Painting Cockpits

[RAIN]

Do you mask the areas you want to paint black when you paint your cockpits? How do you go about painting the dials so well while still leaving the traditional gray in the background? I find cockpit painting extremely stressful and tend to put it off, and then when I do dive into it I paint two airplanes at a time, just to be "done with it". Any hints/suggestion would be great.

[Bigasshammm]

I've always personally loved doing cockpits. It's the funnest part of the build for me along with decaling. I've always just airbrushed the standard color then brush painted everything else. For the dials very lightly dry brushing usually works out and if you screw up you just repaint and start over. Or you can cut out the kit supplied decals if there are any.

[cvnf14p3ordy]

Do you mask the areas you want to paint black when you paint your cockpits? How do you go about painting the dials so well while still leaving the traditional gray in the background? I find cockpit painting extremely stressful and tend to put it off, and then when I do dive into it I paint two airplanes at a time, just to be "done with it". Any hints/suggestion would be great.

I do what "BIGASSHAMM" does and I enjoy it too, but if your a perfectionist it can be frustrating. I start out with a single coat of Tamiya primer, it helps accent the controls a little more and makes the paint stick to the plastic and allows for a nice even coat. Once that drys I'll paint the tub by airbrush, normally light ghost gray for U.S. modern a/c. Once that's dry I spray it with either future our a gloss coat. Next step I use a very, very fine paint brush and thinned out flat black paint. I'll drop the paint in between the dials and diplays on the control panel and let gravity take its course. Sometimes I'll have a little over flow in spots and I'll touch it up with the ghost gray. Control panels on the left and right sides of the ejection seat I brush flat black on, the thinner the better too. As far as the raised surfaces; buttons, knobs, dials, etc. I use either very light gray or flat white. I'll take an old brush and lightly dip it in the paint and get most of it off by brushing it off on my work bench surface. Once I can barely tell there's any paint on the brush, I'll gently graze the brush over the raised surfaces of the panels. The light color on top of the black raises the lines nicely. Then I'll go back and hit the major controls with red and yellow, i.e. master arm switch, buttons on the control stick & throttle, etc. Last, once she's all put together I'll go over it with a dull or flat coat, that makes it look more realistic.

Don't get me wrong, it takes a ton of practice and I've had to start over on a few occassions, but in the long run that's what you'll be proud of, a good cockpit is art as far as I'm concearned! Here's an F-14D I built a few years ago. Overall I was pleased with the cockpit I did; never perfect but not too shabby. No pics of the front controls, sorry, the shadows weren't cooperating.

Edited May 18, 2011 by cvnf14p3ordy

[datsun74]

For a quick and dirty method, spray cockpit with Tamiya White primer. Allow to dry fully. Then spray with Acrylic (I use MM) black. When mostly dry, take a razor blade and gently scrape away black paint on raised dials. As an alternative you can use a sanding stick to lightly take off top layer of softer black. Perfect dials everytime. If you then care to wash them and seal them you may do the detail painting as mentioned above in previous posts.

Hope this helps.

[wgpavan]

I use different methods depending on the cockpit. Why? There are differences between the details, some have very defined details while others don´t.

One method I like the most (and also the fastest) is what datsun said, but instead of scrape the acrylic I use sand paper to do the job, so I just sand the black from the buttons.

When I paint resin cockpits, I use to paint it entirely with the base color, than mask and apply the black, and than use a very thin brush or toothpick to paint the buttons. :)

Some friends say I am nuts, but it is the most funny part of the building for me. :D

Cheers,

Wolney

[RedStar]

Cockpits are definitely one of my very favorite parts of building aircraft models. I'm actually working on an article for my club's website on painting cockpits. That said for painting the dials - which seems to be your specific question, there are a few keys that I'll point out:

1) Paint the main instrument background color - whether that be gray for a modern US cockpit, chrome green for a US WW2 subject or whatever. Consult your references for this color.

2) Paint the backgrounds of the dials - the black for the dial face, and then the bezel color as well - lots of time the bezel (the "container" surrounding the instrument) is black just like the instrument face.

3) Use artist oil paint - titanium white to pick out the major details of the dial face - using the oil paint, and a good sharp 5/0 or smaller brush will allow you to use the thicker paint to carefully control the application.

4) If there are separate details that need to be picked out, use a small filburt brush and dry brush the details - wet just the tip of the brush, then wipe off most of the paint on a piece of fiberless paper (such as tracing paper - you don't want to use newspaper or similar, as the fiber gets picked up by the brush and can be transferred to your part - not pretty). Once you've wiped off the paint, gently stroke the tip of the brush over the instrument face. The raised details will pick up just a bit of the white paint. This will also pick up the circular border between the dial and bezel, which will help make the instrument distinct.

5) Once all of this is done, mix up a small batch of crystal clear epoxy. Use a toothpick to dab very small bits onto the instrument face. The liquid epoxy will flow to the edges of the instrument. With proper application, it'll look just like a lens on the instrument.

None of these steps are terribly hard, just takes a little practice, and you can have a world class cockpit in no time!

Lots of other steps involved for the rest of the tub, etc. I'll post a link here when my article (and the associated pictures) are complete!

Hope this helps!

Paul

[Av8fan]

I am trying the following which I read about someplace, but can not remember where:

Brush pain white enamel onto the instrument panel. LEt dry.

Buttons displays get an appropriate color ie red,green, yellow also in enamel.

Then the whole thing gets painted in the appropriate acrylic colour. let dry.

You can then rub the acrylic off with a cotton swab with a bit of iso alcohol on it. Or a toothpick.

Dont forget the prismacolor pencils: silver, white, red.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Av8fan

[RAIN]

I'm not worried about the button tops and knobs, that's the easy part. My problem is getting proper demarcations around dials.

Here are some example of what I did last night, using a 15/0 brush, and many times thinning it with mineral spirits to help it flow. It seems totally sloppy to me.

I'm not done, lots to go still, but painting the dials black is really the foundation (after the main gray of course). After that I find the rest of the art quite pleasing and simple (though time consuming).

Revell 1/48 F-14

Monogram 1/48 F-105D

[dsmith]

For small items like dials, switches, buttons, etc, I use a round toothpick. It has always worked pretty well for me. Just use a tiny bit of paint at a time. Here is an example of a pit that has lots of "dots." This is for a Monogram F-106 I am working on with scratch built upgrades, and a BB seat.

As for the black areas, I mask with Tamiya tape and spray. For small black areas, you can use a black sharpie. If you do this, just be careful with the paint you put over it, as a laquer based paint will make it run. Anything with alcohol in it too.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

-Doug :)

[RedStar]

Looks like your painting is well on the way then, if all you're struggling with is demarcation between the dials/switch panels and the background color - that's just a case of taking your time and going slowly. Even if you make a mistake, you can always go back and touch up - no shame in that at all.

I do almost all of my cockpit painting with 0 3/0 5/0 and 10/0 brushes. Works great every time!

[Expat Tomcat]

I love painting cockpits.Call me a glutton for punishment but I'd do cockpits all day long if I could. I'm not going to give a long tutorial on how I do it, just a tip or two! I know others have said use a 3/0 or even a 10/0 brush, but I get great results from a different kind of brush. I use a lettering brush for all my detail painting, the tip has longer bristles about 1"or 1 1/4" long. I feel it gives me better control and a bit more flex in the bristles. They reach waaaaay back into those places that are difficult to reach too. Way better control of where your putting the paint.

The other tip sounds kind of hokey but it's actually a big deal. You're painting sometihing tiny here, every movement is either a potential triumph or trajedy. Learning to control your breathing is essential. You gotta find your ZEN! I'm a professional artist, and once had to learn to do calligraphy for a commission I was given. I'd get all hunkered down and start lettering but it was a mess. I consulted a friend about it after having to do it over several times without success. He told me to slow down and control my breathing. That helped A LOT! You have to breath slowly through your nose, and brace your hand against something solid. Eventually you'll get it down, but it's an important aspect of " working small" that's often overlooked. You have to find a calm, happy place and all that other Jedi mind trick stuff. There really is a mindset you have to be in, it's not something you need to do with jackhammers and Death Metal music in the background. It's about CALM, and slow steady breathing.

Sorry, I know it sounds all hippy, tree hugger and the like, but it works.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Expat Tomcat

[thegoodsgt]

One of the "mistakes" I made early on in my modeling career was using very bright colors in the cockpits I painted.

When you look at photos of actual aircraft cockpits, very little really stands out; there are few bright colors that catch your eye. I've since been using very muted reds and yellows, referring to photos of the actual aircraft to determine where to apply them. The ultimate effect is a much more realistic, "in scale" appearance in the model.

[RAIN]

The other tip sounds kind of hokey but it's actually a big deal. You're painting sometihing tiny here, every movement is either a potential triumph or trajedy. Learning to control your breathing is essential. You gotta find your ZEN! I'm a professional artist, and once had to learn to do calligraphy for a commission I was given. I'd get all hunkered down and start lettering but it was a mess. I consulted a friend about it after having to do it over several times without success. He told me to slow down and control my breathing. That helped A LOT! You have to breath slowly through your nose, and brace your hand against something solid. Eventually you'll get it down, but it's an important aspect of " working small" that's often overlooked. You have to find a calm, happy place and all that other Jedi mind trick stuff. There really is a mindset you have to be in, it's not something you need to do with jackhammers and Death Metal music in the background. It's about CALM, and slow steady breathing.

Sorry, I know it sounds all hippy, tree hugger and the like, but it works.

Actually, I was going to bring up my breathing and then thought I was getting too...uh...emotional with modelling. I seem to hold my breath while I paint the fine details, and then I need to take a break. So it's good to hear that breathing IS an issue for some. I simply can not take a breath when I do the details. Thanks for bringing it up.

[Expat Tomcat]

No sweat, I know it sounds silly but it's actually a pretty fundamental aspect to detail painting. After a while it almost gets to be ..... meditative.

[wgpavan]

If you drink some beer, that might work too!!! :D

Just kidding guys.

Cheers,

Wolney

[MattC]

One tip which I learned (although I am by no means an expert) is that what we are trying to do in a lot of cases is to fool the eye a bit.

So rather than painting the cockpit the same as the original aircraft, aim to paint what the eye actually sees when you look at a cockpit, if that makes sense.

So, for example, little knobs and buttons. Most of these, if you look at a full size cockpit, will reflect to a certain extent, but that reflection won't show up in a scale model, so if that button is black and you paint it black, it will lose definition. So, to bring that back, we need to fake the depth and reflection because we can't reproduce it.

So, paint a black knob black, but add a tiny highlight of grey. Do all the highlights from the same direction (to simulate light coming from that direction) otherwise the eye sees reflections which don't make sense and the deception is lost.

Have a look at the excellent pit posted by DSmith.

The gaiter around the base of the joystick is a perfect example. Those highlights don't exist on the full size. It would be technically accurate to just paint the gaiter in a solid colour, since that is how the real deal is. But it would look flat and dull on a model and the detail of the gaiter would vanish.

So, what he has done here is to pick up some highlights, which also add depth to the remainder due to contrast.

So, when looking at references, look at them as an image, not as details, and paint according to how it looks, not according to how it is.

If I can explain, if I look at this picture of an F-16 pit;

http://www.defence.pk/gallery/data/648/medium/F16_cockpit1.jpg

What my brain sees is the following;

Grey interior, Black dial faces, Grey knobs, Black panels, Black stick

Ok, so if I painted that, it would be "right" but would look "wrong" so lets look at it again.

What my eye sees, if I look at it while ignoring what I know is there.

Interior = lighter grey on the sidewalls, darker in the footwells and under the sills where the canopy sits.

Stick = Dark grey on one side, but the top and rear face are very pale with a slight sheen

Panels = Dark grey on the side consoles, paler grey on the instrument panel

Knobs = Medium grey with silver tops

Ok, now those colours are all "wrong" as the F-16 pit isn't those colours, but that is what my eye is seeing because of the effects of light and shade. If you mimic those effects, the cockpit will look closer to how you see the full size. It might not be "right" but your eyes are not "right" either.

My mum (who is a semi-pro artist) put this all very simply for me when I was younger.

"what colour is a red balloon?"

So you may answer "red", but what if it is dusk? or under a blue light? or under water? What about the reflections?

The balloon is still completely red, regardless of all those things, but were you to paint what you knew to be there, you would paint a completely solid red circle.

I apologise for this lengthy diatribe, but I think that sometimes modellers tend to forget that we are trying to make a model "look" like the real thing, not "be" the real thing. In the sizes we work in, light plays out differently, so does shade, a button which on the full size is 2" long will have a lot of visual depth, a button on a model which is 0.1mm long won't.

I hope some of that helps. I am rubbish at painting cockpits because I have no patience and have fingers like marrows, but I try :)

Cheers

Matt

Edited May 19, 2011 by MattC

[Aigore]

Well I´m a cockpit buff too..well as many of you might know by now :P

The first thing I do is prime the pit in flat black, then I shoot the cokpit color (usually some grey) the gives nice shadows and depth to the details.

The next step is just brushpainting the details.

I do light drybrushing with dark grey on the areas painted black and then I enhance the buttons with lighter dry brush and some detailpainting with toothpics.

Then I clear coat the pit and do some artist oil washes and then I flat coat the whole thing:D

For screens I simply paint light grey and then paint Tamyia clear greeen on top and I might top it off with some clearcoat to bring out the shine :D

Edited May 19, 2011 by Aigore

[RiderFan]

My cockpits are probably not too different than others. I brush paint the sidewalls in testers IP Black (which doesn't seem to exist on the east coast). I then paint a few of the switches in light grey (white stands out too much) with a toothpick. The guage housings on the IP Panel are done with an extremely fine (0.25) black marker and the guages themselves are generally decals. I then give the whole thing a black wash (which is often way too heavy.. I need to tone that down some) then give a dry brush of light grey or aluminum. Then any yellow/black or red pull handles are painted.

For my CF-18 I used a combination of eduards photo etched parts on the kit parts with decal dials in some cases. The side panels are brush painted.

For my F-86 it was a Aires pit that was hand painted. The sidewalls were brush painted and the dial housings on the IP were done with a 0.25 black marker. The guages themselves are decals.

Seats are to me the most complicated part of doing any cockpit. This is the seat I redid for a 1/32 Revell CF-104. The belts are tinfoil, the seat cushion is tape, the buckles are wire and plastic. The oxygen hose is gutiar wire (G string I think).

And then there's my Revell F-4. Again, hand painted but with decals for gauges. The back and side walls were scratch built.

Edited May 20, 2011 by RiderFan

[wgpavan]

I was just thinking here how different modellers are!!

I like (personal choice) to paint the buttons white just because they stand up more! :)

I really don´t care for scale effect or other thing, I just think it is cool.

Again, my personal choice, I am not saying that it is right or wrong. ;)

Cheers,

Wolney

[Expat Tomcat]

Well, one of the best things about our hobby is that more than one answer can be the right answer. The only wrong answers are the ones that don't work. Personal preferences are the order of the day. Use what you can, take the rest on advisement.

[datsun74]

Tomcat,

You are right on about the breathing thing, Ive done it so often now, I dont even know Im doing it. Relaxing, that is. (Theres a joke in there somewhere) The same thing applies to taking pics when close up so you dont get the jitters. :) Great tip!

Edited May 22, 2011 by datsun74

[wgpavan]

Well, one of the best things about our hobby is that more than one answer can be the right answer. The only wrong answers are the ones that don't work. Personal preferences are the order of the day. Use what you can, take the rest on advisement.

Tomcat, I couldn´t agree with you more!!

And I will put my beers away and try the breathing stuff!! :lol:

Seriously, this is a hint that can really help us!

Cheers,

Wolney

[Expat Tomcat]

Glad to be of help! Honestly, it's something that's so simple, truly fundamental, that has made such a big difference in my own detali painting. It has helped me in other areas I have done wiork in as well, pinstriping, airbrushing, oil painting, calligraphy, and any kind of detail modelling work. It's something so simple it often gets overlooked as being important. Like I said before, it becomes meditative after a while, much like motorcycling does. I've heard it called " the lazy man's Zen". When I detail paint or paint a cockpit, I make sure I have nothing to interrupt me, put on something calm on the stereo and clear everything else out of my head but the task at hand. Once you're able to accomplish that, coupled with slow, steady breathing through your nose, your heartbeat slows, blood pressure goes down and then suddenly all of it isn't so stressful and you can actually get something constructive accomplished. It gets to be a state of mind, not just a difficult task and a breathing technique. You'll be surprised how much better your results are, I know I was. This really does work.

[toadwbg]

True stuff all that

I just noticed this AM after too much coffee that I was so jittery I was shaking bonding some small parts together! Lay off the caffeen!

[eharrold44]

The tips you guys mentioned are all great. I don't know why I never thought of using a toothpick for the smaller details. I'm in awe of some of the pictures in this thread; they look amazing, and they become even more impressive when I pick up a cockpit on my workbench and realize just how small those details are. Really great stuff.

If you lack patience (like me), cockpits probably suffer the worst. It really requires a certain, highly-focused mental state.