Q About Painting Cockpit Details

Here is what I usually do with my cockpits:
First, I painted the main color (interior green,zinc chromate, ect.)
then I use a double tip black Sharpie permanent marker for the instrument boxes and the panel, since most aircraft had those painted in black or drak gray. Then work some details in drybrushing with gray or steel. Use clear nail polish for the instrument dials
Then try the same techniques on hoses,wires and other details for more realism.
It may not solve all your problems, but I'm sure it can help

I used drops of future on the gauges in my last cockpit as simon suggests and it looks unbelievablely cool. Of course, once i glued the canopy in place, all my great cockpit detail was un-viewable. But the future worked so well that i will definitely use it again. It's a great technique.

You can use drops of gloss varnish to simulate glass over the gauges. An artists silver pencil is also good for giving the exposed look to rivet/ bolt heads and those areas which might be scuffed.

Thanks for the input, guys. I'll give it a shot! Anyone with other ideas?

You should also consider trying putting in seatbelts made from masking tape, and levers made from stretched sprue. Paint little silver buckles on the belts and paint the levers silver or black. These are just a couple of things you can try that will give your cockpit a more realistic look. If you want some really good ideas read Detailing Scale Model Aircraft by Mike Ashey.

Use a dark wash & drybrushing. If you're not sure what they are, have a trawl through techniques here, the basic idea though is to use darker & lighter shades of your basic cockpit colour to create shadows & depth (wash) & to create highlights (drybrush).
With the model finished you probably won't see too much of the cockpit anyway, but what you can see will stand out more & look a bit more realistic.
Pete