Right, if anyone can advise on this i'd like to hear. How truthful are supervisors in letters of recommendation?

Mine doesn't have much time for me (I can tell), but always agrees to help, and answers emails (He couldn't make it more obvious that its out of obligation, rather than genuine interest) and we've had a few unproductive meetings lately which have made me reluctant to see him again. I'm not making the best progress either at the moment, with a deadline rapidly approaching. I'm not submitting to his proposed mini-deadlines (I can't).

I do not doubt that i can get it done (but only in my own weird way) but i get the feeling he thinks i am a walking disaster. I need this guy to give me a really good reference. In your experience, do they tend to just say positive things?

Well I have found mine to write entirely positively, but that could just this sup. My sup rather goes over the top a bit I find, which is also weird. Obviously I dont know in your case and what the reference is for, but I would have thought it is unlikely that you get a bad reference, but a really good one? Well - have you got a choice anyway?