Detailing Cockpits

I thought about using a Sharpie to get crisp lines on the glass cockpit canopies, but then when I tried it, the black came out with a purple hue to it.

This past week, i was rummaging aroung in JoAnns Fabrics. They had Sharpie OIL-Based paint markers in an .5mm tip and a fine and medium tip. Bought a couple and love them.The  red is perfect for the red switch covers on panels, they also have yellow, green, white etc. You can order online, too. About a 1.50 each.

I could probably save myself some frustration if I'd just do some reading here first then I wouldn't have to just stumble upon it.  

Spitfire

I sort of lucked out a bit in this but figured I'd post my recent experience with it.  I painted the cockpit instrument panel flat black, then after that dried, I took a brush and dipped it in silver paint then brushed it on paper a few times to get the runny paint off, then lightly brushed it over the instrument panel and iti came off perfect.  Only the raised instrumentation got the silver which was how it should be.

Well done,  You discovered a new -to you- trick. Now, you can feel confident in using that technique  on other areas like landing gear bays etc. Using a lighter color of the "base"color will bring those details to light even if your using black with a slightly lighter dark gray for the accent,for instance.

Spitfire

I sort of lucked out a bit in this but figured I'd post my recent experience with it.  I painted the cockpit instrument panel flat black, then after that dried, I took a brush and dipped it in silver paint then brushed it on paper a few times to get the runny paint off, then lightly brushed it over the instrument panel and iti came off perfect.  Only the raised instrumentation got the silver which was how it should be.

I sort of lucked out a bit in this but figured I'd post my recent experience with it.  I painted the cockpit instrument panel flat black, then after that dried, I took a brush and dipped it in silver paint then brushed it on paper a few times to get the runny paint off, then lightly brushed it over the instrument panel and iti came off perfect.  Only the raised instrumentation got the silver which was how it should be.

I keep a supply of several types of markers. One neat trick is to use lighter colors, like in highlighters, to cover chrome parts in car kits.  Make gold or other color anodize appearance, or other metallic coatings.  Blue markers over silver/aluminum paint makes the anodized blue on fuel line fittings.

I've used them, silver markers. They do work, however, I find that they are a bit too 'runny' to use directly from the pen. It's easy to have paint flow over the raised edges. They do make a much brighter edge than silver pencils though.  So I've mostly went back to silver pencil, decals, or PE.  I do use the pen for doing chipped paint on wing root and props though.