In my current thinking of the implementation, you would need a set of correctly shaped and named cockpit struts as subobjects of the cockpit model (we should soon be able to import subobjects into pofs using PCS2, making late additions not too troublesome since we can already move them around).
You'd do this for a few reasons:
1) They'd be better detailed than those on the actual ship pof
2) Much easier to position them nicely to obscure as little view as possible
3) Removes the big headache of figuring out how to position the internal cockpit pof inside the ship pof so that the struts are in the correct spot, but the standard externally viewed cockpit isn't all intersecting your internal pof.
4) Reusable cockpit struts - depending on the implementation, you might be able to specify which submodel of this internal cockpit would be used by individual ships
Your cockpit there looks good, but depending on how much you're willing to modify it, I'd recommend you try and add more screen-space through one of two ways:
1) Bigger console screens - my cockpit had pretty huge screen areas:
...but still ended up really cramped for space:
2) (Looks more likely in your case) Try and model in 'button functions'. As an example, the missile warning light wouldn't be on a console screen, but would be a separate button that lit up when needed.
Also, don't bother trying to make space for messages, the comm system directives or the escort list - they just take up way too much precious room.
