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F14A Tomcat - PART TWO

8.
At this point, the cockpit is mostly complete. Now is the time to add the "fire" to the cockpit. All cockpits usually have some little details that stand out in bright colors -- red, yellow, white, silver, green, or blue. Using the finest brush point I have (a 10/0 brush with half its bristles cut off and shortened to only about an eighth of an inch), I add these colorful highlights. Here is where my artistic license comes into play. I do consult my documentation as I work. But, occasionally an extra red or yellow patch adds more interest to a cockpit. So, with attention to the overall presentation of the cockpit, I add a few (if needed). I do take care not to go overboard with this, though. It is easy to overdo this step and put too many colorful spots into the cockpit. I also take extreme care with green and blue. These colors do not show up often in cockpits, but when they do, they are real eye-catchers.

In the Tomcat cockpit, there are various buttons and switches marked with yellow and black striping. I paint the yellow onto the panel first, then use the tip of a needle to scratch in the black stripes. While the yellow paint is still not fully dry, scratching the yellow paint reveals the black underneath. Ejection seat handles look better, though, when I paint on the black stripes after the yellow dries. While the painted on stripes are three to four times too big, the effect they create convinces your mind's eye that they look right.

Another place I try to add some colors are the Built-In-Test (BIT) panel lights. These are banks of small rectangular lights grouped together that will light up if any aircraft systems have problems. I'll usually pick off some odd lights in this panel to be red or yellow. This adds a little more color. The last places for color are the instrument faces. Most of these are marked in white, so I carefully pick off the highlights in these with white paint. If you are really feeling your oats, most round instruments have a fluorescent red flag that pops out when the instrument is malfunctioning or is not powered. I have successfully added these to some cockpits, but it is really easy to get the flag too big. Then it ruins the whole effect.