Photo Etched instrument Panels?

I’m using Eduards Photo-etch set for the first time (Tamiya P-47 Razorback) and have a question about the instrument panel.

There is a flat piece with holes, another flat piece with the insturments on it that I assume goes behind the frotn piece with the holes, and then also a clear film piece with the instruments printed on it.

My questions is: do you use both of the pieces with the instruemnts printed on them and put one behind the other? Or just the flat metal one and place it behind the front piece? Like I said, I’v enever usedon of these before, and the instructions are not very clear on this. Any help would be greatly appreciated - thank you!

What I usually do is. Take the IP and make a back for it. Out of plastic stock or the kit piece itself(sanding off all the details on it). Glue the backing to the back of the PE part.Paint and weather the IP the way you want. Then cut the instrument faces out of the clear plastic with or decal sheet with a punch or scissors and secure them where they belong on the IP with a drop of white glue.

Once they were secure. I then put a drop of Future over the instrument faces to simulate the glass.

Hope this makes a little sense to ya and helps. Maybe someone will come up with a better way.

Instead of trying to glue the panel with super glue, use a clear drying glue such as humbrol’s clearfix or microscale’s krystal clear.Wipe a thin layr across the face of the printed instruments then place the etched panel over top. This will allow you time to line every thing up and as these glues dry clear there is no need to go back and try to put minute drops of whatever down to simulate the glass faces as you already did that in the first step. I also think that this is a more durable way of assembling these as any twist that might be made while trying to install it will cause it to fall apart if held together with super glue(that part was from past experiences).

Thanks for all the help so far, but I’m still not clear on one thing: Why are there two diferent pieces that have the instrument faces printed on them? (one is the shape of the instruemnt panel, the other is just the instrument faces printed on a clear piece of plastic). Are you supposed to use one, or both of them?

I’m really excited to try and use the pieces in the phote-etch set. My daughter got me one of those magnifying things that goes on your head for Christmas - I was shocked at how much more minute detail I can see now than before. I may even try to use those TINY levers and switches it gives you to put in the cockpit…

I had the same PE set, or at least the Eduards colored PE set. You can use one or the other, I’m pretty sure that’s Eduards intent. I think one of the instrument pieces, the metal is thicker than the acetate film piece. When I built my P-47 I used the film instrument backing because the instruments were clearer and more defined.

Additionally, you can use Future as the adhesive as well as the ‘glass’ for the instrument faces. What I usually do is place the film on the back of the metal panel face, line it up so the instruments are in the correct holes, touch a tiny bit of CA to the edge to hold in place and the fill the instrument holes with drops of Future, pressing the the panel face and instrument film together so they stick. The Future will fill the instrument face but will also flow and spread between the panel and film. Once dry it provides a pretty strong bond.

Another thing you can do to make the instrument faces stand out is touch a little bit of white paint to the back of the instrument film where the instruments are. This will make the instrument tick marks and indicators brighter when viewed from the front.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Kielers,

That explanation helps out quite a bit. I especially like the idea about painting the backside white - I had noticed that the light behind them made the dials and stuff show up better - I can’t wait to try it out.

Thanks again!