A modeller's guide to GA instrument panel building.
We would like to help you with building an instrument panel for your GA model and therefore compiled this short and simple step-by-step guide.
The guide contains links to our products so you can navigate to them conveniently. Sometimes the link navigates to a product of specific scale (1/4 by default), so in the case you want different scale, navigate through the website and find the product with right scale.
1/ You need to find some pictures or drawings of the panel you are going to make. One of the best sources of pictures of GA panels is www.airliners.net server. You can always chose to design your original panel if you cannot find any useful pictures.
2/ Make a drawing of the panel accoring to the pictures you found and outlay all the instruments, switches, radios etc. there. Keep the space in your model in mind and alter the panel to fit into the model.
3/ Get a plastic/wooden board (1/3 and 1/4 scale - 3mm thick; 1/5 scale 2mm thick - our instruments are designed to be used with boards of this thickness). You can get an A4 sheet of the 3mm plastic board or 2mm plastic board we use on our panels from us.
4/ Once you have the board, make the actual panel and drill holes for the instruments. There are 3 dimensions of instruments:
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Real
instrument diameter
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1/5
scale
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1/4
scale
|
1/3
scale
|
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80 mm
|
16 mm
|
20 mm
|
28 mm
|
|
57 mm
|
12 mm
|
15 mm
|
20 mm
|
|
120 mm
|
20 mm
|
28 mm
|
40 mm
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You can decide to go even further with scale looks and get screws for the instruments. You can get them from us in sets containing 10 pcs.. You will need to drill small holes where you will place and fix them. Once you are done with shaping and drilling, you may want to paint the panel to different colour. Now is the best time to do it.
5/ Once you have the holes, you need to find the instruments for the panel. You can either order a set of instruments or single instruments from us.
The set is cheaper (per one instrument) and always in stock, on the other hand, with single instruments, you can select exactly what instruments you need and order just these. They need to be prepared so they take longer to ship. Do not forget to get a directional compass here.
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Aircraft
board instruments
|
|
Flight
control
|
Aircraft
control
|
|
Flight
|
Navigation
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Engine
control
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Framework
control
|
|
Altimeter
Airspeed indicator
Climb indicator
Artificial horizon
Turn indicator
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Compass Directional gyro Radio compass
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Tachometer
Oil-pressure gauge
Oil temperature indicator
Boost-pressure gauge
Fuel-pressure indicator
Cylinder-head temperature indicator
Fuel indicator
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Position indicator
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6/ Proper instrument panel should have a magneto, some switches, knobs, throttle/pitch/mixing levers and radios and gps navigation and you can get all these from us. Just go to this section and select products you want - radios & gps, switches etc. The newest on offer is a GA panel accessories set that contains the magneto, knobs, throttle/pitch/mixing levers. 7/ Attach all these to the panel and if you build Cessna or Piper, check out our control wheels that have either Cessna or Piper logo on them.
8/ You are finished.
We hope that this guide has been useful to you and remember, if you send us a picture of our products in your model, we will give you 10% discount on the next order with us.
If you have any questions or need help, do not hesitate to contact us either via chat or email.
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