My Dad (and Uncle) used to take both my late Uncles aft cabin Huntsman 31 and its replacement Swordsman 33 back to Fairey from Pembrokeshire, West Wales for servicing etc, and he has said many times, that although both were extremely good, the Huntsman 31, is a better sea boat in a chop/swell than the Swordsman, smoother and drier too, due to the angle of the 'V' of the Huntsman cutting into the swell, rather than pounding./slamming.

Will

Hi Chris,

Your comparison between a race horse (huntsman 31) and my description of a floating cottage (Swordsman 33) sums up the difference between these two models very well.

Although there is very little difference in length (2" on a 1/12 scale model or 2ft on a 12" to foot the model!) the Huntsman looks a LOT smaller.

Being able to see the two models alongside each shows just how much smaller the Huntsman 31 is than the much "bulkier" Swordsman.

Surprisingly (perhaps?) the Swordsman is an excellent performer on the water.........nothing like its "floating cottage" nick-name would suggest!

Yes, I was wondering if I should add all the plans as well as I have many of them including kit drawings. But apart from myself, and you previously Bob, I haven't heard of anyone building a Fairey from scratch for a long, long time. Most builds are from the current SLEC kits or refurbs of 1:11 and 1:8 scale Precedent kit builds.

For interest, a chap on another forum wanted to build a 60" Huntsman 31 with an IC engine (he has access to a lake) and so I've modified my drawings by adding some additional frames and stringers etc. I think these would be of benefit even if building smaller, particularly for producing the distinctive flared bow. If I build another one I will use these drawings.

Photos show relative sizes of the Huntsman 31 and Swordsman 33. The former is like a racehorse compared to the Swordsman 33.

There are also plans currently available for the 1/12 scale Huntsman 31 and the 1/12 scale Swordsman.

I have owned both the above models built from these plans, and it is interesting to see the comparative size of the Huntsman when placed alongside the Swordsman.

.......no surprise that they "nick-named" the much bigger Swordsman as "The Floating Cottage" - it dwarfed the smaller model.

As requested here is a list of all the kits that have been produced for Fairey Marine boats. Only SLEC and Sarik Hobbies currently produce models. I think I've listed them all.

Chris

Huntsman 28

Kit produced by Veron for a 42”, scale 1:8 model. No longer available but may come up for sale rarely.

Swordsman 33

Kit produced by Aerokits for a 33 ¼”, scale 1:12 model. This is for the aft cabin version where the roof is around deck level. No longer available but do sometimes come up.

SLEC now produce a kit at 25” where the aft cabin roof is slightly higher but still within the coamings.

Huntsman 31

The first Huntsman 31 kit was produced by Modav (Model Avionics) in the 1970s and was for a 34” long model at the rather odd scale of 1:11. The business then morphed into Precedent Kits (Balsacraft) and they continued with the all wood kits but also added fibreglass hulled ones in both 34”/scale 1:11 and 47 ½ ”/scale 1:8. I’ve never actually seen a big fibreglass hulled one.

The rights to manufacture the kits were then bought by Anglian Model Products but not many were sold and the company has ceased trading.

Unbuilt kits and built models come up on EBay quite often and are usually the Precedent kits as more of those were sold, though I don’t think the kit design changed much, if at all through it’s various incarnations.

SLEC now produce kits at 23 ½ " and 47” with the latter being a development of the Precedent kit and incorporating some changes to the construction and laser printed planked deck etc.

Huntress 23

Sarik Hobbies do a plan and laser cut wood kit for a 23”, scale 1:12 model.

SLEC do a kit for a 34”, scale 1:8 model.

Miscellaneous

There was also a range of kits for a number of Fairey models but they are too small for practical use and therefore were not popular.