Sunday 10 October 2010

1:32/1:24 Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements Fw190/Bf109 instrument dial decals

I was very pleased to be able help Peter Castle, a member of Britmodeller and long standing modeller  with his new instrument panel and dial decals range launched recently. Peter contacted me looking for help on various Luftwaffe dials and instruments and it was a simple matter to point him in the direction of Merrick's German cockpit interiors among other references. Pete was interested in improving the look of his instrument panels in larger scales. Indeed time spent detailing the cockpit really makes a difference in the larger scales. Unable to find anything that matched his needs, he decided to make his own, and to make the results available. For a very modest outlay you can order and receive a small Ziploc bag containing any of the following products:

Full Instrument Panels - all 1:24
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1/Vb
Hawker Hurricane Mk.1
North American P-51D Mustang
Focke-Wulf Fw 190A
Messerschmitt Bf.109E
Junkers JU 87B Stuka
De Havilland Mosquito FB Mk.VI (available soon)

Each Instrument Panel pack contains a shaped black decal with white instrument dials, plus a small sheet of acetate to give the finished article a glass-like shine. The instructions are concise, and include a picture of the real instrument panel, and guide you step-by-step through the process of cutting a backing to the panel from scrap styrene sheet using the kit part as a template, then applying the decal, sandwiching it between the clear sheet (again cut to size), and finally thinning the kit instrument panel and reaming out the individual dials. Peter has also produced som generic dial decals which should look good applied to to the kit panel and then sealed with a drop of Klear.

WW2 RAF 1:24
WW2 Luftwaffe 1:24
WW2 RAF 1:32
WW2 Luftwaffe 1:32

Peter can be contacted at http://www.airscale.co.uk/