Falke Seating

Since I has some time today, I decided to have a more detailed look at the Falke. To me, although it is 1/20th scale, the model is still very big. Then again, I am not sure why I am making such a fuss on it. Sure, the main body has the biggest single piece I have ever seen apart from Polar Light's 1/350 Enterprise 1701-A and NX-01. But them again, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Machinen Krieger (or Ma.K) we're talking about.

This kit is produced by Hasegawa and comes as injected moulded plastic, something which I feel very comfortable with. Of course there are other alternatives which this model could be made in, such as resin, vinyl or even vacuum-formed. But I have my problems with these since I have not mastered them nor like them very much.

Then again, plastic is, to me, easier to work with since I like the details on this model and I would very much like to light it up (not again).

These are sprues A, B abd C. Note the rear thrusters
which is located on the bottom right.

And these are the D, E and F sprues. Nothing special
about it until you see the seat details.

But before we do that, this is the picture of the last

sprue which are the parts for both the pilot and a
girl as an 'extra'. They both have extra heads and
the one for the pilot is very nice, which I can use
a LED or some fibre optic to light it up. The wires
can go through the body as they are actually
hollow.

Coming back to the rear thrusters, I took this pic
much earlier. Notice the difference between the
model part and the Vitagen bottle? Bruce theorised
that there is a possibility that the Vitagen being sold
in Japan could be smaller compared to the ones on
sale here. So, who is going to Japan, please get me a
Vitagen bottle, OK. But wash the bottle first.

This is one of the reason why I am starting to
warm up to the Falke instead of the Lunadiver.
(Of course I still want a Lunadiver). The detail
on this front dashboard says it all. Imagine how
it would look like when it is lighted up by a LED
from the back and maybe, some fibre optics for
that blinking effect. What? You can't imagine it?
Neither can I because I have yet to think up of
its colour scheme.

This other part, which is the underside detail for
the Falke's cockpit cover, was a possible seat for
the Pilot. I said was because it was just a wishful
thinking because the actual seat...

...is this one. Very plain and very.... well,.... buckety.

It lacks detail and looking at it, it does not look very
comfortable at all.

Now, this is what caught my attention. The seat's

headrest. If I were to turn this upside down, it
would look like one of those arcade headrest that
uses the Q-sound stereo speakers very common
in the late 90's. To me, they're just loud.

In case you cannot imagine, this is what I wanted it
to look like but them I would have to modify the
seat to accommodate the change.

So, I just had to settle being a good boy and follow
the instructions on the manual. Using the parts for
the pilot, I did a mock test and from what I can see,
the seat is very uncomfortable as he literally need
to crouch inside that seat.

At 1/20th scale it is very big. Personally, I think this
is the main reason why I like the Falke. The seat and
the cockpit's dashboards was just excellence by itself.

And if I were to do such a thing, this is the part which
I would start first and build the craft from there.

Test fitting of the seat onto the lower part of the
Falke's fuselage. In the instruction manual, it says
that you'll have to place the pilot in there first before
you seal up the two halves of the fuselage. This is
going to be a problem as I am still undecided if I
want the pilot to be in there or not.

The proof is evident in this photo. Once the two
halves are glued together, there is no way you
can remove the pilot figure in or out due to its
fixed sitting pose. So, this is going to be a
problem later on.

Although it looks nice, but I can't help the feeling
how ugly it looks from the side. This is because
although the model looks nice from the top and
also head on, but for me, it looks very bad from
the side. I will have to do something about this.

And once you have the pilot in there, the whole
cockpit would look very cramped. This is how it
looks like, without the head and the dashboard
panels on the side and the front.

With the sidewall (or is it fireproof insulation?) in place,
I can cover up most of the unwanted area inside since I
have no intention of putting anymore details inside. Like
Bruce said, once you close the hatch, whatever detailed
work you have done inside the cockpit can't be seen.

So, there is a problem with my Falke. Should I do cockpit details or just leave it?

1) With Details
I can light up the dashboards and also the Pilot's helmet plus some ambient red lights in there. Maybe put in some glowing and flashing lights would make the cockpit look nice. This would also mean I have to do some seat-belts too. And how to do this? My original plan was to show the Falke shot with aircraft machine gun with the pilot mortally injured while some extraction team was tying to set him free. Alas, Bruce said this has been done, but with a Lunadiver instead.

2) Without details
I can just put in some missile pods and call it a day because, without the details, I would now have the cockpit parts! Woo hoo!

Or, I would just wait for an idea to come by and also at the same time, look for spare cockpit set. Anyone has this that they do not want?