I have made my own backlit panels for my 737 cockpit. The approach I selected was to start with opal acrylic, which diffuses the light better internally than clear acrylic. I have a CNC router, so the shape was machined, including a pocket on the backside for the backlight PCB. The panel was then painted first with several layers of white. Then a couple of layers of black to prevent shine through, and then a couple of top layers of RAL7011. After drying the paint I pocketed space for the SMD LED diodes and engraved the text on the front. The down side of this approach is that the letters are opale and not white then the backlight is off. And engraving on something that is not totaly flatt is finicky.
2 Likes