Next up is the cockpit comprised of parts 8 and 9. I decided to do the pilot's seat as well at this point (parts 18) to make a complete subassembly. I don't have many pictures of the actual build process here but I'll share what I do have. We start with the control panel:
Next up is the pilot seat placed into the cockpit base:
In this photo we also see the control stick and pedals. The pedals are basically impossible to see when assembled but still a nice touch. The seat itself is 14 parts and I'm quite happy with how it came out.
Here's the cockpit fully assembled including parts 9:
Finally, we do a test dry fit of the cockpit into the skeleton:
It's not super clear, but there is about a 10 mm gap between the back of the cockpit and the skeleton. I pondered how to fix this for a long time but I did end up fixing it recently. I'll let that be a cliff hanger for now
One more post of catchup....