Instrument dials

   One idea that I have d9ne on 48th stuff is paint the whit first then apply a heavy wash of black, the black settles but leaves the raised details in whit relief. Since you already have bkack down yes a SHARP toothpick would be the way to go.

Dry brush.  Works well on raised detail.

Posca pens are sometimes useful.  

I have some micron pens .20mm.  I don't believe I have a white one.  Do those pens have a finer point than .20mm?

keavdog

Dry brush.  Works well on raised detail. 

Agreed. A very effective method for raised markings as in the photo.

This is it!

       I have been doing this since i first did it many, many years ago. I take a toothpick. Then said toothpick gets a very small chisel tip on one end. Rub gently over the raised numbers, letters and other things. Gives a good finish.

      Now here's the thing, paint the panel lightly over the instruments with White Lacquer.This will allow you to take the black or whatever color and scrape it away leaving almost readable guages in some cases!

       After you've done that then, Take either Clear enamel or Canopy cement and put it in the holes over the instruments. This will then complete this part of the interior stuff concerning the panel. The last step gaurantees a glass like look over the instrument back lettering. The hardest instrument to do is the Artificial Horizon. If you have a good magnifier then do this with toothpicks. Those tips can be made thinner than most folks think!

       One thing I used to do. I would get Boating, Auto and Plane Books(Warbirds" is a good one.) Then if they had good shots of an instrument panel, Cut it out and use the guage facings in the photo! It has worked wonders for me in this age of Touch Screen Technology! Of course you could scan the photo into a color printer and use the copy, Thereby saving the book to read later!

Posca pens are not that fine.  .7mm is the finest.  You aren't really using it to draw the whole line, though.  Just touching the ball point on the high spot of raised detail.  

I cant get enough paint on a toothpick, needle, or small brush to stick to the surface.  Those things are super small.  I dry brushed as some of you have suggested and it's good enough.  Next time I'll try TB's scrape method.  Some of the bigger raised detail were painted with pens.

Not perfect but I'll work on it.  I will put down clear for the dial glass.  I typically use an aftermarket set for these things but I wanted to develop another skill.

Here's another 190 cockpit with a Quinta set.  I think they look nice.  I shelved this build last year for problems I encountered later in the build.  I do think those two toggles on the IP are too big.  

I have used a toothpick on 1:32 or 1:24 but not happy with the results.  What I do now is use a collection of images of instruments from a google image search.  I resize appropriately and print them out on glossy photo paper. Then I drill out the holes in the kit panel and glue istrument image to back or panel.

Sometimes I scan the drilled panel and use the images of the instruments on a new image with each instrument pasted over that image of the drilled panel.  This composite image can then be printed, and placed behind drilled panel.  Makes registration of a lot of instruments easy.

wpwar11

Not perfect but I'll work on it.  I will put down clear for the dial glass.  I typically use an aftermarket set for these things but I wanted to develop another skill.

 

They came out pretty nice,I like the Quinta sets too,but they ain't cheap,it's good to be able to have a nice outcome on your own.

[quote user="missileman2000"]

I have used a toothpick on 1:32 or 1:24 but not happy with the results.  What I do now is use a collection of images of instruments from a google image search.  I resize appropriately and print them out on glossy photo paper. Then I drill out the holes in the kit panel and glue istrument image to back or panel.

Sometimes I scan the drilled panel and use the images of the instruments on a new image with each instrument pasted over that image of the drilled panel.  This composite image can then be printed, and placed behind drilled panel.  Makes registration of a lot of instruments easy.

Thats very interesting.  Do you mind posting a picture?  I would love to see that and I'm sure others would enjoy that too.

I didn't want to say anything until I had tried it myself, but since you use MRP lacquers in your builds, I came up with an excellent way of painting the markings on instrument dials.  I tried the idea I had been thinking of, and got really good results with it this weekend.

I'm painting a 1/48 Monogram F-100D instrument panel, so what I did was to start by putting my usual decanted Tamiya Grey Surface Primer on it.  After that was ready for paint (about 2 hours later), I sprayed the whole instrument panel with MRP-004 White lacquer.

After the MRP lacquer was cured, I used some Bob Dively Liquid Mask and applied that to fill the dial face of each instrument.  Then I sprayed MRP-100 Dark Gull Grey over the entire panel.

Once the dark gull grey was cured, I used the same liquid mask to mask off all of the areas of the panel that were going to stay grey.  After that, I sprayed MRP-171 Super Matt Black onto the whole panel.

When I took the mask off, I now had black instruments with a grey panel.  As you're aware, liquid mask doesn't give you very crisp edges, so I'll touch those up with the Testors square bottle flat black enamel that I'm going to use in the next step.

Interestingly, the liquid mask I used to cover the grey areas of the panel didn't join with the mask that I had previously applied to the instrument dial faces, so I used my trusty Tamiya scribe, canned air, and my cheap electric toothbrush to dislodge the mask from all of the dial faces.  A soak in plain water afterward, along with more of the toothbrush, got all of the tiny remnants of liquid mask off of it.

I now had nice, white faces for all of my instruments, so now I just have to turn them black.  This time though, I used the Testors square bottle flat black to blacken the dial faces.

Didn't have to wait long at all (maybe 20 minutes) for the next step, since a full cure of the enamel at this point isn't necessarily a desirable trait.  Then I took one of my new Tamiya extra fine swabs (just got them from Tamiya...love them already), dipped it in mineral spirits, rolled the swab on a paper towel to wring most of the mineral spirits out of it to leave it barely damp.  Then, it was just a matter of lightly wiping the swab around in each instrument face...which left pure white, sharply-defined, instrument markings on black backgrounds.

Now I just have to go back with the Testors and touch up the edges of the black area that are still grey due to the kind of ragged edges that liquid maskers leave behind.  Once that is done, I'll put an MRP semi-matt clear coat on the whole panel, and follow up with a little, thin drop of Bondic in each instrument to simulate glass.

I'll post pics of the finished product, but I'm really happy with the result so far.  Gonna use this technique on the rest of the aircraft I have in my Monogram Century Series lineup.  Took only an hour or two total work time to get it done.

Paul,

Here's how the MRP and testors method turned out.  Not bad for a first attempt.

keavdog

Dry brush.  Works well on raised detail. 

I second that.  I paint the panel flat black, as appropriate, then take a brush I use just for drybrushing (a worn-out brush that could no longer hold a point, cut to about 4mm or 1/8 inch, with a straight edge), dip it in my paint, then brush it on a paper towel till there's just barely paint, and drag that lightly over the raised detail.  Once I get it where I like it, I put a drop of clear acrylic liquid into the faces, for the glass. Far, far easier to achieve than trying to pin-point (literally) paint onto tiny areas.