I have seen many fine waterline shipmodels ruined though the contraction and subsequent warping of resin hulls in varying temperatures, often bending the thin mounting material with it in the case of wood/plastic bases or even aluminium and perspex sandwich laminate as I used to favour(and still do for tiny ships!)
This is what I do now:
I mount all my model boats,( especially the long hulled resin ships which are prone to distortion through temperature variations at the best of times!) at the earliest possible occasion onto a 3mm thick stainless steel plate, pre-drilled with countersunk holes along its length and screwed with no 6 selftapping stainless steel screws from underneath
---- ergo no warpage,.... EVER!
...it also prevents paint wear and reduces risk/damage by handling whilst building. The only possible downsides are:
If you have a wall case with glass shelves as I do the shelves need to be toughened glass 5mm thick, otherwise eventually the cumulative weight of heavy stainless steel plates will go south..... with the destruction of all who sail under her... big bad!
The other thing is that whilst in build; when tilting the ship or holding at an inclined angle the left wrist does tend to get tired as a plate the size I used for 1/700 HMS FURIOUS 1917 and my current build of HMS FURIOUS 1941 weighs nearly a kilo....
but they will NEVER EVER warp...
JIM BAUMANN
!!
