It’s been a very busy weekend with my oldest grandson Ollie becoming a teenager yesterday. We took him and his first cousins Alfie and Elena to the Meadows Wildlife Park, then we picked up his other cousins Tobi and Amelia then took them to the cinema to see Minions and Monsters. Then we had a sleepover for all 5 of them. I’m exhausted. But not too exhausted to paint another Airfixer after they went home. Here it is

8) Supermarine Walrus

It’s another flying boat. This was designed by R.J.Miatchell. He and the Supermarine company would become much better remembered for another plane he designed and they built, the Supermarine Spitfire. The Walrus was first flown in 1933. They would come to be operated by the Fleet Air Arm, the Australian and New Zealand Air Forces, and the Royal Air Force.

They were used in anti-submarine operations, and search and rescue missions too. Over 700 were made and several are preserved in Museums around the world. I’d say that it’s nowhere near as well known now as the glamourous Spitfires and Hurricanes, or even Britain’s most iconic world war II flying boat, the Short Sunderland, but the sterling service it put in during the second world war must have been what made Airfix decide to create the first kit of it in 1957.