Thanks everyone who joined in to today's meeting.  

Once again Zoom failed me on the recording.  I tested it a couple of times before we actually started.  Both starts recorded.  Then when we had the full meeting it didn't work.  Sorry about that guys.  

I think David Angelo had a good nights sleep in the Philippines.  We'll save this for the next meeting in January.  Here's a teaser photo of the Tangiers that he's been working on.

We reviewed Geralds completed builds of the 1/700 Corvettes from both White Ensign Models and Aoshima.  I was interested to hear the differences and some of the techniques Gerald used.  For example...

On a cable real make a series of rings to slide over a spindle on a cable reel.

Running PVA attached to a railing through water to re-activate it

Great tips Gerald!  

White Ensign Models Flower Class Corvette.  Only found one available for sale on eBay for $80.  

Aoshima Flower Class Corvette.  Only available in the Aoshima kit no 05272 of the HMS Exeter.   This is a hard kit to find!  I'm not sure if any of the other Exeter kits include this Corvette.  Check before you buy.

There are...er... was a great option from Black Cat Models in France.  They released their new 1/350 scale Flower Class Corvettes with short forecastles.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that they were so popular they were sold out in a week.  I don't think any of their releases so far have sold out at all.  They are $96 each and there may be a possibility you can get them from Starling Models in the UK.  They had some.  Also Free Time carries this line and may have some in a few weeks.  Here's the link for Starling Models and also for Black Cat Models

There are also several kits from Mirage Hobbies in 1/350 Scale.  They are plastic and a little rough around the edges, with some after market such as the photo etch set from White Ensign Models, they build up into a great little kit.  You can find these at a lot of different providers on the web.

Here's a fun video of the build of the Mirage kit.  

We had a short discussion about the Golden Sprue Awards.  A gentleman in the UK organized this during the year of COVID.  People on Social Media were able to submit suggestions for the best new kits of 2020 and then were able to vote for their favorites.  They plan to do this again next year.  Interestingly several of us attending today have the giant Titanic.  Thanks for showing us yours Vic, it's looking great!  If you want to check out the rest of the results, here's the link

Bill Smallshaw shared his builds with us.  This one is the 1/700 USS Harper's Ferry, LSD-49 from Orange Hobby.  There's a ton of photo etch railing on this one, not to mention all the other photo etch details included in this one.  Orange Hobby produces some magnificent models.  Really nice build Bill!

Bill also shared with us progress on his latest 77 ft Elco PT Boat.  Another epic build in progress.

Rob shared his build of the USS Birmingham.  Very cool subject!  We've probably all seen the Curtis Flier that flew off the deck mounted to the forecastle.  Would love to see this model with Curtis Flier.  This is a kit from Loose Cannon Models.  There may be some of these kits available in Hugh's garage.  Excellent work Rob!

Next we talked about what we use, and don't use (thanks for that perspective, Deacon!)  for sanding our models.  

John told us about Sanding Twigs that he picked up from Rockler.  These look very useful.  You can get a pack of 20 for $3.  

Some others that John liked like these with the tapered ends.  I have some of those as well and like them very much.  There are a bunch of different brands that are all very similar.  This set costs 

Another favorite from John are from Maus Works.  They are sanders on the end of a stick.  They come in a variety of grits and are on the end of a stick about 1/4 round.  Similar idea to the home made tool that I use.  Actually give Maus Works a look.  They have some interesting products you might find useful.  Here's their web site  Maus Wer.  Maus Were is a Colorado seller.

John also recommended Micro Mesh sanding paper and pads.  These are great to use wet or dry.  We talked about the benefits of wet sanding.  These are available from a variety of sources.  A good vendor to find these from is Micro Mark.  Grits range from 60 to 12,000.  

I've been a fan of Flory Sanders for a long time.  Typically you had to have these sent from England.  Now they are available from a hobby outlet based in Leadville, Colorado.  The name of the outlet is High Altitude Models which you can find at this link High Altitude Hobbies.  They have a starter set which you can buy and try out the various styles that they sell.  My favorites are the skinnies, sanding sponges, and polishers.  This set is $13.99 plus shipping and tax.

There are numerous brands out there from Infini to Micro Mesh, to Squadron.  All good products with a different spin. 

A favorite of mine have been the flex-I-file system.  This is one of those tools I found very useful but really didn't have a convenient way to store them.  I broke down and bought this set which is a very useful organizer.  I keep it on my bench and I can quickly pick out the grit I want which I keep in order.  This set costs $40.  A little pricy but you get five holders in five grits with refills.  My usage of these went up by a factor of 10 just because they're easy to get to and organized.  

Jerry reminded us of his Davidunion power sander.  These are available direct from davidunion.  There are similar products from Proxxon and others.  It's on my Christmas list this year!  Do your research before you buy!

Another favorite of mine is a product called Step Sanders.  What I like about these are that they have a hard plastic core and you wrap a self adhesive sanding strip around them.  These actually stick to the core (unlike the POS listed below in the worthless section).  Jerry Beasley was correct, these are available from my favorite tool guy, Jon from UMM USA.  However they are almost out of everything.  I'm checking with the manufacturer to see if they are still available and will let you know.  

My Grandfather used to have an expression, "worthless as tits on a bore hog".  Grand Dad was from Texas.  John shared some sanders that he found to be useless.  We've all bought those tools that we end up finding useless and sit around taking up space.  

Here's some John pointed out...

Sanding Needles from Flex-I-File.  I have to admit I bought some of these and they don't excite me either.

Jerry and I bought this next one at the Nats.  Seems like a good idea except the self adhesive sand paper won't stick to the handle.  I tossed the handle but use the sanding pads.  

Finally, in the spirit of organization, I picked up this Tamiya tape dispenser.  I bought this on Etsy .  They come broken down so you need to glue them together with acrylic cement.  They cost $12 plus $8 shipping.  They come from Russia.  The acrylic takes a little longer to glue up than acrylic I've purchased locally.  What I especially like is that it's covered so it's not collecting dust and dirt on the side of the tape. When I'm ready to mask up I just put it in front of me and use a pair of tweezers to pull out as much as I want to use at a time.  It's also easy to place little pieces on the side as I use them.  The cutter works great.  I like this so much I purchased a second one for my Micron Masking tapes.

Finally I'm getting some feedback on bench build virtual meetings.  The idea is to set up a time on Zoom that isn't structured.  Just bench time where we can sit, build, share ideas, and shoot the breeze.  I'm getting a lot of feedback already so let's move forward with this idea.