Dunny

Gents, I completely missed these comments - my humble apologies. Thank you for your helpful advice and kind offer! @Grey Beema That Mossie IP came out really well! As you can see I engineered an Alternate solution which although it's rather clumsily executed I'm pretty happy with, R

Hi all, After my Instrument Panel disaster last week salvation arrived from the internet in the form of these amazing instrument decals from Airscale (1:48 Allied Forces Generic, thanks for asking). I found this image of an Avenger IP and based the design loosely on this: I started out by cutting a couple of sections of plastic card to the right size, and sanded back the kit IP to give a smooth base: Once I'd marked out the instrument positions in pencil I carefully drilled the holes with 1.8, 2.0 and 2.2mm drills in a pin vice: Here's the assembly dry fitted just to show the idea - you can see that the pieces are not a perfect match which I subsequently fettled to size): I then carefully marked out the instrument centres using the binnacle as a template: Each of the sections was then sprayed with Tamiya Nato Black: Here's the separate sections part way through decals being applied: And here's the finished panel. After my nightmares with Tamiya Extra thin I decided to use something more benign, so ended up gluing the sections together with Micro Kristal Klear. Finally I picked out the instruments with Micro Gloss and gave the panel a bit of a dry brush with Tamiya AS11 to pick out switch detail. Although it's far from perfect I'm not displeased with the outcome given it's my first scratch instrument panel! It's also saved the Tarpon from an early shelf of doom dive so I'm pleased that I can crack on with the rest of the build! Thanks for looking, Roger

Beautifully finished - well done!

Nice work!

Beautifully finished example of a most unusual subject - well done!

Beautiful finish - congratulations!

That's a lovely piece of work - could easily be mistaken for 1:48. Well done!

That is seriously impressive, especially at 1:72. Well done!

That is beautiful, particularly given the scale - I thought it was 1:48! Congratulations

That is awesome - well done!

Beautiful finish - congratulations!

Another quick update - haven't had too much benchtime today with life getting in the way! I started by getting the harnesses in place - they stand out quite nicely against the Bronze Green. A little drybrushing and chipping with Tamiya AS11 too... Clearly I have displeased the modelling gods in some way, because this is the current state of the IP. The PE coating reacted poorly to the Tamiya Extra Thin I was using. It's completely undef'able... Also, because I had used the kit IP as a base, I'd removed all the detail from the surface - doh! Anyway, Plan B is required. I think I'll find some suitable instrument decals and scratch a binnacle together - looking on the positive side I get to test my scratchbuilding skills again... Anyway, here's the cockpit dry-fitted into a fuselage half just to check paint alignment - all good (so not a completely bad day!) Finally I applied an Abteilung Shadow Brown oil wash - not looking too bad! It sure is going to be gloomy once the fuselage is buttoned up! Anyway, I'm mid-way through cooking a Sunday roast so until next time, Thanks for looking, Roger

That is lovely - congratulations!

Haven't we all played with our Bigsworth once too often? I thank you and good night...

Aaaah - the mobile plotting table! Thanks for the kind words, Roger