In my quest to get all my Faireys to something like completion I have dusted off this model. The Huntsman 28, whilst well known in full-size, competing successfully in offshore power boat races and featuring as the baddies' boats in From Russia With Love as a model it is less well known now. In the 1960s Vic Smeed produced drawings for a 1:8 scale/42" model and a kit of the same size was produced by Veron. The drawings are still available but the kits rarely come up. Other Faireys, Huntress, Huntsman 31 and Swordsman 33, are better known nowadays as new kits are available as well as the earlier Precedent Huntsman 31 kits on Ebay etc.

I could have reduced the drawings to 1:12 to match my other Fairey builds but I wanted to modify them to have the whole superstructure removeable for access, so produced my own using the bigger drawings and the original Fairey drawings for reference. It was a trickier build because of this, particularly as I wanted to keep the coamings as slim as possible to reflect full-size.

I have tried this model on the lake but the painting needs finishing, windows need making and fitting and detailing carried out. So I've primer-undercoated the roof so that I can progress the painting of the superstructure.

Chris

After a bit of a delay I've returned to this other classic Fairey to continue with the painting. A coat of primer-undercoat was applied to the roof but whilst I'm using dark blue on my other builds I thought I'd get that done on this one as well, so today the first coat of grey primer-undercoat was applied to the cabin sides/coamings.

A couple of coats of Eze-Kote resin was applied to the outside of the cabin partition yesterday so that can then be primed and painted white. I also dug out the hardwood capping I made years ago to sit on top of the cockpit at the stern which needs gluing into place.

Having applied another coat of primer-undercoat yesterday, today I applied the first coat of gloss. After I've applied the required number of coats I can return to painting the roof and inside the cockpit in white. Once that is done I can start fitting out the cockpit having made the floor/engine cover ages ago using laser etched ply planking.

Whilst in painting mode I turned to this one as well and put the first coat of primer/undercoat inside the cockpit. Whilst looking at the floor/engine cover again I wish I could remember which glue I used as there is barely any residue marking the planking, unlike with the things I've been making lately using mainly low odour cyano which wicks/runs everywhere. Fortunately after sanding it does pretty much disappear and takes the varnish OK.

Just to mention the laser planked ply. I was able to select areas that didn't have any knots, visible grain or other features in it. Unlike with using separate planks the grain can spoil the look of the planking as it is obviously from a sheet. I've had to bite the bullet on some builds using e.g. mahogany as I just couldn't avoid prominent grain.

Similar problem to water that doesn't scale!