The Falke’s unique cockpit is actually a Fujimi 1/24 scale Toyota S800 facing in the opposite direction. Inside the cockpit, the Pilot’s seat is donated from an ARII 1/24 Skyline combined with Tokyo Marui’s 1/24 De Tomaso Pantera head rest. Do not worry if the Pilot is 1/20 scale as he DOES fit into the seat.
One main point I need to highlight is that there is a very small gap between the Pilot seat’s platform assembly and the lower fuselage or its floor. The whole platform is locked into place by four alignment pillars no higher than 1mm. Therefore, you need to check for any details or parts that might prevent it from being cemented properly. This is very, very important as it will affect how securely the two halves of the Falke’s fuselage will close later on.
Furthermore, there is no space/gap between the front of the seat’s assembly and the fuselage. So, the pedals will have to be glued within the boundaries of the whole platform.
COCKPIT SEAT
The Pilot’s seat was done with a mix of Mr. Color #41 Red Brown and Mr. Color #136 Tire Black. I started with very light coats of brown in the middle and as I move towards the edges, I added more layers to darken it. Then I mixed the Red Brown with a drop of tire black to highlight the edges. The sides of the headrest cushions were not ‘used’ much, it was given a full brown layer. Then the folds or valleys were given the Tamiya Brown panel line treatment.After priming the cockpit with Mr. Surfacer 1000, I sprayed a coat of Mr. Color #116 RLM66 Black Gray followed with Tire Black for the corners and edges. I am doing this intentionally so that these matte paints will absorb the excess red lights later on. The two grey areas were masked off so that it is easier to glue the seat later.To make the flooring look busy, I added thick wiring. I started by drilling some holes on the cockpit’s front panels, then cut away some rectangular notches in the front which allows the cables go through from the seat to the floor. They are then put in place with hot-melt glue. Since the wiring are placed within the boundaries of the pilot seat’s assembly, it did not affect the gaps between the seat assembly and the fuselage.Be aware there is only a small gap between the lower fuselage and the cockpit piece. The cockpit is held in place by four locating pillars. The wires must lay flat, and any excess plastic in the way or thick wires must be shaved off. This includes the hot-melt glue.
My apologies for repeating this over and over again as this is the main problem when both fuselage halves cannot close perfectly.Drill a small hole just under the Pilot’s calf for the helmet’s LED’s wire to go through and also, on the floor. Make sure the hole is UNDER the calf so that it cannot be easily seen from above. The Side walls were airbrushed with the same RLM66 colour but with more layers towards the edges to darken it.
THE PEDALS
For every craft, I always believe that there must be some kind of pedals for the Pilot to operate. Never mind what the pedals do for the Falke but at least, it makes the cockpit more believable. Also, this is a good time for me to try out the John Vojtech Plierpunch which was designed to make small holes of various diameters.
The pedals were cut out from styrene and their corners sanded. Then the holes were punched out in a specific pattern. The thin cement can damage these thin styrene and so just add them sparingly. Forcing the pliers against the thin plastic also does this. One of the test pedals in the foreground cracked when I applied too much thin cement.(LEFT) This is NOT how the pedals will be placed. The straight beams holding the pedals at an angle would eventually be cut and glued to the edge of the cockpit’s ledge as they would obstruct the whole cockpit from mating with the lower fuselage.
(RIGHT) I scuffed the pedals a little and also dry brushed the edges of the cockpit with Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver to indicate wear and tear. Using a combination of Tamiya Panel Line Black and Brown, the wire’s colouring on the floor were muted. And looked as if there was a lot of dust or machine related grime affecting them. This is a photo of the pedals BEFORE they were relocated to within the Pilot chair’s platform.With the chocolate candy bar, the Pilot is now happy to pose for me in his seat…
In the next page, I am going to show you how to detail and light the consoles inside the cockpit.
Remember I spoke about the Tokyo Marui DeTomaso Pantera model kit? Through the information from Scalemates, it has evolved into the Fujimi version no. 12557 and I have it.
This the only model of the 1/24 DeTomaso Pantera I could get, which is the Fujimi #12557. The original, which was from Tokyo Marui is hard to get.
There are so many versions based as mentioned from the Scalemates Website.
I really have no idea what I am looking at because this is the Fujimi version and not Tokyo Marui.
