SPA Modeler

Wow, I could swear I'm looking at a real one being built! Way to go John!

Excellent work John!

Thanks guys! Feel a little more "comfortable" with the sizes on this one!

Here is the seat after painting but prior to the addition of the seat harnesses.




The seat is resin and there are still some small bits and pieces to add to this assembly besides the harnesses.

Since most of the cockpit components have been painted, I started to piece together the tubular cockpit frame. I started by gluing together the bottom and sides.



The front bulkhead, which had the footrest assembly glued into it first, was slid into place and secured with glue. The instrument panel is not glued in yet but held temporarily by Blue Tack.




Fit was surprisingly very good and I didn't have any trouble getting all of the pins into the correct holes.



Next, I'll be finishing up the seat and then sliding the rear bulkhead onto the cockpit frame.

Just

That's a heck of a lot of detail in that pit. I really like how you did the leather on the seat

Fantastic John!

I know it is a "large scale", but....I see it, I know you did it. Yet, I cannot begin to understand how. You are a true artist!

Damn that cockpit looks awesome!

tempestjohnny wrote:Just

Thanks Johnny! It feels good to be working at this scale again. It feels luxurious.

Floki wrote:That's a heck of a lot of detail in that pit. I really like how you did the leather on the seat

Thanks Clint! For the seat backrest, I painted it gloss black and then randomly dry brushed some brown to simulate wear. I wanted to go a step further and dry brushed a lighter tan but that was a bit overdone. So I ended up dry brushing some black to dial it back down. This type of weathering is more effective if you use at least 3 colors (base color + lighter shade 1 + lighter shade 2). I sealed it with a flat coat and then ran a black pastel wash into the grooves, which further stained the backrest.

keavdog wrote:Fantastic John!

Thanks John!

LyleW wrote:I know it is a "large scale", but....I see it, I know you did it. Yet, I cannot begin to understand how. You are a true artist!

Thanks Lyle! The Special Hobby kit is already highly detailed. You can gauge the level of detail that a manufacturer has thrown into the cockpit area by looking at the decal sheet. Did they include instrument panel gauges? How about stencil data for the instruments? Are the decals actually legible? Special Hobby checks all of those boxes. The majority of the impact of this cockpit is careful painting of the kit parts.

Medicman71 wrote:Damn that cockpit looks awesome!

Thank you! The cockpit will look more complete once the seat goes in. But... I'm thinking about doing something to the HGW seatbelts that have been included in the kit.