In the Office - Part 1

'The Office' is a phrase used by a lot of pilots instead of Cockpit. I think most of them use it as an ironic term to make the place they spend most of their time sound more 'normal' but nothing that goes on in here is anything like the average office!

In a kit this is the place I tend to spend most of my time. I feel that the more detail that can be included here, the better the model will be (obviously) but a well detailed cockpit will finish a model off whereas a badly detailed or unfinished one sticks out like a sore thumb and will ruin even the best model.

I detail depending on visibility, an open cockpit will be fully detailed, but the likes of the Vulcan or Victor will get a very sparse cockpit as there are only tiny windows and no openings.

So to my next project (I know I have figures on the go as well but I can only take so much at a time!). I am going to construct the Revell Tornado F3 in 1/72 and from looking it over it seems to be a fantastic kit. The fist thing I try and do is find pictures of the cockpit and a well thumbed issue of Airfix Model World has yielded a few fantastic images (the build is of the Hasegawa 1:48 model), it's amazing what you remember seeing months after you saw it! I will use the transfers in the kit as well as painting and weathering with acrylics and washes to get the best effects and this will be an 'in use' cockpit as will the plane (I don't like clean aircraft!).

Always try and find a source of info for the kit your are modelling, even if it is not the same scale there will be useful things you can take away from an article.

I will start with the base grey colour on the parts then construct all but the seats and add transfers then the seats (painted separately) and finally weather.

The detail in the real cockpit is immense and will be a task to replecate in 1:72!

Anyway it's late and I'm off to get more for the stash tomorrow so it's time for bed! I'll try and update on the new additions soon.