Making your own Aviation Electronics (AVIONICS) Black Boxes

[Jeffry Fontaine]

For WHIF purposes you can substitute 1/35th scale small arms ammunition boxes for this purpose. These ammunition boxes come in come in many sizes and shapes and are normally included in most armor model kits and are ideal resource for making avionics black boxes for your WHIF model project.  I came up with this idea after pondering the problem and trying to justify keeping the parts or donating them to someone else.  I came to the conclusion that I had too many of these things on hand from various accessory sets and model kits that it was time to do something about this and put them to good use since they were not representative of the period or era that I prefer.  Since my interests is focused on modern weapon systems post WWII the majority of the boxes that I converted were from WWII era models and accessory kits. 

The majority of the ammunition boxes that I used were from Tamiya and Academy as both companies like to provide things in quantity.  Some of the ammunition boxes were simple one piece moldings while others were more complex multiple piece assemblies.  Most of the .30"/7.62mm ammunition boxes were two piece assemblies and the .50" ammunition boxes were three piece assemblies.  The ammunition boxes that are one piece moldings are excellent for use as they are on the sprue since there is no assembly required. 

All of these can be modified during assembly with whatever you consider necessary to represent connecting cables or left as is with the carrying handle part facing out.  The ammunition boxes that do require assembly are also easy to modify by assembling the larger parts to create large black boxes and the smaller parts to create small black boxes to provide some variation on the same theme within your avionics bay.  You could also create larger ammunition boxes if you chose to do so with these parts for other WHIF weapons that are in need of a specialized ammunition box. 

[Supertom]

Oh.  I was thinking you were talking about REAL black boxes 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Great idea!! 

For a little reference material here are a few real 'black boxes' as installed in the electronics bay of a 737:

[Mossie]

I've done this for the Revell 1/72 Kamov Ka-58.  The cockpits not bad, but looked a little too roomy.  I added a centre console using an ammo box from a Hasegawa 1/72 88mm gun.  It was just the right thickness, but needed to cut to shape height & length wise.  You can't see it on the pic, but the patterns on the sides are easily passed off as cooling vents.