Sailor is checking out his new hands. It is always a mystery when a sculpt starts as to what pose the hands will take. I knew that if he is a British pilot, there is a very, very good chance he will be holding the unique “split stick” control column of the Spitfire and Hurricane. I read that their cockpits were so small that the geometry was a problem for the control column to get full travel for roll control. This was solved by making the control column rotate at about mid-stick instead of from the the floor. Genius! For elevator control, back and forth, the sticks rotation point was at the floor. American pilots said it took a little to get used to, but felt natural after a bit.
With this type of stick, Sailor will have a bit unique grip for the control column. The only way to figure out if grip is natural looking, was to fashion a circular grip, 1/5 scale, and see how that will work. I know my customers will have complete cockpits, so I want Sailor to plop right into position with his hand able to slip onto the control column. With some major “persuasion” of the right arm to get the anatomy correct (notice were the arm has separated from the torso, no big deal just a little fix), it looks like this configuration will work. I won’t cast the split control stick permanently in Sailor’s hand. With the variable “scale” of some kits it may be off a bit and some customers may want to put him in a plane that didn’t have that distinctive type of stick. If the control column isn’t a ring type-grip, it will look like he is getting ready to grip it.