G'Day All, and Thanks for your interest in making your way to my website
I started it so that have a portfolio of my works to look back on in years to come.
Although my display cabinet is quite large it will in no way accomodate every model in my stash once built, not that I can see that happening!
So thought I would place all my completed models up on the one site, hopefully others will enjoy looking at them and reading about my various tribulations in the builds. Yes there's always some of those!!

Some of you may notice some uncorrected inaccuracies in models.  I stopped long ago trying to correct these, they slowed my build done, and in a lot of cases, I just couldn't see the benefit the extra work bought.  Similarly, I also long ago stopped added infinite extra detail to models, again, it just slowed the build down, and sometimes turned it into a slog.  These days with a large stash and shortage of time, Im all about getting models built.  Thats not to say I might still add detail to a particular subject I love.  In a similar vein, you may notice models in configurations you would never find the actual aircraft in, such as flaps down, panels open, armed up etc.  I don't care as I like to model to show as many of the features of the actual machine as possible.

To read about the build in detail and look at further photos, just click on the thumbnail below, which are listed in order of build or click on the left sidebar where they are listed by scale.

Thanks again for browsing my site, I hope that the models inspire some of you to also give them a go, and if you'd like to leave a question or comment, please feel free
Bruce
​11/05/2019

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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