When you don’t have any refrence photo’s color or otherwise…how do you decide which colors to paint all of the control knobs/levers/etc in the cockpit? Or do you bother? Plain grey cockpits…well are just that plain grey! LOL
Reason why I ask is before I button up the Cockpit Assym on my Yak I want to add a lil more to the controls/areas other than the typical “drybrushing”…however I can’t find a book(locally)or any photo’s or color guide and the Accurate Miniatures Instructions aren’t much help…
Thanks!
are you talking about a yak-9? all i could find was a walkaround of a yak-11 which has a photo of the panel, I would assume it would look more or less the same… http://s96920072.onlinehome.us/AWA1/001-100/walk042_Yak11/walk042.htm
all i do is the dry brushing. seldom do i do anything with all the levers. havent gotten my hand steady enough to do it.
joe
In addition to dry brushing, I use a colored pencil to highlight the gauges and levers/knobs. This lets me pick out the small details in the right color. I read this somewhere and it works great.
As for books, our local bookstore has aircraft reference books on sale at prices less than $10. I use these for some of the common aircraft (P-51, P-47, Spitfire, etc.) but have to search the web for the other aircraft.
Hope this helps.
hey HistoryinScale,
From my travels in the last 2 years to 2 countries (Afghanistan & Iraq) that used the old Soviet equipment form the late 50’s to the mid 80’s in which I had the chance to climb all over and get into and aquire their instrumentation for pilot training, I found that the panels are painted black with a white line about 1/4 to 1/2 inch separating the flight instruments from the engine instruments, most of the interior side panels are black as with the knobs and the switch levers are BNF (of course) and some of which have the dreaded RED covers,
I agree with you about the steady hand Joe. I’ve found the smallest size Micro Brush helps and is a lil easier than a standard paintbrush…
Matt, The Yak I’m doing is the Yak1 with skis, I’ve found almost no interior pictures and no books locally…
Missle, I like the idea of using colored pencils but I would have never thought of that…I have more than a few sets of Prismacolor pencils around…
Thanks for the suggestions…
First, I agree that putting in that white or yellow line that separates the engine and flight instruments adds a lot to a build, assuming the plane you’re building had that line. It appears, for example, on the P-47. I usually do it with a very sharp soft-lead colored pencil. One way I’ve found to bring out black nobs on black consoles and panels is, I almost always use a dark, dark gray on my panels and consoles, something like RLM black-gray or Eagle Tire Black. To bring out nobs and instrument faces, use semi-gloss black. You’ll be amazed at the contrast you get. The same with gray nobs on gray panels. Use a slightly darker shade of gloss or semi-gloss gray to bring out those nobs, which, after all, are made of plastic on the real deal and will be a little shiny. To make switches, I drill holes from the back, and stick thin, stiff wire through the holes from the back of the panel, then cut it off close to the surface, just long enough to scale, then I can bend it to on/off position, and paint it wth a drop of whatever color it is, with the paint giving it a rounded, 3-D appearance. It’s a lot easier than trying to stick tiny lengths of wire to the surface!
Tom