Thanks for looking in and the comments.

I have slowly been putting together the Aires cockpit in between other projects but managed to lose one of the resin stays that are part of the pilots access ladder/hatch.

I decided to make two new ones from copper wire. I measured the diameter of the resin stay and found some copper wire of the same diameter. The original resin ones needed a wire grab handle added to each stay (the wire wasn’t provided with the kit) so I found some smaller diameter copper wire and made the handles from this.

One benefit of making my own was that I could solder the handle to the stay rather than trying to super glue the wire handle to the resin stay. The copper stay and handle were taped to a piece of wood, Pic 17. A little solder paste was put on each joint, Pic 18, and then heated with a soldering iron to make the joint, Pic 19. The joints were cleaned up and the parts added to the cockpit, Pic 20.

The cockpit tub and the side wall panels were first lightly sprayed matt black, Pics 21 & 22, followed by a coat of cockpit green, Pics 23, 24 & 25. The pilots seat, control stick, instrument panel and radio sets will be fitted later after wiring and other details have been picked out by brush.

That’s it for now. I now need to put my magnifier to work to paint the detail.

Graeme

Nice progess
Mjase

looking very nice and great work Graeme

Looking good Graeme, your efforts are producing great results as usual.....

Regards

Alan

Thanks for looking in and the kind comments. I have no complaints over the quality of the Aires parts but their instructions leave a lot to be desired. It needed regular reference to various photo sources to check on the positioning of some items.

Just a brief update. Various items in the cockpit have been picked out and the instrument panel made.

The PE instrument panel was placed on the resin back panel and the position of the dials marked on the panel, Pic 26. Holes were then drilled through the panel and the panel sprayed black. The instrument transparency was then glued to the panel and the PE glued on top. Pic 27 shows the panel temporarily sat in place. I realise that as I am not introducing any lighting into the cockpit the effect will probably not be seen but I thought I would give it a go, maybe for future projects. Pics 28-30 show the progress so far.

The pilots’ seat has also been completed. A seat cushion was fashioned from milliput as none was provided although they are present in various photos of the Beaufighter cockpit. The seat was then painted and the PE seatbelts were fitted (after first bending them to shape and painting them), Pic 31.

There is still a bit more work to do on the cockpit parts before bringing them together.

Graeme

I know what you mean about the Aires instructions or lack of despite that its looking great

Al

Looking good and nice work

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

The cockpit parts were given a coat of Klear followed by a wash of burnt umber oil paint. This was left to dry before applying a coat of matt varnish, Pic 32, 33 & 34. The effect of the wash looks a lot more pronounced in the pictures than in real life.

While test fitting the cockpit tub into one of the fuselage halves I found that the part fitted above the top of the pedals was too far forward. On examining pictures of the completed Aires cockpit on the web I found that although I had fitted it where the instructions clearly show its position to be, (Pic 35 shows the instructions and Pic 23 shows mine), it is in fact fitted on the ledge immediately behind the instrument panel. I managed to free the part and pedals and re-position them correctly, Pic 36.

The right hand cockpit side was then glued to the tub using epoxy glue, Pic 37, followed by the left hand side, Pic 38.

Now for the fun part, fitting the cockpit into the kit fuselage. This is an area where the Aires instructions are non-existent. All the instructions say is “Thinning of the plastic parts and dry fitting of the assembly needed.” This is an understatement as I found a certain amount of surgery is required on the Tamiya parts. First, the moulded-on ribbing inside the fuselage halves where the cockpit will sit needed to be removed, Pic 39.

Pic.40 shows the windscreen sill being scraped flush with the inside of the fuselage, the area in the nose coloured black in Pic.41 had to be removed, Pic.42, so that the cockpit would sit far enough forward and the areas arrowed in Pic.42 had to be thinned. Part of the rib on the lower central wing section also had to be removed, Pics 43 & 44. Finally parts of the cockpit had to be given a sanding to get the final fit as can be seen in Pic.38.

Pic.45 shows the cockpit temporarily fitted into the fuselage.

Graeme

Hi that looks great,some great detail going into this,cheers mick.

Impressive detail you've got there with that cockpit. Keep it coming!

Regards
Gray