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My experience in modelling is some 45 to 50 years ago therefore my knowledge of things like casting resins and transparent castings is almost nil. If anyone can pass any tips, especially where materials can be obtained in the UK I would be very grateful.
Three main types of resin in use out there for building subs.
Polyester resin (what you were using 45-50 years ago I suspect)
Epoxy resin
Polyurethane resin.
The first two tend to be used for laying up hulls with glass reinforcement.
Epoxy is a superior resin, being stronger, less brittle and having a much lower shrinkage rate. It also lacks the pungent pong of polyester, but it's very expensive compared to polyester resin here in the UK (at least three times the cost), so most people tend to use polyester resin. That includes the kit makers like OTW and Sheerline, incidently, so you won't be in bad company!
Polyurethane resin tends to be used for making appendages like hydrovanes, conning towers, scopes etc. It's generally strong and elastic enough to be used without any reinforcement, and the shrinkage of this resin is very low, making it ideal for solid castings without resorting to using fillers. The cost of this resin is very high, but you don't use a lot of it.
You can mix polyester resin with fillers to cast appendages, and that can work very well, but the parts won't be as strong as PU resin.
I get my supplies from http://www.CFSnet.co.uk , and have found their products are very good. They stock polyester, epoxy and polyurethane resins.
Thanks for the Resin information both sites are excellent and I am sure will have all that I need. As I only live about 20 miles from Thatcham I will call in their some time as they seem to have a showroom. Fortunately in this day and age it doesn't matter where you live we all have access tothese various companies through the Internet.
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