I've finally got online to catch up on things.  That's a nice job you made there Monsieur.  That simple blas pen setting is all that's needed to finish a good project.  I think I have one of these hidden away somewhere - part of a job lot of Weird Stuff I got cheap as it was all just in plastic bags with instructions.  I have them in an old shoebox!  Top opening box by the way - and thanks for all the comments on boxes too but I remain unconvinced by the prominence of this in a review.  Whilst I understand the advantages of tray and lid versus envelope style, I've never yet NOT bought a model I wanted because it came in the "wrong" type of box.   

After many years of having to be able to identify cold war vehicles and aircraft, I have a certain fascination - I doubt I will be able to recognise this one though once you've finished with it MSea!

Incidentally, in response to your opening comment, I always greet people with "The Fourth of May be with you" as we British say our dates the correct way round, don't you now that!  It really annoys those nerdy acolytes of "The Force" who still think it's cool to put "Jedi" as their religion on the Census form.  I treat them with the same distain as rivet counters 

Back in 2010, I was down in Taunton at DCOS' family's place for Christmas and on 27 Dec, went for a wander into town to have a break from the madness.  A model railway shop was open and I bought this Airfix Kingfisher for no other reason than I could and after gluing the two sets of wing halves together, it had sat unloved in the loft ever since.

I decided it was time to get it done and donated to Holderness Hardware for their window display and so over the last couple of weeks, have been really enoying myself spending as much free time as possible at the bench.

It's an out of the box build with the exception of a bit of stretched sprue rigging between the fuselage float posts (my first ever bit of rigging too!) and the antenna wire (not yet on).

It came together well and I'm quite pleased with it so far - though there's plenty of time to mess that up!  Paints are Vellejo acrylics and are approximate colours only.  I gave it a base coat of white over the Halfords grey primer and then some chipping fluid before the top colours so I could have a go at a battered look.  How realistic it is I neither know nor care.  It's typical old Airfix raised detail and rivets which I left alone other than rubbing down the rivets on the floats slightly.

I nearly made a schoolboy error when putting it together as I was that keen to get the wing floats on, they would have gone on before the underwing marking had I not glanced at the paint intructions purely by chance!

I decided to have a go at masking the canopy rather than paint by hand and tidy up with a cocktail stick as I usually do so that was a peaceful 2 hours last night with some Tamiya tape and a few exacto blades.  Tonight I'll give it a spray and hope the paint doesn't come off with the tape which I'm not looking forward to as I always find the Vallejo paints so very soft and not only do they take a very long time to cure, the chipping didn't work too well on the underside as the white came off as well as the light grey.  That'll be touched up over the next week.  What's left to do on the actual aircraft is sort out the weathering, fix the canopy (open or closed???)  add the MG and antenna, underwing light and then get started on the base.

It will be displayed on water - or rather resin - and so I made a deep picture frame style base to sit it in.  The ply at the bottom was the right width but longer than I needed although I may be able to incorporate the extra bit into the finished display.  If not, I'll cut it off.  I'm still deciding exactly how it will look so will keep you posted as things progress.  Working with water/resin is another first for me and so if this goes wrong, I not only waste the resin but lose the kit too as it will be sitting in the resin not on it - although I suppose if it comes down to it, I could cut it out and start again or make it a "waterline" float!

Nice!  I always liked this aircraft - unusual in it's own way but never built one yet.  I shall let you insprire me.

Thanks, I mis-read your first post, thought it came with the brass.  I'll hang fire until I've found a decent priced kit that comes with a bit of brass first and see how I get on with it.

Any recommendations?  Nowt too complex mind you!

I have my eye on this kit Andy - once I can sneak off to the Hardware Shop without DCOS in tow!  For some reason I never had a Mitchell in my collection and I've always been fascinated by ventral turrets.  Pay day soon!!!

Nice bit of work going on there MSea.  Do the kits compare favourably to other manufacturers?  I really do want to have a go at a floaty thing soon but don't fancy paying £50 for a kit then having to buy brass on top of that.

Thanks all.  As is usually the case, I stumbled across this completely by accident.

I've promised myself I'll have a bit of time on here this evening and see what everyone else has been up to.