1:48 F-15J (Late) - interior 3D decals for Hasegawa kit

The later state of the Japanese machines

Part of the fleet of the Air Self-Defense Force went through a program that replaced the original analog avionics with a more modern set. The change showed on the main panel, where rectangular displays were added, and in the arrangement of the controls around them. That is exactly why two different cockpit editions are made for the Japanese Eagles, and to swap them means building an aircraft with an interior it did not have in the given period.

What stays visible and what does not

A closed canopy lets the eye into a narrow strip between the frame of the windscreen and the headrest of the seat. In this scale that is an area of roughly twenty by twelve millimeters. Inside, however, the upper part of the front panel, the surrounds of the displays and the edges of the side consoles can still be told apart - that is precisely what the set has drawn most sharply. The bottom of the tub and the lower half of the sides, by contrast, stay in shadow and there is no point in looking for differences there.

The reward for a small piece of work

A modeler who manages the cockpit gains detail visible only when looking in from close above, but recognizable at once. If you plan to build it with the canopy open, it pays to pay attention to the rear wall behind the seat and to the side walls as well, because those come to the fore immediately. With the cockpit closed it is enough to concentrate your effort on the front panel and on the upper edges; the rest will fulfill its role even in the basic shade without further emphasis. The ratio of effort to result is more favorable here than in the larger scales: the area is small, but precisely for that reason one well-laid layer transforms the whole of it at once, without laborious coloring of the individual dials.