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These are three builds I began over the last couple of years, all of which halted at that stage in a build I like to call 'putting off dealing with the @%&##*% clear bits', which is something I really do not much like to do. They are beginning to stare at me accusingly, and I really ought to bite the bullet and at least proceed with the canopies, especially since I have the write-ups done for two of them.... This is an old Matchbox Wellesley, one of the first second-hand kits I bought (from Mr. Garrity at Rare Plane Detective). It is marked as an early service machine of 76 Sqdn. Being red with a yellow pinstripe surround, the '76' doesn't show up well in the picture. I was intending a 'nostalgia build' of three types that were part of the original RAF expansion scheme for bombers using only vintage kits, with but one or two small corrections allowed, and with crew figures. In this case the correction is the deck and headrest behind the pilot. The kit leaves a big gap instead. This is a Mohawk IV (Cyclone powered Hawk 75), as employed by 155 Sqdn in late 1943 on the Burma front. I attribute powers of witchery to the wife, because I dropped the instrument panel, with glue on, into the fuselage maw, and some weeks later, when she had just come into the room, I had the thing in my hand, gave it an idle shake, and damn if the panel did not fall right out the cockpit opening. The model also managed some airborne time (not a toss, something got moved under it quite carelessly) at the end of which it shed tailplanes, and took a few scrapes and dents. There has been considerable tromp l'oeil correction to get the cowling to at least appear correct. I am a little proud of the yellow and Sky identity markings. They are not masked, but done free-hand, with the aid of a lightly scribed line, which stops the flow of paint, and fills as it does. This is an old Heller Spitfire V, laid in for possible use of its nose in converting an old-tool Airfix Defiant. That kit got built OOB, and afterwards I was struck by some pictures of bare metal Spitfire Vs in Australia. This one is from a training unit, and has a quite odd back-story, regarding both its origins and its eventual fate.. Not my best foiling effort, but the camera is kind, and it's certainly a novel finish for an early-ish Spitfire. I took it up after doing an old-tool Airfix Spitfire I, in a 'let's play two!' spirit. I still have a new-tool Airfix Spitfire I on the shelves. As you can see, these all need a canopy, and I really ought to take a session and get that done for all three of these, then see what's what once they're over that hump. Not to be viewed as lapsing from 'El Sonora', mind. That still continues, and there ought to be something fresh up on it next week....

Like many other people, I'm finding myself at home quite a bit more than usual so have decided to get some of my older models finished. I'm starting with this one, the 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer. It's been a challenge at times, but is building into a respectable model. Here's the fuselage, assembled sections and the bits still on the sprue: A major sanding session is next on the list of things to do...

Hello mates! I hope you like my little XT-4 No. 1 TRDI jet. This is the old kit bought 1989 i think/believe. I started 2006, then it went directly to the Shelf of Doom . 2011 i made a restart, two pilots ( the short one and the very short one) and detailing. Then it went strait to the Cabinet of Doom and Roll Out is today 2017! Cheers!

Many years ago - well 2012 to be exact I started to build this kit for a GB on another site (UAMF to be precise) however part way through I discovered a major problem with the kit I'd bought of eBay and gave up the build at that time. Ever since its been languishing on the shelf of doom until I did some sorting out last week and picked this up again. I'd bought some aftermarket stuff to go with it to improve some parts of what is essentially a very basic kit I'd bought the resin cockpit set that was intended for the Trumpeter kit. This meant in needed a bit of fettling to fit this one, but I reckoned it was possible. So here is the sprue shot - can you spot the problem? Anyway, so I started building and the cockpit went in okay Bit closer The wings went together okay Then the problem revealed itself... Yup thats one SINGLE tailplane - the other one was missing! Back in 2012, I'd only been back in the hobby about a year and a half, so this was enough to put me off the kit and it got pushed back into the shed. Since then of course I'd built some truly ridiculous things (bar armour Scimtars, giant Oil Platforms etc etc), so the challenge of scratch building a new tailplane crossed my mind as being an interesting and doable challenge - lets face it, I've overcome worse problems in my modelling career! I've got one tailplane so this can be used as a template, so I cut up some 1mm plastic card and sandwiched it with some .75mm card and slathered it with filler... Then after several sanding, shaping and more filling sessions, it got given a coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 from a rattle can This has been sanded a bit more, some surface dimples filled again and more sanding and now its currently got a new layer of Mr Surfacer 1000 drying to see what it looks like. I've decided to build this as an Australian plane in sky and EDSG, so looking forward to progressing and finishing this after all this time...

Hi All, Well, after getting THIS thing finished.... I felt i needed a break from Corsairs. So, off from the Shelf of Doom comes the 72nd scale Trumpeter Wyvern S.4. A seemingly nice kit with delicately molded surface detail and somewhat surpringly, rather accurate, so i'm told. Here's the state of play as of today. This kit last saw daylight back in i think 2008... Construction, as they say, started with the cockpit, then quickly turned to the massive contra rotating propeller. Whereupon all motivation vanished and the project hit a brick wall. Fortunately nothing had been glued together so no damage done. Building up the multi piece Horizontal tailplanes now. Will finish off the painting of those cockpit parts too. Stay tuned for another exciting episode of Problematical Turboprop Theatre! david

When I started tallying up the kits built this year, I was surprised at my output. I did more than a kit a month average. That means the stash will be finished in about 25 years if I don't buy another kit again; ever, never; not going to happen. In October I decided to get off of my rear and actually complete some kits that had been on my shelf of doom. Five of them were done. Here is the output month by month. JANUARY (slow month) 2011 Tiger Meet Tornado 1/144 Revell FEBRUARY Zero (Baa Baa Black Sheep Series) Revell 1/32 Less than a Tenner Group Build F9F Panther 1/48 AMT MARCH Black Panther Tornado 1/72 Revell APRIL Lavockin La 11 1/72 MPM MAY Payden Pa. 22/2 1/72 RS Models JUNE Rafale B Tigermeet 2006 1/72 HobbyBoss JULY F-104G Hunting Cat 1/32 Revell AUGUST IdolM@ster F-22 Raptor 1/48 Hasegawa SEPTEMBER Not a darn thing built!! (Spent time with Nigel; he distracted me from building. At least that's my excuse!) OCTOBER 1994 Tiger Meet Tornado 1/144 Revell KI-61 Hein 1/32 Hasegawa Moskalyev Cam 23 1/72 Special Hobby NOVEMBER P2V-7 Neptune (Neptune Buddy Build) 1/72 Hasegawa DECEMBER Osprey Eggplane Hasegawa ME 109 X 1/72 RS Models SHELF OF DOOM MODELS FINISHED!!!! OCTOBER Bf-109 C 1/48 Hobbycraft NOVEMBER Nakajima Rufe 1/24 Trumpeter P-51 Mustang III 1/32 Revell Sack AS-6 1/72 Special Hobby DECEMBER P-47 1/32 Hasegawa There are still too many kits on the shelf of doom and I hope to complete maybe two more kits before year's end. All the above have either WIP or RFI or both. Thanks for looking. As always, all comment are welcome.

Hello All, This year, rather than launching back into my current project, I've been drawn into finishing some old stuff that's been hanging around for too long: Airfix 1/72 Old Spitfire IX (started 2010) Loved it. 100% OOB. Humbrol 116/106/64/90. Old decals needed tidying up to deal with out-of-register issues but settled down beautifully. Walkways and lettering done by black pen, with silver pen for chipping. It almost looks like a Spitfire from this angle! Airfix 1/72 new Bf110C (started 2011) The undercarriage, bombs and tanks are beautifully moulded, in sharp contrast to the trenches all over the airframe. I didn't like the RLM70 (Hu117) and then I really struggled with the main decals, which refused to conform and silvered really badly.Yesterday I did the rest of the stencilling with black pen and red paint, so I didn't have to wrestle with about 100 more decals, and then weathered it and called it Done. Now I can get on with my current projects (except I just found that old MPM Defiant I started 2 years ago...) Thanks for looking, Adrian