While mulling over the electronics, I proceeded with modifying and painting the unaffected areas. The starboard side shown here has had the detail on Junction Box B removed in preparation for the Eduard PE part. Attempts have been made to smooth or fill in the multitude of ejection pin marks but only insofar as they will be visible. In front of the door, I had drilled out the hole for the drift recorder in the location marked in the exterior moulding but decided that it was placed too far forward. I therefore filled it in and have since redrilled it. The two circles on the bottom of the doorway are to hook on the ladder but these are unrealistic and have since been removed. Also, the trailing antenna reel, seen behind the door, would have been removed by the time my subject was flying around so this was also scraped away.
Below is the same area with the noted mods made and a first coat of interior grey/green applied. Note the scratch-built drift recorder tray and port in front of the door. The trailing antenna reel removal left the area a bit rough but it's passable. The two rails at this location were wooden parts glued to the fuselage inner skin during manufacture so these would likely have stayed in place.
Here's the tiny, scratch-built drift recorder which, once painted, will be placed on the tray noted above. Those are millimeters on the ruler.
With paint left over in the cup, I went ahead and painted the seat but this was after I had added some detail. On the pan under the armrest is the harness release lever that I fabricated out of stretched sprue. I have yet to add the cable from this lever to the back of the seat. Under the seat is the added support bar with the end drilled out. This important piece will be seen through the open door and wasn't included in the kit so I felt obliged to add it.
Here's the main cockpit tub with initial painting, highlighting and shading done. The flare cartridges and fire extinguisher are moulded to the wall so I did my best to try to make these pop out by running some panel wash along the edges. To the immediate right of the extinguisher and on the floor is a scratch-built emergency hydraulic hand pump. More details have yet to be painted here so, no, I'm not done yet!
Here's the Eduard instrument panel mounted on the now-painted bulkhead. On the vertical piece that extends to the floor, I added the missing fairing and button for the windscreen de-icer pump but everything else is Tamiya and Eduard, except for the previously noted map stowage box that was thinned
Turning this assembly to the side reveals a couple of points of note. First, the Eduard detail set omitted the 3 levers for the bomb bay, undercarriage, and flaps which stuck out of the center console. I scrounged through my spares and found 3 from my P-47M detail set that did the trick. Some way below these you can see the aforementioned de-icer pump control. The black dots above the map stowage box represent lightening holes that were present on the rudder pedal "doghouse". I punched these from old wing-walk decals rather than drill the actual holes through the thick plastic.
The gap between the back of the instrument panel and the bulkhead is screaming for some wiring so I will put a stop to the noise by adding some before access prevents it.
That's all for today lads. Thanks for taking a peek.