So i did get some success in the end. I tried quite a few times to set the AP settings. After trying to reset the device using different button combinations.
Few things i noticed which may just be me,
The web gui of 1.1.7 it’s a prove of concept and doesn’t work, for 1.1.20 you need to install the SPIFFS file in to the board, via platformio, esptool from cli or from the “ipaddress”/static.
I think the meshtastic default web gui it’s minimalist but a good start, I have installed this:
And it seems to work.
As soon as he’s ready, that’ll become the default 
or from the “ipaddress”/static.
I put an mdns server on there, so going to http://meshtastic.local/static should also work.