I recently completed this 1:48 floatplane version of the DeHaviland Canada Beaver for a friend of mine.  It is my first attempt at both modelling a floatplane and rigging an aeroplane - in this case the floats.  The Hobbycraft Kit is somewhat basic but has reasonable detail and OK decals - it looks like a Beaver.  The fuselage halves are moulded in clear plastic which is good in that there are no fiddly cabin windows to install but awkward in that the windows have to be masked inside and out.  I assembled
the cockpit interior adding decal instrument dials and steel pin throttle controls to the kit panel and tape seatbelts to the seats.  I left the rear cabin bare as you cannot see much of the interior once the fuselage halves are closed.

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I broke the construction into four sub-assemblies: fuselage, floats, wings and tailplanes.  I removed the elevators and repositioned them in the dropped position - adding the tailplane "winglets" from plastic card.  The wings were assembled as moulded, as were the floats.  Using photo references from the excellent website www.airliners.net, I added details to the floats in the form of access panels and mooring ties (or whatever the nautical term for these things is).  I scratch built the rudders from plastic card and steel rod and installed them in the raised position with stretched sprue control lines. The kit float struts were cleaned up, drilled to accept the
rigging, and modified to mate more effectively with the holes in the floats.
I added plastic card "steps" to the strut braces.

The sub-assemblies were spray painted with Halfords grey acrylic auto primer and then with several coats of Halfords white primer.  After this had cured I applied a few coats of Johnson's Klear varnish, masked and brush painted the yellow cowl, wing leading edge and tips, and float anti-slip patches. 
The fuselage was decaled before attaching the wings and floats.  The latter was a tricky operation and I will use a jig next time as the installed floats are not exactly "square".   I inserted the stretched sprue rigging and rudder control cables through the pre-drilled holes and secured them with super glue. Once rigged the float assembly is quite rigid.  Stretched sprue aerials were added to complete the job.
Darius