Sorry Michael, but your £89 has bought the Fairey Huntsman kit. which I can assure you is a well priced and well designed model having built one myself.The SLEC website makes it quite clear what items are needed to complete it as a working model so you could have costed these in at the time of purchase and they are indeed precisely listed on the website. You also need to add the cost of the radio control transmitter and receiver.

As Richard says, the fitting out of the model can vary according to builder preferences. The recommended setup will give you a good working model but  some modellers may wish to vary the specifications to their own requirements.

I’m sorry you have been disappointed but unfortunately this is down to to you apparently not noticing the list of items needed to complete the model as set out on the SLEC website. They have done their best to make this clear so the fault does not lie with them.

Colin

Its very easy to dismiss though the fact that all modellers at all different levels of ability and experience, all started with nothing.  I agree what we have now has been built up over many years but we all, at one point in our lives, started with exactly what you have now.  No-one gave us a ready-to-roll fully fitted out modelling workbench.

I put my first Airfix kit together when I was around seven or eight years old.  My father was at sea so I was entirely on my own.  It was a 1/600th scale HMS Ajax.  I didn’t paint it, I simply glued it together but I do remember being very proud of the fact that the turrets were free to turn.  How I removed the parts from the sprues and dressed them up I have absolutely no idea, maybe I borrowed the bread knife?

When I started doing more models I used my pocket money to buy my first own tool, which was a retractable Stanley knife.  I still have it 50 years later and I still use it daily.

The problem we seem to face nowadays is that newcomers to any practical hobby seem to have expectations that are quite unreasonable.  We could debate why that is the case forever but we are still left with potential modellers who have no idea of what to expect when they open the box.  The sad thing is that there are more resources than ever to assist.  As Ray said why didn’t you ask the question here before buying rather than use the forum as a means of complaint?

If you want help to get started in the hobby you won’t find many better places than this.  There are many members here willing and able to share advice and guidance with you throughout the selection of models, methods of building, electronics, paints and glues, tools etc..etc..etc..  You just need to ask.  If your first reaction on opening the box is to complain that things are not as you expected and send it back I think you are going to struggle with the hobby.  If you can accept that you could have been better prepared yourself then there may be a chance.

Michael, I have not built one but from everything I have read and heard I believe the new Slec kits are excellent kits.  I’m sure you would have enjoyed building it.

I think if you buy the kit again and start to work through it, but only buy additional items as you feel you need them, you will spread the cost over a fair amount of time.  Then, of course you will have started your own collection of useful bits and pieces for future builds!

Kits always need a lot more spending on them to get them on the water but spreading the cost out helps a lot.  I recently did a review article for the magazine of the Billing Boats African Queen.  I was ribbed by my club for getting a free model boat and how well I’d done out of it.  When I told them what it cost me in glues and paints, motor, battery, speed controller, receiver and a few personalising bits and pieces they soon lost the enthusiasm.  And that’s not even considering the time it took.

Maybe in future don’t rely on doing searches on the forum, they don’t always pick up everything and maybe not as specific as you need.  Ask specific questions, I’m sure you will find that more useful, although you might have to wait a day or two.

Michael,

Just looked at my instruction book. The list is headed ‘Materials used in the building of this model and available on the SLEC website’

All the glues, fillers, glass fibre, tools etc are available on the SLEC website but many of them  are not essential and just nice to have such as the Permagrit block and razor plane. While it is useful to cover the hull in GRP tissue it is not mandatory, you can just fill any blemishes or gaps, seal and paint it. If you have several plan builds under your belt then the materials, glues and tools you used for those will enable you to construct the Huntsman. Glues in particular are a personal choice. I don’t use cyano superglue as it gives me an allergic reaction, other people can’t use epoxy for the same reason.

The recommended two blade propeller works well but I substituted a brass one which was more expensive but looks and performs better.

The Huntsman kit is very cleverly designed designed and goes together extremely well but it is not simply something where you can just glue the parts together together, you do have to build it as with all other model boat kits. In fact standards do vary widely between manufacturers, SLEC are one of the best ones but the offerings from others can involve a lot of skilled work!

Michael.

Looking at the picture of the SLEC “extras to complete the kit” list as posted by Colin I can understand why you were a bit miffed at the extra cost involved.

However as has been pointed out, running gear is very often not included and is pricy. A quick calculation for the running gear alone appears to be over 80 quid but is unavoidable. The cheap Bushy Park landing Craft we make (wood cost, 4mm ply, £5) takes 50 quids worth of running gear. As to glues and fillers etc, likely everyone who has posted already has these items, along with tools. Finishing paint mostly has to bought for every model you make, but again, primers etc will be already on the shelf.

I see they include a battery in the list. Anyone who does boating probably has a suitable battery so this cost can be taken out. If of course you don’t have a battery, then not only do you have to buy one, but a charger to go with it.

I would struggle to make landing Craft as an “RTR” for anyone new and owning no boaty bits for less than £120, and that’s with a Hull costing at the most a fiver in materials and 1/4 of a tin of Rustins Acrylic grey primer and some soldiers from a charity shop….you can build 5 or 6 landers from a 4′ by 8′ sheet of 4mm ply.

Ashley

Michael,

I built both the review Huntsman and Swordsman kits for the magazine. The frames are not vertical. The relevant part of the instructions reads:

Now slot each of the frames 9-14 into the keel; position this assembly on the deck and glue each of the frames in turn to the deck and keel. Add the transom former 15 across the back of frame 14 (Pic#12). NOTE The frames are NOT at 90 degrees to the deck.

These kits are very accurately engineered and when you slot the respective pieces together everything self aligns. It is very clever. In fact, one method of glueing is to clip all the pieces together and you have a self supporting and correctly aligned structure. Then run Deluxe materials Superphatic glue along all the joins where it ‘wicks in’.

Due to the accuracy, it is essential to follow the instructions exactly or you will be in trouble. All the information is there in the Building and Picture Instructions but not everyone reads them! Big mistake!

Colin

Michael,

Yes, it was a reasonable question and you are right about the conventional approach.

However, the designer of these kits, the late Dave Milbourn and a very good friend of mine, was a very clever man and produced a very accurate interlocking design. I did an initial dry fit too and it worked perfectly. It was a shame to take it apart for glueing!

The only thing to be careful of when making the Swordsman & Huntsman is to correctly carve the balsa bow blocks. This is mentioned in the instructions but it also helps to visit the Fairey Owner’s website:

Home

and also websites offering Fairey boats for sale to get an understanding of what the quite complex shape should look like.

Colin

Back home now and I have checked my original review which confirms what I remembered five years ago and reads:

The rudder is supplied with an additional alternative brass tube which should be used to place the tiller at the right height inside the model. The rudder servo can be positioned where convenient alongside or behind the battery box depending on what linkage you employ.

So, basically a standard brass rudder is supplied but with a modified tube. No fabrication is needed. That is what I did on the Model Boats review model.

Colin