About Us

SLEC stands for Sun Lane Engineering Company and was the brainchild of John & Kath Roper.

It was first formed in the mid 70’s and initially run from their model shop in Sun Lane Gravesend Kent. Over the next few years, the company built up a large range of popular plastic modelling accessories that could be found in model shops throughout Europe and different parts of the world.

In 1986 the Roper’s decided to retire and SLEC was offered to Balsacraft Ltd who was one of the biggest model kit manufacturers in Europe, this made perfect sense to John Rudd managing director of Balsacraft as he put most of the SLEC range in his kits. In 1987 SLEC became part of Balsacraft Ltd. In 1996 John Rudd retired and Balsacraft became the manufacturing department of Ripmax Plc the company ran successfully for a few years but with the big influx of ready-made models from the far east, kit’s stopped selling and Balsacraft closed in 1999.

2000 SLEC Ltd was resurrected. The company still produces an extensive range of aircraft and boat kits along with a good selection of accessories for both. We also still produce a large range of quality balsa wood and hardwood sheet & strips, all machined in our mill at Watton. We have continued to grow and have gone on to extend our services to include laser and CUN cutting services.