Sacgate, you said "I also volunteered to assemble the subject of this thread for my brother and I was very much surprised at the quality of the covering and model construction (what you can see) in general."

Am I correct in that you were referring to the Explorer L in that statement? If so, I can agree with you . Based on my limited experience...I haven't done any actual building or covering yet...but the finish is really nice and the construction seems to be as gppd as in my Alpha 40 trainer...or maybe somewhat better as I don't see where any hot glue was used (like in my Alpha)...it looks like CA to me. The edges of the covering is tacked down nicely...no loose spots...and the covering is stretched tight. Overall, I'm impressed with what I got. I repeat...I couldn't build it from scratch for what I paid for it.