels realistically other than a steady hand. I can drybrush it pretty good but I can never get the different color dials and make it look real.
First thin down the kit panel by sanding its back. Use the panel as a template, cut a thin sheet of white plastic card the same shape as the panel. Take a drill and drill through the instrument faces on the panel so you are left with just the kit bezels surrounding the hole. Paint (best sprayed) the sheet of plastic card matt black. When dry, tape it to the back of the kit panel. Using a sharp needle in a pin vice, run the needle round the inside of each instrument ‘hole’ and scribe a circle through the matt black paint. Repeat with all instrument holes you have bored on the kit panel. When finished all the holes, remove the plastic card backing and you should have a black panel with the circles scribed on it. Tape this down to the work bench and you can then carefully scribe on the instrument needles and markings on the face of each instrument. Colour can be added to the faces for things like the artificial horizon instrument (blue at the top and brown or black for the lower section) and the little red ‘flags’ which appear on some instruments when the power is off.
This way of painting the instruments is much easier than trying to get paint into the recesses on the kit part.
When you have finished painting/scribing the instruments, you should find that the plastic card backing should now fit behind the kit panel with your nice instruments showing through the holes you have bored!
Now paint and weather the kit panel and do any drybrushing you need to do. When this stage is finished, tape the plastic card backing into position behind the kit panel, make sure that all the instruments line up and then glue the two parts together. When this dries, add a drop of your favourite varnish/Krystal Kleer/Future to represent the glass and you’re done!
Takes a while to do, but the effect is worth the effort, especially in larger scale subjects.
Hope this helps.
I think swanny (?)has a great page on intrument detailing, but i do not recall the address. If somebody remembers please pass it on. I also found www.aircraftresourcecenter.com to be a great resource. Just click on the tools n tips bar up top and there is some pretty good stuff. Hope this helps.
Ray
First I paint the instrument faces white. I let the white cure for a couple of days. I then use seni gloss black thinned 50/50. I use a tooth pick to drop the black into the instrument faces. The black will settle down into the low places leaving the white to show through for the markings. If all the markings aren’t visible, I use a wood dowl, the same dia as the instrument, and just twist it around a few times. This will wear away the black leaving only the white showing.
I then use a tooth pick to paint on the range markings in green, yellow and red. Just dip the tooth pick into the paint, wipe off and use it as a dry brush method.