Hi, Tugboat! The packages you mailed to me have safely arrived. I will be informing the intended recipient of the turrets that his parts have arrived, so he can get those prepped and installed. The turrets themselves are in fine condition. I'll probably hollow them out with a mill to save on weight. Although I'm a little disappointed that fiberglassing the plastic hull of the transport didn't work, I'm actually glad that I can now move on to my next project (Viribus Unitis) with a clear conscience and a clear workbench. The replacement plastic transport kit you sent will probably find itself atop a club trophy, either dockyard pristine or battle-damaged and pumping, depending on how much time I have.
Carl, Why not just make a silicone mold and do up a quick f/g hull yourself (only one to replace the one in the kit, of course)? A hint - for small ships like that, one guy in our club uses Bounce (tm) fabric softener sheets (used) instead of glass fiber for small, thin-walled ships like his destroyer. Or, add a little urethane to the inside as a reinforcement and use the stock styrene hull? Cheers, Wreno.
Nope, I've always had really bad luck with epoxy, fiberglass, and other two-part resins. Besides, my 3-island tramp has been working out so well, that I don't really need another small transport.
That lil teeny is really tough to get the fiberglass to conform to without using really small pieces of fiberglass. What is not so bad on a larger hull is darn tough on a 1/2"dia compound curve.
That is the Pumas your talking about, right? I thought you did a great job on the build and the topic pics.
Tug, The guy in our club that uses the Bounce fabric softener sheets in place of woven or mat f/g has no problem with small ships - he has made several E-Boat hulls with that material. Getting them running and armed is another story, of course. Cheers,
I'm pretty certain that the used Bounce sheets would conform to curves nicely, but the lil ship Carl had me try had some devilish ones in the stern that I have not seen on any warship. Sometime I think I'll try using them, I can just hear what my wife'll say as yet another pile of junk is saved for 'recycling'... [after the 2L bottles for armor, the soda cans for aluminum casting, the little plastic rolls that EKG paper comes on for radio antenna parts(which also make nice SS parts)... etc, etc]
