Painting instrument panels

Aircraft
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1

I am fairly new to 1/48 scale aircraft and had a question regarding painting the instrument panel. I know some kits provide decals for this, and photo etch can be bought, but I wanted to keep the current kit i am working on, the icm spitfire mkviii simple. I have painted the instrument panel following a reference that had a similar gauge layout.

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I sprayed the back with Tamiya flat black and then painted the dials with Vallejo German tanker uniform which is a dark blackish grey for some contest. I then painted the colored dial outlines. I plan to add gloss to the dial faces and do a light silver dry brushing.

My question is, is this as good as it gets or do people somehow paint the dials too? If so how do people do about this? I had considered using a very sharp white pencil crayon to draw them on

2

You can dry brush the dials. A number of companies sell instrument face decals.

3

I lightly drybrush the appropriate colors on, but I work in 1/32 so it is admittedly a bit easier than 1/48.

The pencil might work but you may be doing a lot of sharpening to keep that point small enough not to go out of the lines while coloring.

4

For me it never gets that good,I have no idea how those numbers on the gauges can be painted like that, beyond my ability

5

I’ll give this a try. The pencil didn’t work, it left more of a greasy stain than color

6

Drybrushing kind of works and will look a little like numbers and pointers, etc. If you want crisp dials and realistic looking IPs, buy the aftermarket gauge decals for them.

7

Thanks for help guys! This kit is supposed to be a quick simple build to get me back into aircraft modeling. A lot of the kits in my stash have dial decals in them, and I’ve bought PE for some. I think for this one I’ll give dry brushing a go

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Sometimes a simple scratch in the dials (removing the top layer paint) can make a lot of difference, but it taes a very sharp needle, and a steady hand

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One technique I saw online that I may try is to paint the dials white, the black over top. Then as you state use a very sharp needle to scratch the black off

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I tried some of the techniques here and trouble with them all. I decided to just give it a dry brush with humbrol polished aluminum. I think it turned out okay for my first instrument panel

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yes, this looks really good. Also bear in mind that once the canopy is in place the instrument panel will be less visible

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Looks good from here

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By the way: a tiny drop of gloss varnish in de dials to mimick glass makes the instruments stand out

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14

I knew I forgot something! I intended to do this and forgot! Thanks for the reminder. I’ll be sure to do this before I glue the cockpit in

15

That looks great, no need for aftermarket IP’s if you can highlight detail like that :smiley:
tim :smiley:

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Thanks! Appreciate the compliment.

Happy I got back into aircraft! It’s a nice break from road wheels.