I had a picture that I downloaded of lots of aircraft dials, but I thought that if they were done on my friend's printer, they might not be very clear, so my daughter suggested that she get them printed by a free photo printing place, you just pay postage and any photos over your monthly limit. She was getting some printed anyway.
They arrived, she had got me a lifetime's supply in 2 sizes and they already had different sizes on the original pic too, so I have loads. They are pretty good quality, good enough for me.
I only wanted to give an impression of instruments, and these are way beyond what I could have painted, I know, I tried painting some dials on clear plastic. Terrible, even if I do say so myself. 😁
Anyway, avoiding the dials that looked 'aircraft only' , I selected the ones that showed best through my dashboard, fuel guage, clock, speedo looking one, and a digital readout.
I realised I could have made the holes bigger as they are quite small and deep set. The dials are sized well to them though and you can see enough of them. Its done now, can always make another dashboard if I want to. I varnished my nice steering wheel, once it is dry and fitted the dashboard is pretty much finished, maybe add a couple of screws but it stays in place fine without any.
I need to decide on seat cushion colours, for the driver and passenger seats and the bench seats in the cabin well, I have decided I am not going to use the orange t shirt, the colour doesnt suit the boat but the concept was definately good and worth a try, I will make up the balsa frames for them and hopefully will have decided on material by the time they are done.
Would the cabin interior seating (not made yet) have the same colour scheme as the rear well seats?
No rush for the interior yet, the boat runs and I just need to finish off some bits in the well area.
I have ordered a piece of copper tubing that will run through the speed controller heatsink, there are channels that will take 3.6mm copper tube, I was only able to find 3.5mm stuff, and finding that took a lot of searching, there were lots of 3mm and 3.2mm (1/8 inch)
Need to wait till it arrives, it might turn out to be 3.2mm sold as 3.5mm.
It is coming from china so need to wait and see.
I have a few ships/ boats on the go just now, but I am really enjoying them all, I can skip onto a different model if I have to think about something before committing to it. Also as funds become available, I can resume construction/detailing. Some bits I cant make, I saw lovely aeronaut cleats, but they were quite expensive. They did look very nice and would compliment my Sea Rover, it looks a bit bare around the deck edge. Also what size would look right? Its sometimes hard to tell from just a measurement as opposed to it sitting on the boat, I might have to make a couple of balsa replicas in the range of sizes that might suit my boat. I hope to get the cleats but my circumstances wont allow that at the moment. They are £11....actually more expensive than my new plank on frame sailing ship kit, so I am still trying to decide if the cleats are worth it..... but they would be a nice finishing touch. The steering wheel was £6, but looks very good.