Any ideas on painting aircraft instrument panels with no detail?

I just did something to the instruments of an M-7 Priest that I'm building. I painted it the base color, then painted the instrument faces white. Next I painted the instrument faces black and let that dry. When the black was good and dry, I took a sharp needle and scratched some marks and needles into the instrument faces. It looks pretty good, but might be tough to do on 72 scale birds.

QUOTE: Originally posted by maddafinga I just did something to the instruments of an M-7 Priest that I'm building. I painted it the base color, then painted the instrument faces white. Next I painted the instrument faces black and let that dry. When the black was good and dry, I took a sharp needle and scratched some marks and needles into the instrument faces. It looks pretty good, but might be tough to do on 72 scale birds.

DOH!!!!! ::Smacking self on forehead:: of course!!!!!!!!!!! thanks man! that's exactly what I'll do!!! It's 1/48 so it's not too small for that...

Not at all, it's the least I could do! It actually looks pretty good on my Priest, though I still need to do a bit of brushing up before I drybrush it. If I can get hold of a camera, I'll post pics once it's done. I'd like to see some pics of your hog if you can.

cool, I'll do the white in a min, the black before I go to bed and try the needle thing tomorrow... I'm kinda excited actually... I like finding ways around the model designs...

The kit is AWESOMELY detailed... except for the instrument panel... at least they put bezels on it and didnt leave it a flat piece of plastic... I mean they even have multi position flaps, folding wings, etc... but no instruments!!!!!
Oh well, I shall foil them in their evil game!!! I will improvise! (thanks to you of course haha)

hey, josh has a very nice idea friend!!

here is a couple of ideas that may be of interest, but you'll need some extra tools to do this with.

1. you could punch/cut out each instrument bezel decal and apply it in the appropriate bezel. it looks really nice.

2. OR, you could sand down the thickness of the instrument panel really thin, then, bore out the bezels with a drill/punch set. take a piece of sheet styrene and cut it into the shape of the IP. tack it to the back of the thinned down kit ip with some white glue or something easy to detach. spray the ip flat black as normal. when it is dry, detach the tacked down sheet styrene and you should have a nice polka dotted piece of sheet styrene in accordance with the kit ip. like josh says, take a sewing needle and a straight edge and "etch" your needles and tick marks onto the black polka dots. when you're happy, place a piece of transparency between the sheet styrene and kit ip for the "glass" effect, then glue the sheet styrene to the back of the kit ip. viola!! a scratchbuilt "PE" instrument panel!LOL i haven't tried it yet, but stole the idea from another forumer here who uses this method all the time. have fun. later.

Both of those would probably look better than my idea actually. I just think mine has the advantage of not needing any extra tools or supplies. If I had the time, I'd probably use one of Chris' methods.

I just paint the thing black, dry brush white then fill in the bezel with future. Tell ya its really easy. Salty's ideas are tops if you have all that. You'd have to make a trip to the waldron store for it.

you forgot the main thing Chris.... I'm a lazy modeller lol! I dunno, actually that might be fun... and look good too.. the punch hole thing... think I am gonna try it madda's way, then might go into yours from there... by then the resin cockpit shold be here..

i've detailed up one of those corsair pits you speak of using Jeff's method and it turned out nicely. with the added effects of the white tick marks and needles, it should look way cool. later.

gonna try it tonight and post a pic.... by then the resin should be in...

OK here's an idea... you guys gave me a great idea... now I am going to step by step it and we'll see how it turns out! I'm going to post the pics as I go so those who might want to try it can see it in action! (If I totally flop, the posts get deleted BTW )

Here goes, a pic of the instrument panel last night, as I sat idly wondering how fast Fed Ex will deliver my resin so I can get started on my corsair. Then it hit me... why not try to detail THIS cockpit!!! (I painted it just messing around and trying different brushes to drybrush with, doing an Aires resin kit for the real thing)

After I had painted the instrument panel and played with some drybrushing:



After I used the advice of my friends here and painted the bezels white! I didnt worry about slopping a bit of paint outside the bezel because black is going back on next... it'll get covered up:



Stay tuned for tomorrows exciting episode... (dramatic music) in "He paints it black!"

Looking good so far! I'll be looking forward to the rest.