003: THE CONSOLE

THE FALKE’S CONSOLES

Inside the Falke’s cockpit, there are three consoles with various details. I will light up only two, which is the front instrument cluster and the left console. There would be a lot of lighting inside the cockpit and therefore, I need to make sure each lighting feature is used sparingly and not fight for attention. In most crafts, only the instrument cluster would have lights. But for this Falke, it is everywhere.

As the model’s hatch can be opened or closed, the lighted consoles and the detailed Pilot would be the very first things to be seen. And so, this why I need to put some lights on them.

RIGHT CONSOLE

This is the right console which does not need to be lit up and so, can be completed very fast. The console will have added details such as some aviation toggle switchess and a mushroom EMERGENCY stop switch.

LEFT
Using strip styrene, heat-shrink sleeves and also, some shaped plastics, I can scratch-build the details I need.

RIGHT
The end result. One mushroom Emergency STOP button (but I did not have the decal) and two aircraft-like rocker switches with protective cover. This is the control for the Falke’s Third Eye Radar.

I covered the plastic’s original hose with heat-shrink sleeves. The flip toggle switches were done by shaving a styrene square rod to shape and gluing it to another thin styrene strip. For the panic button, it was half a necklace bead. But eventually, it was too big and does not react well to thin cement.

This is how the half bead aka mushroom head looked like. It is so awful, and during turbulence, the Pilot’s helmet might hit it and shut down the whole Radar.

So, a thicker plastic was cut and then shaped into a round disc instead.
Now it looks better and the Pilot would not accidentally switch it off or something.

LEFT CONSOLE

The details for this plastic piece is very good and it would be bad not to light it. This console represents the dials and gauge readouts for the Pilot. Because certain areas were already thin enough for the light to show through, I do not need to make any modifications nor sand the piece thinner.

This reverse side of this part has the necessary thinness. Because of the limited space, a 7020 white SMD LED will be used. It gives a wide area of light as it does not have any lens. The idea is to light up the part from behind.

LEFT
If you hold the part against the light, you can see that the thick plastic naturally blocks everything except the dial holes.

RIGHT
With the 7020 SMD LED in place, the effect is excellent. Do bear in mind that I purposely use the LED’s full 20mA current. These 7020 SMD LEDs have an unintended backlight effect which is not noticeable since its back would be soldered to a circuit board. It is best to lightblock this area on the upper fuselage just in case. Later on, you will see that the decals and painting will dim the light even more.

The back-lighting effect is visible on all LEDs, you just have to know where to look for it, reduce it or use it for your own advantage.

Although the back of the console looked like it fits, you will still need to shave off a little more plastic. The consoles will stick to the sides of the upper fuselage and not the Cockpit seat assembly. When closing both fuselage halves later, this will be a part of the problem.

Using the hot-melt glue, position the 7020 SMD LED at an angle. At this stage, you will realize that the cockpit is starting to cave in and eventually have a serious fitting problem due to this LED bulge. Originally, there is no gap between the cockpit wall and the inner fuselage wall. Luckily, this is not very noticeable when you look in from the hatch.

Using bits of plastic strips and hot-melt glue, I managed to block most of the light. This is not easy as the inner wall of the upper fuselage is curved so you need to test-fit, sand and repeat.

LEFT
Before the additional Light blocking

RIGHT
After some additional light blocking with black hot-melt glue and scrap styrene pieces.

Mask the dials, light block the console with primer and then coat with Mr. Color #116 RLM66 Black Gray. If you have some tiny World War II dial decals, you can also put them in. Colour the knobs and highlight the panel details too.

The finished console with decals. It does look like it has a serious light leak but later on, some black hot-melt glue managed to cap off the leak at the top. For the rest, I left it as it is.

SOLDERING THE 7020 LED

Soldering SMD LEDs are actually very easy. All you need is practice.
In most cases, the tools I have every used were:
1. Pencil tipped 30W Soldering Iron,
2. 3M double-side tape, or a reverse tweezer aka heatsink tweezer,
3. 0.5mm resin cored 60/40 solder, and
4. Solder Flux. Lots of Solder flux

This is the reverse tweezer which grips the component when you RELEASE the grip. It is also used to absorb excess heat when soldering a component. In this picture, it has a small 0805 SMD LED. I would usually use this tool when I remember to or, when I misplaced the 3M double-sided tape (the thin grey version)

This is the 7020 SMD LED and it is quite big. It is also very bright too.
Before I start to solder, I strip the ends of the thin wires (about 0.8mm), dip their ends on the solder flux and then tin it with solder. I would do the same with the SMD LED but coating the solder pads with flux and then apply solder on it.

With both wires and solder pads tinned, I then place the tinned wire on top of the solder pad and tap them with the tip of the soldering iron. This would briefly melt the solder and then solidifies.

THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER

This is the main part which the observer would notice the most when the hatch is opened. And it would be a crime not to light it up! So, after much searching, I have located a resin caster and sent this part to be re-casted in clear resin. I sincerely hope Hasegawa would do this as a separate clear part in future Falke releases.

This is the Falke’s Instrument cluster. The details are crisp and beautiful.
This part, the Pilot and the front of the Falke are my favourite parts.

Here is the clear cast version of the original part. When it comes to lighting, the casting does not necessarily have to be water clear. A slightly diffused casting that helps spread the light is preferable. During my current location, I was not able to do any recasting and so, I had it sent out.

The caster did a lot of versions for me and I was quite elated but then, when I took a look at the original part, it had warped. This means I cannot send it back for more castings unless I have another Falke.

There was some kind of chemical reaction and so, the original part suffered. Moving on, I had a few usable clear castings.

LEFT
The dials were masked using Mr. Masking Sol R which is water based. Normal liquid mask uses latex and needs to be rubbed off or using a pair of tweezers, picked away. Mr. Masking Sol R will easily dissolve away with a wet brush.

RIGHT
Since this is resin, I primed with Mr. Resin Primer. At this stage, everything looked great.

After priming, the Mr. Masking Sol R mask was removed. It does look perfect but there are some problems with the edges of the dials. I am not so great with using Sol R or any masking at all, so there will be a lot of clean up work.

The part was then sprayed with RLM66 Black Gray. You can see the first clear cast test piece in the background and this the effect of clear water casting. Clear pieces are not effective in distributing light. To remedy this, I sanded the back to create the diffused surface which would then help spread more light.

If you are confused, I actually used another clear piece which I then re-applied Sol R, primed and then sprayed with the RLM66 lacquer paint.

LEFT
I held this against the light to make sure the repaints covers the edges. There were some complication with the casting but I am not going to dwell into this. The big square button was painted clear red.

RIGHT
When held against the light, you can see that my masking skill is very bad indeed.

The dial edges and other surfaces were highlighted via dry-brushing to give it a worn look. Lastly, the square on the right was painted with Clear Red.

The clear red square button will have a very important role later. Hasegawa has a decal for it which was a perfect fit. I put some Mr. Mark Setter on the surface before placing the wet decal. Using tissue and a cotton bud, I soaked off the excess and also made sure the decal is in position. Only then did I dab on some Mr. Mark Softer to the decal, and hope it stays in position. If I moved it halfway, the decal might break and affect the paint underneath it too. I soaked up the excess and left it alone for hours or overnight if I can.

I got some images from the Internet, modified them a little, shrank it down and used them as screen for the console. This would help make the console look better. I also mixed with the Falke’s original decals where I can.

After some additional decaling, and detailing, these consoles are now complete. Mr. Mark Softer works great for dials on the curves surface. I will be using Aves Apoxy to fix the resin instrument cluster to the upper fuselage as I’ve never had any great success with Superglue.

PURE WHITE OR WARM WHITE?

Before we continue, let’s set some ‘rules’ on the type of colours for the white lights. I tend to think of the Ma.K Universe being an alternative timeline which branched off during World War II in the 1940’s, as IF Germany won the War. So, it’s mostly yellow light bulbs and valves. The Falke, was created from various model kits available in the 70’s and the most visual part was the twin booms of the 1/32 P-38 Lighting. Looking at the vintage dashboard, I had to choose between giving it a modern look (pure white lighting) or the old skool way (warm white lighting).

This is the light from the pure white LED which gives off white light and on digital cameras, there is a slight blue tint. This would make the instrument cluster look modern but clinically and emotionally cold.

This is the light from the warm white LED. It gives off a yellowish tint, reminiscent of those incandescent bulbs. Because of the World War II P-38 Lightning, I decided to choose this option. ‘Advanced’ technology but using bulbs and valves….

Yeah, warm-white it is. This is because of the dials and the World War II designs of the Falke. Let’s think of the Falke as using light bulbs (except the Pilot) for all the lighting purposes.

COCKPIT LIGHTS

With the main console and sides being lit up, the Falke cockpit would look boringly normal. So, I wanted the cockpit to be flooded with red lighting instead of green. This would also make the Falke look more military and with the Third Eye radar, it would be downright sinister. I chose a pair of red 0805 SMD LEDs which can light up a wide area within a confined space. The red LEDs would be placed in front of the cockpit and mounted under the Toyota S800’s boot, which is just above the Pilot’s legs.

The 0805 (2mm x 1.75mm) SMD LEDs are slightly smaller than a 3mm LED. It does not have any focusing lens and so its light radiation or spread is wider.

HOW TO SOLDER A 0805 SMD LED

There are many ways to solder a SMD LED by hand. One of the most common way would be to use a tool called the reverse tweezers aka heatsink tweezers as shown below. Alternatively, there is a more common tool called the Third Hand which is ideal. For me, as long as there is a way to hold the SMD LED firmly and with one of its solder pads exposed for soldering, it will have to do.

There are many ways to solder a SMD LED by hand. One of the most common way would be to use a tool called the reverse tweezers aka heatsink tweezers as shown below. Alternatively, there is a more common tool called the Third Hand which is ideal. For me, as long as there is a way to hold the SMD LED firmly and with one of its solder pads exposed for soldering, it will have to do.

This is the 0805 SMD LED being gripped by the reverse tweezer. If you look at the green ‘top hat’ symbol, the golden solder pad on the left is the Negative. It would look impossible at first but yes, you can solder this LED. I always like to call this the ‘0805’ but the metric equivalent is ‘2012’

Every SMD device that has polarity such as the 0805 LED will have an indicator to show you which is the negative pad. It can be the form of a triangle or a top hat and it is always pointing to the Negative pad.


The key to soldering SMD LEDs is to make sure both connectors are fluxed and tinned. Then it’s all a matter of quick touches with the soldering iron.

But for this, let’s go with a 3M double sided tape. It can withstand high heat seconds longer than most double-sided foam tapes and it’s a great teaching tool for encouraging you to solder faster!
This diagram shows how the SMD LED is placed face down with its solder pads exposed. As long as your soldering is fast, the 3M double-sided tape will hold the LED without failing. Much.
With both wire and solder pads properly tinned, it’s just a simple matter of quickly melting the solder between the two.

Once the wires have been soldered, carefully snip off the excess wires. Do not force your cutter to cut too close to the LED’s edge as sometimes, it would cause the ‘lens’ to come off. Once it’s done, twist the cables so that it will not be messy when placed inside the Falke later. You will need to prepare three sets of these 0805 red LEDs; two for the cockpit and one for the Pilot’s instrument cluster.

I used BLACK hot-melt glue to stick the LEDs to the Falke’s front panel. I left the wires slightly longer so that I can reposition the LEDs by bending them slightly when required.

The red LEDs as installed into the cockpit. It is very bright and can affect the warm-white LEDs of the instrument cluster that will be placed in front of it later on.

So I glued a white panel as a light barrier for the instrument cluster. The white plastic helps diffuse and reflects the light on both sides. If I used aluminum foil instead, the reflected lighting would be harsh. The final effect is that only the Pilot’s lower torso are highlighted and the instrument cluster is still warm-white.

The end result

002
Pkf.85 Falke
004
PISCEAN WORKS