Moving onto the second week I continued working on the instrument panel by building the light box. I am using a 3mm red LED mounted thru the bottom. The front was detail painted for the switches, knobs, and markings. I then assembled, detailed and painted the resin ejection seat. I also made the decals for the seat warning labels. While the instrument panel assembly and ejection seat were drying I was looking over the other areas that will be illuminated.
The recognition lights on many Navy aircraft sit on the nose landing gear. On the A-7 specifically the panel is mounted on the port nose landing gear door. The kit has this panel molded in clear. This made it easier to illuminate. I drilled a 0.25mm hole from the backside halfway into the panel. I then attached three 0.25mm fiber optic lines. On the front side the molded light locations were painted using Tamiya red, green, and yellow clear paints. The fiber optic lines will go to a light box to be mounted later. I did a quick check and the effect worked great.
Next was the belly light. The kit has the light molded into the bottom panel. I cut off the “lens” and drilled out the hole. Using a clear styrene tree I cut, trimmed and shaped a new lens. I then mounted a flashing red LED behind the lens.
Next I needed to detail the main gear bays. Using reference photos I added the lines and hoses to the port side bay. I also added the aircraft ground point and markings. The wire coiled up in the photos will be one of the power wires for the LED’s. This will travel down the strut replicating the hydraulic line and pass thru the wheel and tire to a spot under the display base. I will add the other power wire on the starboard side gear as well.
With all the cockpit assemblies completed I did a test fit into the fuselage. I needed to do some minor trimming of the cockpit tub for the instrument panel light box but everything lined up perfectly. I am now working on detailing the starboard side main gear bay then will need to get the intake and nose wheel bay built and detailed so I can start putting the fuselage together.