After experimenting for about a year, it got time to start building a wooden construction with plexiglass panels (2 or 3 mm). I experimented with paintbrush and character stickers. When removing the stickers, backlight is possible. The experiment worked out well and I started making all the panels: Center pedestal, throttle quadrant, forward instruments, autopilot, For the time being not further... Right now I am NOT focussing on the overheadpanel. Maybe later, or just a simple one for starting the engines and light switches for the time being. Here is an example of making the panels:
Mark all places that needs backlight or not to be painted.
Use normal carpaintbrush and put a few layers over the panel. When done, remove all marks that you have put on the panel.
This is the result
It takes a lot of time to make each panel in this way, but the result looks very proffesional. Just see building the cockpit as a hobby, then time does not matter that much. Watch my project photos to see the result of all those panels. They are replicas of the real 'big' one! Buttons will excist of plastic squares that are placed over the marked places on the panel. Under the panel are the actual microswitches. By se a transparant paintbrush for protecting the panels against scratching and to let it look better. The location of buttons on my panels are only marked for enabling button-backlight. drilling a small round hole through the panel, the plastic square (button) can press the microswitch using a small pipe/tube. Drilling square holes is hard work, and the result I got did not look very well.
