I knew eventually I would find people building this monster lol. Ok I have been building this model for 7 months now and im still working on the cock pit and the body. Do yourself the favor and buy the Squadron Detail and Scale vol 55 part 1. It is the most indepth and has the best pictures of the details your looking for. I first purchased 2 eduard etched kits for this model. Let me say that half the parts for the plane even in the eduard kit are not accurate. The instrument console is for a F4U-1A. The side panel clusters are also part 1A and 1D. I ended up scratch building most of the cock pit. Also the instrument panel needs to be moved shaved down and moved foward under where the gun sight should be. I took the original cock pit and cut it apart. this way i could move the cluster foward and mount the side instrument panels in the right spots. Also the gun site that is molded onto the plane is in the wrong spot. I totaly cut it off and filled the little gap. Moving the instrument cluster foward is key to making an accurate representation of the complete cock pit if that is what you are going for. I happen to be anal beyond belief and have scratch built the seat all the wiring in the cock pit and even the bulk head behind the seat which was not solid but made to allow access to the radio equipment.
The biggest thing of all if you want this to look on the money...INVEST IN A GOOD PANEL ETCHING TOOL. I took 3 weeks out of my life to etch every single raised panel line on this plane. I also won a challenge from my local hobby shop when they said i would have to sand them all down. I instead being the masochist I am, took and hoby knife and slowly sliced all the lines off. I saved 98% of the rivets. It takes alot of time, patients and cursing (not to mention putty and sand paper to repair the score lines you didn't mean to make), but in the end it makes the model. Since it is so bigyou can really appreciate the detail.
Email me if you want more tips on the cock pit. Im always happy to help out a fellow modeler in need.
P.S. I also believe the lone star went out of buisness. The new verlinden catalog only has a cock pit set for the tamiya 1/48 kit. If you can't find the squadron book let me know and I can scan the pages you need and email them to you.
Happy Modeling