cockpits,to decal or not to decal?

Some of the more advanced, not to say wealthy, modelers use Waldron or Historex mini-punch and die sets to punch out the decal faces individually to apply to sandwich-type panels, either scratch-built or aftermarket. They punch out the opening for the instrument, punch out the instrument decal, and cover it with a disc punched out from clear plastic.

If you want to scratch build the side console details, decals can provide a good starting point. The side consoles of real aircraft are made up of sections related to each seperate control panel, if you apply the decals to a piece of plastic card, you can cut out each section and glue them onto the smooth cockpit tub, leaving a small gap between them. (paint the edges black first) If you have good references, you can even use slightly thicker pices of card for some sections. If working in larger scales (1/32) you can drill out the corners to simulate the fasteners used to secure the individual panels.

The next step is to glue the switches and knobs onto the cosoles. Make these from stretched sprue etc. If you use light grey sprue, they will already be the correct colour.

Once you have finished, you will see that the decal provides all the writing and markings around the switches, and the switches and the plastic card provides the 3D look of the real thing.

This is a very time consuming way of doing things, but is one way to get nicely detailed consoles.

Aftermarket, resin cockpits are the best way to acheive a high level of detail. A resin cockpit along with a moderate amount of scratchbuilding deliver the best results. I do agree with you though, I am tired of companies selling us smooth, detail free consoles.