I have begun my f-117 project and am trying to get opinions on the cockpit guages dials and screens. I have tried to go through the imense number of topics in various forums here and on the web and have found a couple of options on how to do this.

1) Dial undercoat with the final overcoat of paint. Then scraping off the overcoat to reveal guages colors beneath. The problem I see with this is what if you scrape off the undercoat?

2) Dry brushing ... While I can see how this would work I can also see the problem of brushing an area you don't want brushed.

3) Map Pencils ... I used to use this method in the past and did decent with it. apply the guage panel color then flatten one side of the pencil's tip and rub it over the guages. Kind of another version of dry brushing but without the accidental brushing. As I can't remember how the guages looked after this I think the problem with this would be possible broken looking lines.

Opinions on this would be awesome as i am not going to start that phase without exploring the options.

I need to go out and find some future to drop on the guages and screens tomorrow. I've never used it on my floors so I don't even know if they sell it out in nowhereville here

Speaking as a modeler that has rediscovered aircraft after being on the "dark side" of car models, one thing that could also be done is to make decals of the gage panels. It can provide more detail than you can get with dry brushing or any other technique.

My 2 cents in trying to think out of the box.

Hi Jason!

I suggest you get a couple of the decal dials from Mike Grant;

http://www.mikegrantdecals.com/Instruments.html

These decals are marvellous and gives a perfect impression on the instrument panel, and they are very easy to use!

First paint the panel gloss black.
Then cut out the decals you need, remember the carrier film covers the entire sheet so each individual dial have to be cut out.
Use as ordinary water decals, works perfectly with Micro-set and -sol, and the carrier film dissapears completly.
Now, when dry, paint the panel with matt varnish and let dry.
To finish the panel, use a drop of future on each dial to simulate glass.

This will give you a perfect and realistic instrument panel!

These sheets are not very cheap, but It´s high quality and you get a mass of dials on each sheet!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Those decals are an awesome solution for the guages!!!

What about the buttons and switches? Any opinions on those? I don't have the steadiest hand out there and as I've practiced a little today I've learned that it's not going to be easy if I paint them

Hi!

Well, I don´t have the steadiest hands either, that´s why I keep to 1/48 or larger nowadays!

For those small switches and other very small thingies, I use a cocktail -stick (tooth-pick?).

If you dip the tip in the paint, you can make very small dots, perfect for this use!
For bigger dots, just break off a bit from the tip.
You can also use a very fine-tipped (0.3mm) silver or white permanent marker pen.
Those marker pens comes in many colors, but black, silver, red, blue and yellow are most useful.

Just remember thet you can´t have any gloss coat over these as they will start to run and creep UNDER the gloss coat (if you use enamels, don´t know how they will react on Acrylics).

Cheers!

Stefan E