I got started on the Fokker D VII, and began with the cockpit sidewalls. I found a decent "Lozenge" pattern for the D VII using "Google Image"and printed out a section of an R/C decal for it on my printer. Since this is a such a big scale, I didn't use decal paper, but regular paper, and just glued it into the cockpit after shaving and sanding off the molded-in details, like the framework and bracing wires, which I made from stretched sprue.. The paper, IMHO, looks more like doped linen than a decal would too, a happy "accident".. Although the "lozenges" are a bit over-sized, it won't matter or be very noticable (IMNSHO) once the fuselage is closed up and the rest of the greeblies are installed, like the throttle, flares and pistol, and document bag...
Here's the cockpit floorboard. I added stretched sprue cables for the guns and the stick-mounted auxillary throttle lever, and rebuilt the floor compass...
I test-fitted the cockpit floor here, after finishing up the sidewall details, recovering the seat in medical tape for a "leather" look, and added light grey canvas "lacing" for it.. The panel was painted with "wood" color of my own, and kit decals used for the instrument faces. They're quite accuarte, at least according to the pics in my Refs...
I also added a scratch-built manual fuel pump, made form stretched sprue.. The aux throttle on the stick was also carefully bent to the "closed" position. You can see that rebuilt the hand-pump, after deciding the first one (shown at the top) was too small in diameter..
Next step is to tackle that pretty BMW engine... It's OK by itself, especially when you take into account that the mold is about twenty years old... But enough is exposed to make it beg for a bit more plumbing, wiring, and some work on the engine bearers, since I want to be able to remove the inspection panels, which are quite large. ...
But first, I wanna keep these two kinda close together in construction, so onto the S.P.A.D. cockpit... It's excellent, and considering that it's a kit molded in 1957 (I'm building an original release that's two years older than I am (I'm 52 in two more weeks, lol) here, which should make any collector reading this vapor-lock, it's probably the finest kit sRevell ever made...