I was able to get some more work done in the AMX’s cockpit.
The cockpit on the real things appears to be fairly spartan. Not a lot of wiring or hoses that I can see in reference photos. Mostly just switches and dials, and the IP with a single screen on the left.
The kit has two sidewalls that are added in to the cockpit tub. In reference photos, I noticed a few bits and bumps on the right side. I never did find anything for the left side that showed it clearly. I decided to add a few small details- not accurate at all really, but it breaks up the area a bit.
The raised detail is good in the rest of the cockpit, though a bit of an odd mix. Some of the knobs and dials are very distinct, while others are just bumps.
I did notice that the real aircraft’s floor is a gray/green color, and then the rest of the interior is light gray. I first painted the floor a mix of XF-19 with a drop of XF-22 in it. I then masked that, and painted the rest XF-19. Another round of masking, and I painted the IP and switch panels XF-63. In the real airplane they’re black, but I thought a darker gray would give me some leeway to work with shading if need be.
Details were picked out with a 0 spotter brush, a small piece of wire, and a toothpick. Photos of the AMX cockpit show quite a bit of color- yellows and reds for warning I suppose. A lot of it was yellow with fine red details. I couldn’t exactly replicate that, so I just picked out some places for yellow and red to represent those areas. It’s not exact, but I like it.
I’ve seen many folks paint the computer screen as a sort of green, but I always thought it looked like it was on when you did that. This model will definitely be sitting static. In reviewing photos, the screen looked more dark gray/blue when turned off, depending on the light. I wanted to do something to represent it well, though, not just paint it gray.
I started by simply painting the background of it black, as a basis for the next step. Grabbing some X-13, a metallic blue color, I mixed in some Future until I got a very thin, glossy, metallic blue. I flowed a few drops in, and got pretty much the effect I wanted. The photos don’t show it really well, as the glossy elements pick up the light and make odd reflections. Of course, to my dismay, I realized unless you get in really close, you can’t see it anyway, so perhaps it was a bit overdone.
Nah. I had fun with it.
Next up will be additional highlighting, etc., before bringing it all together.
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