Sai che uno dell’EAF si è rifatto il cockpit dello Spitfire in casa? inglese ovviamente!! 
Figata, se avessi lo spazio un rig da full immersione me lo farei pure io 
si e se poi voli il mustang?
c’era anche il P38 giusto?
E il Twin Mustang?
LoL, accontentiamoci se vanno in produzione questi intanto
Hi Jimmi,
Authentikit has some advantages and disadvantages.
- To print up the parts you need to have a 3D printer and know how to set it up. This can take some time as the printer comes in kit form and you have to build it and you need to spend some time learning how to set it up for printing. Investment 200-250 Euros.
- Once you have downloaded his print files you can then send them to the 3D printer. Looking at the quality & density of his finished products, it looks like the print time just for the black part of the spade grip is probably about 10 hours. You need to keep an eye on the print process, maybe not constantly but you can’t really launch a print job and go away for the day ! Budget 35 Euros for the filament.
- The design itself is very good - especially for inserting electrical components, wires, bearings etc. (Budget 40 Euros for the components) However there are some major differences with the real controls. A) the pitch movement for the spade grip is far too short. The Spitfire column rotates about an axis that is about 65 cm below the roll axis - in Authentikit it’s only about 15-20 cm. My kit is true to scale. B) the Authentikit firing button is on a paddle : canon or mg not both ! Looking at the video it even seems that due to his wiring connector he has had to sacrifice one of the firing options. On my kit you can do canon or mg or both (as in the real aircraft) plus I include a safety catch which works both mechanically and electronically.
So you have to spend a lot of hours researching, printing and assembling for a budget of 275-300 Euros and in the end not getting a control with all the functions you need in DCS and not fully replicating the original control movements. My control column is currently priced at 325 Euros plus P&P, is more or less plug-n’-play (you need to calibrate first in Windows) and fully replicates the controls in the real aircraft. So in the end it depends what you want and whether you like building things or not.
See my kit on : www.spitfirehistories.com
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There are a lot of 3d Printing Service online, it could be a less expensive so.
Hi Joker, I looked at printing a part like the spade grip about two or three years ago and I got a quote for about 230 Euros just for one part. The prices may have dropped since, but basically when I saw the price of a 3D printer and in view of the number of parts in my kit (over 100 print parts for all my cockpit controls) it was clear to me that my own printing was the most economical solution. The cost issue for 3rd party printing is the time it takes to print a part.
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if you need an italian translation for the keypoints of your kit let me know!
Thanks for the offer Jimmi. At the moment I only have 2 languages available on my website, but I could make up a concise presentation for publication in Italian here. Let me know what text format is best for you Word, Apple, …
To compare with Authentikit, I checked the printing time on my system for 1/2 of the spade grip, using high definition finish (0,1mm) and 100% density (ie no honeycomb sandwich) and this takes 15 h 43 min to print, so double this for the complete grip front and back. With high definition finish and 33% honeycomb it takes 9 h 20 min for one half of the part. Since my grip is covered by tape and rubber grip I use a much lower definition printing finish and with a 33% honeycomb it takes 3 h 10 min to print one half of the part. However if you use lower definition printing on the Authentikit part, you may have trouble fitting the components (sensors, bearings, screws) as the printed result will be less precise.
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