yeah cheapo indeed :(But I pay for my study & my dorm & my food & anything else myself this year. And thus I am on a tight budget.So I've got a priority list for my sim.First I'll get the PHCC for the LCD's. Then I'll get the LCD's. After that I will fine tune the interfacing of my sim. After that I might concider a new set of panels. Don't know how to do them yet but I am thinking some sort of MDF might be good. No backlighting then but I will try to get my panels engraved by a pro or a DIY CNC.I've finaly got a good mold here for the switches. Now I can make 10 at a time. So I've got 20 now and in a few minutes expect me to have 30 :-lolSo that is going great.The electric power tools however will have to wait a while longer. Either way I got access to most of those and even more nice working machienery at school.

Is your website broken btw?I tried to look at your current panels - I had the impression there was nothing wrong with them really, they looked nice.Anyway, I'll either go with laminated paper over plywood or plain plywood, that is easiest to work on with simple tools, and its very easy to do any kind of panel designs wiht OpenOffice.org's draw program. Laminating makes them very durable and nice looking, then just drill holes in the corners of both the panel and the plywood backing and mount. It might not look "as real as it gets" but it will still look really nice and clean, and functionality will be good. Engraving sounds like quite a bit of work for not much gain in functionality.Have you considered a "black light" tube or two at various places in your sim (so you can eliminate most shadows) - those make all white things glow nicely - including your teeth and clotches - but it might work great for the cockpit "lighting" - just wear darker clotches..//Tuomas

Blacklight came to mind yeah. I got one here at my dorm.Not sure though for the sim.Then for the panels .. I use laminated printed paper on hardboard panels for the overhead at the moment. Ok it does look good but the eges of the panel show that it is just plane wrong. The paper comes loos from the panels etc etc.The other panels are made of that PVC foam plate and that material is not good I think for making panels.Either way I'll see what I'll do in the future. I might try to send files to DS and have my panels made. I think that's the only way to get pro-looking panels.Other than that, make sure to note: http://www.fokker50.infothe .be.tf address is going crazy with spam lately as I've noticed.