To be fair, the 34" 1/11 scale Huntsman was not a SLEC kit - it was made when Anglian Models owned the rights and the tooling. The quality of their products was uniformly poor with the exception of the GRP hull mouldings. The SLEC Huntsman kits were totally redesigned and only marketed in the last three years; they are either 1/16 or 1/8 scale , with no GRP hull option.
Dave M
Hi Dave,
This is definitely a Precedent kit and it was delivered to me in the original Precedent box.
As far as I know SLEC never made the 34" version of the Huntsman 31, but maybe when Anglian Models had the rights and tooling they made this kit? I will check the label to see if here are any signs to indicate who actually produced this kit under the Precedent name.
You are right about the GRP hull - it is nicely moulded, but the deep V has been rounded off along the keel line - presumably to make it a little easier to mould? A wooden hull would produce the sharper apex that would not have this softened "melted" peak look, but on the water this will not be seen and I am very happy with it.
You are also right about the wood quality not being very good and is one of the reasons why I will be re-cutting the parts in some better quality plywood. The other reason for cutting new parts is that some have been assembled and are poorly aligned and heavily coated with what looks like dripping hot melt.
If it were possible to sand this excess glue off, I would still be left with a badly assembled structure (with lots of gaps and glue) made from poor quality wood, so If I can get it apart I will copy the shapes, and if not ChrisF has kindly offered me a plan for the original 34" Modav/Precedent kit that I can make some new (cereal packet) templates from.
This will not be a "quick build" model as the need to re-cut all the wooden parts will take almost as long as building the model from plan, but it will be nice to rescue another model that should now have a better future........unless I also make a bad job of it!
Say safe,
Bob.