When I first started this website, I envisioned it as a single place to place all my W.I.P.s and a portfolio of my completed works, rather than having them scattered around the various modelling fora and facebook. 
Well after a year, its become obvious, I really  don't have the discipline, or, let's be honest, the interest to post every build as a WIP.  It simply just interrupts the momentum of the build having to post pics up and write descriptions at every step.
So after careful consideration, I've decided to revamp the website to just  reflect my completed builds, which was always the main purpose of having the site anyway I was never interested in running it as a blog, finding far more people do a better job of that than I could ever hope to
From time to time, builds may still be put up on one of the modelling fora if I feel interested enough.  I mainly hang out at Britmodeller these days, so if I do any future WIPs, I'll link to them in the build page for that build. I will still put up an annual yearbook of builds completed that year, and my aspirations for the coming year.  For now, clicking on any of the thumbnails below, or alternatively looking under the "completed builds" button will take you to the page for that model
Cheers
Bruce

Man, theres a lot of masking in this thing
Below are the wings masked off ready for the red to be applied to exposed areas of the leading edge slats and flaps. I mad a mistake in painting too much of the leading edge of the flap as subsequent perusing of photos showed there is no red visible on the upper surfaces of the flaps when they are deployed.

With the fuselage completed, looking at photos revealed I would have been better to actually fit the wing glove vanes as they feature prominently in all photos, so I had no option but to scribe them back in
With this done I went old school and added a dark grey preside to all panel lines, and then various squiggles of the same dark grey to various areas of high use such as the tops of wings and stabilisers, around the access bays for gun, engines and cockpit footsteps
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thinned coats of Mr Color Light Gull Grey were then applied , with various squiggles of mid grey and white applied to start building up a mottled surface. the masked areas in the above photo hide the hot areas which has been sprayed Model Master Burnt Iron
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modelling convention seems to be these overall gull grey jets were clean, but I found a photo of the jet I am doing that shows very worn and touched up paint, so this is what I aimed for. Next , lots of masking so that the red areas of the deployed slats and flaps could be sprayed
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and then even more masking so that the skunk strip around the cockpit could be sprayed
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Next up, we attack some of the detail painting as we move towards decalling

I had the milliput out to fix some small gaps so thought I would make up some canvas covers for the instrument panels.  The milliput was first sprinkled with flour to prevent sticking to the tool, then  rolled into thin sheets using a piece of dowel.  I have wanted to try this technique for ages. The milliput was then draped over the coamings before the excess was cut away with a sharp knife.  It was then painted in vallejo leather based on captions in the DACO book stating it started out black then faded through a leather colour to a khaki colour.  The rear port cover was painted in a purplish colour to reflect the fact this cover wore out more quickly, so was replaced more often, and it became stained with jet fuel, hydraulic fluid etc leading to the purple colour. That plastic pitot tube needs to go too, as Ive bent it about four time already 

With the fuselage buttoned up, attention now turned to the wings and extraneous rivet detail Hobby Boss has graced them with.
Photos from DACO Publishing's excellent book on the Tomcat showed no such rivet detail, so it was decided it had to go, as did the rivet detail on the tailplanes

Mr Surfacer 500 was employed for this as seen above, when dry, being sanded to give nice smooth wings sans rivet lines. 
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The above photo shows the plasticard eyelid doors that replace the one piece part in the kit.  I was not really happy with the fit of it, so made my own from pics of card.  I also attached the spoilers at this stage so that I would not knock off the slat rails as I have done with all previous kits that have these parts sticking out.
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.Whilst the kit contains parts for the two larger ECM blisters shown above (parts E26.27) The Eduard instructions do not call them out.  Photos of my chosen jet definitely show them fitted, so they were added to the intake sides. A strange omission on Eduard's part, as from what I have read, no jets just had the two smaller blisters fitted.  A check of the original HobbyBoss instructions also show them as not called out either
Hopefully, in the next update, we will the model starting to come together.

 With the Eduard boxing, the engines are relegated to the spares bin.  Instead, Eduard provide you with resin compressor faces and jet nozzles.  So, the required parts were sawn off the casting blocks after painting with Alclad steel and superglued together

Yes, I could head this "I am the Walrus" but that heading has been used in the british modelling press as much as that other perennial favourite of the poms "Small but Perfectly Formed"
Anyway, after  a build that became a bit of a grind due to me bolloxing up the rigging, she's done. Yeah, I know. I should have weathered the prop and tyres to fit in with the rest of the finish, but I just wanted her off the bench at this stage.  
More pics on the Completed Models page here
More importantly, so far the 2018 plan is on track.  now, back to the Tomcats!

With the Walrus nearing completion, it was a good time to look at cracking open another box.
A workmate had asked me to build his Eduard boxing of the HobbyBoss 1/48 Tomcat as a VF84 jet about to be launched from the carrier. So that meant, wings spread, spoilers and flaps, down, canopy closed, with pilots, and the nose leg compressed.
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I always start off each year by picking my builds for the year, and inevitably, come the end of the year, I have never built what I picked out at years's beginning.
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