1/32 Revell F-4E Cockpit Part 3 of 4  

by Pierre Greutert

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This article is about scratch-building an illuminated cockpit for the Revell kit F-4E (1/32). I divided the full article into 4 installments, so I could go into some details and describe them as closely as possible.

- Part 1: Building the front cockpit - design of the cockpit panels, adding lights.

- Part 2: Completing the front cockpit - the instrument panel and the HUD.

- Part 3: Building the rear cockpit - side console panels. Dry fit of the cockpit tub.

- Part 4: Completing the rear cockpit - the Instrument panel. Final details and adjustments. 

BUILDING THE SIDE CONSOLES

I used a similar technique as for the front cockpit to drill the fiber optic (FO) holes into the side consoles. But this time I used the etched brass panel to serve as a guide, which appeared to be much more precise than the cardstock part I used before.

 

After I drilled the holes, I discarded the etched part.

 

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The rear cockpit bulkhead received the same extra detailing as the front cockpit. I had to open the front side to provide space for the rudders, and allow the pilot to stretch his legs. Remember that the original Revell kit does not include pilot figures, so they didn’t care about this detail.

 

Note that the side panels are ready to receive the FO, which I would plug into the holes from below. 

After I glued the FOs with 2-component epoxy, I trimmed off the upper part, so they would be flush with the panel surface. The strand of FOs will run towards the backside of the cockpit.

The left hand console received also FOs. I added the black sub-panels, one by one, taking extra care about aligning each light over its FO light source.

A final overhead view showed again that the concept looks quite realistic   The instrument panel was blue-tacked in place to check that everything fits well.

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A close-up picture truly shows off the 3D rendition obtained by gluing each sub-panel individually. Also note the complex shape of the instrument panel, which I made from a single etched part. Its design was tricky, but well worth the extra brainwork!

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As I mentioned earlier in the series of articles, the level of details one can achieve with AutoCAD was truly stunning! The magnification of the NAV / COM panel clearly showed that the frequencies settings became readable! Although they will be hardly noticeable once the model is finished, the extra details provide the kind of euphoria rush every modeler is proud of.

The series below were shot to demonstrate the effect of different light conditions on the cockpit rendition.

-         Picture 1, under normal daylight conditions. The full details are visible: switches, knobs and instrument dials.

-          Picture 2, under twilight conditions. Some level of detail is still visible, and the lights become apparent.

-          Picture 3, under night conditions. The lights become the center of attraction, but one can still guess the level of detail hidden in the shades.  

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The rear instrument panel will hold two MFDs. I had to slightly adjust the openings in the panel to accommodate the MFD housings.

The side panels were now completed, except the throttles and radar control stick. I still did not know at that time if the throttles would be positioned at FULL AB or IDLE. Weathering would add the final touch of realism at a later stage.

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Detailed view of the rear office. Note the various switches, knobs and buttons. The yellow and red switches were made with a thin wire, and tiny drop of white glue was added to one end. I built the rotating knobs by assembling a plastic roundel (punched out) with a small triangle of styrene. A 10x magnifying glass was mandatory for this step, as knobs have a diameter of hardly 1mm.

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At this stage I wanted to test a pair of True Scale resin seats I had in my stash. They provided a great enhancement when compared to the kit’s seats. As the pilots will be seated, I would have to remove the molded seat belts. The seat’s high must be adjusted too at a later stage, once I will be able compare their position with the canopy frames.

These steps in the construction of the scratch-built cockpit were completed during the early days in February 2005. The next article will describe the building of the rear instrument panel and comment a couple of final adjustments and details.

Pierre

Photos and text © by Pierre Greutert