Thanks for everyone who came out to the meeting Saturday!

We started out with an excellent presentation from Bill Smallshaw on the FRAM Destroyer program which was the modernization and conversion of mostly young WWII destroyer hulls.  Gearing, Sumner, and Fletcher variants were discussed.  Nice job Bill!

There are few modeling choices for true FRAM destroyers.  There have been a few over the years in 1/700 scale but those are out of production.  

Iron Shipwrights produces several kits in 1/350 and 1/192 scale.  You can find these at Freetime Hobbies.

1/350 Resin Kits

1/192 Resin Kits

We had an excellent discussion about filling small scratches in resin and plastic ship hulls.  Sam challenged the group for solutions and here are some of the ideas we came up with...

Mr. Surfacer was a popular choice and demonstrated by John DuGene.  This product is available in three viscosities.  500 which is the thickest, 1000 which is a medium thickness, and 1200 which is the thinest.  Mr. Surfacer is a solvent based product and usually takes a minimum of 24 hours to dry off completely.  If thicker amounts are applied more drying time is a good idea.  Removal is by various sanding methods.  It's a good idea to sand across the scratch rather than with it.  When you sand along , or in the direction of the scratch there is a tendency to sand into the filler because of the hardness differences in materials.  It's available on line for about $6 per bottle.  Somebody mentioned that Colpar isn't going to carry it anymore which would be unfortunate.  

Here's a video that you may find helpful courtesy of Genesis Models...

Other options discussed were using CA glue mixed with baking power.  The baking powder accelerates the drying time.  Here's a video courtesy of SprueCutters.com out of Singapore demonstrating this method.  It works well with resin because moth materials are hard.  However as discussed during the meeting it is best to sand it relatively quickly before it gets too hard, which can be as little as 24 hours.  

Another option discussed was the Novus plastic polishing system.  This is an excellent for removing small scratches.  You use different levels of abrasion to ultimately get to a very smooth finish.  You can buy this from a variety of places online as well as Plasticare off of South Santa Fe Dr. in Littleton.  The set sells for about $12.  It comes in a variety of sizes too.  

Yet another option is two part water based epoxy resin.  One I've seen used with great success is Aves Apoxie Sculpt.  Mix the two parts together and work it into a seem.  This is better for bigger gaps rather than scratches.  Because it's water based you can clean up easily with water leaving behind only the filler.  It also dries hard and would be a good choice for resin.  It used to be available at Hobby Lobby but I don't see it on their web site anymore.  You can get it from Amazon for about $17.  

Martin also suggested dipping with Future which is an acrylic clear finish.  This is self leveling and is excellent for covering up small imperfections.  

Thanks to everyone for contributing to this discussion.  Really great stuff!

Next up was Ron who found these excellent visors.  These visors are much less expensive than Optivisor.  They include a well thought out LED light mounted on the hood.  And they come with lenses that can magnify as follows:

• Single-plate lenses: 1.0X, 1.5X, 2.0X, 2.5X, 3.5X
• Bi-plate lenses: 3.0X, 4.0X, 4.5X, 5.0X, 5.5X, 6.0X

Excellent find Ron!  Ron found his from www.Travers.com.  Jerry and John also found them from another supplier called www.esslinger.com.  Check them both out and decide which is best for you.  Based on reports from Ron and Jerry you won't go wrong with either.  Jerry tried his out already and told me that they're amazing.  I've added a nice video below as well courtesy of Jerry.

Try this link.  It wouldn't attach using the blog link:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=ihwLA5wjodQ

Or you can watch the video at the eeslinger web site.

I found an excellent reference book on scratch building.  The author covers scratch building ship models, teaching you the basics of everything from hull construction to photo etch.  I got my copy from Last Calvary for $35.  

But buried inside was an add for a pdf magazine called Ship Modeller.  It's available at this web site www.insidethearmour.com.  You can download a copy for about $5 to $6 each.  The articles are exclusively about building models ships and there are tons of tips in every issue.  One of the best things I've found on ship building.  

Kent shared with us some 3D printed IJN aircraft for his carrier project.  One of my favorite parts about these aircraft is that the manufacturer personalized each box with Kent's name.  I'm waiting to hear from Kent where he picked these up.  These should look great on his carrier!

Martin also brought his Airfix 1/72 LCVP.  Kit no AX02340.  This is the new version from Airfix and is pretty hard to find out there.  We'll have to find out from Martin where he found this little gem.  I heard an interesting interview with an LCVP D-Day vet who said they removed all their guns during that operation because they were afraid of friendly fire incidents.  

That's all for this time.  Catch you all in July!

Dave