Update on my current project:
I extracted these controls from my old Throttletek flightbox. It’s a great piece of kit, but no longer fits my needs. So I broke it down into parts, but it’s a highly integrated setup so making parts of it standalone takes a bit of work.
So far, I’ve replaced the back-lighting. That was fiddly as hell. The original used tiny surface-mount LEDs soldered onto a ribbon cable; I replaced them with even tinier surface-mount ultra-bright LEDs which thankfully you can buy with wires pre-soldered on. I put a drop of super-glue into the holes previously occupied by the old lights, dipped an LED in each, then applied accelerator to make the glue go off instantly. Result: LEDs fixed in place where I need them. That bit was easy, it was the wiring that was the fiddly part! The ribbon cable approach would be easier but I had to deal with multiple pairs of hair-thin (0.25mm, I think) cables.
Since I want to feed this 5V and the LEDs can handle 3V max I needed to step down the voltage, and while I’m sure there’s a way to do this once for the whole circuit, I went for the recommended method of applying a 100 ohm resistor in series with each LED, with the whole lot being laddered in parallel. So I had to make a couple of small boards to handle that, glue them down to the inner surface under the panels, and then solder all the wires in place. Once done, a liberal application of electrician’s tape covers everything and stops those tiny wires getting snagged on anything.
Anyway… that all works, and now I have back-lighting. I’m waiting for some parts to arrive to complete the electronics on this, but that should be done later this week. Then I’m waiting for a parking brake assembly and locking switches + Airbus-style engine switch caps that I ordered from an outfit in Germany. They don’t seem particularly enthused about my order. Apparently my email server (ie Gmail) bounced the order confirmation email which details how to pay - surely that’s their fault for not being set up correctly? - and my email query was answered saying that they were on holiday and wouldn’t get around to doing anything before Monday. So with international shipping etc I guess the earliest I can expect to see that part is some time next week. The dangers of dealing with small suppliers, I guess 
Sadly I can’t post any pictures of the workings because of the Throttletek T&C issue I mentioned, but I think I’m safe to post this picture of the whole unit as it currently sits. The mechanism has been strategically blurred to avoid giving away their trade secrets (!).