Shield Extenders & Passive Shield Tank Modules - Why I Love Them...
So I'm Gallente, and all the Fitting Guides for Gallente Ships seem biased toward Armor Tanking, because Gallente Ships have better armor resists - yada yada. And I'm sure that later on when I get into PvP combat, I'll yield to these greater authorities. But now, I'm just building up ISK and learning how to fit and use different ships, and doing missions and Planetary Interaction and Skilling up, so until I jump into the PvP pool, I'm developing some Carebear strategies that might be useful for you. One of these is going against Received Knowledge and using Passive Shield Tanking on my ships.
I don't like Red in my Instrument Display. I don't wig out now like I used to when I was just doing the Rookie missions. But I still don't like Red much, and the less Red means less attention I have to pay to Defensive strategies and more fun I can have with Offense and the Pew Pew. That's why I love Shield Extenders. What they do is add time, sometimes doubling the amount of Shield resistance. They take the place of your Shield Booster in the Mid Slot. The link above has a good article on Passive Shield tactics. Right now I use the basic Shield Extenders in my Destroyers on up - Cruisers, Battlecruisers, and Battleships, along with a Shield Power Relay module in one of my Low Slots.
So far using Shield Extender-Shield Power Relay setups I've never gone through a shield into Armor Damage - all Red is confined to the outer ring of the Display. Granted I'm only doing Mission 1 Security missions now. So that info is only accurate for Mission 1s. I still fit an Armor Repair module in one of my Lows just to be prepared, but I never hit it now.
So instead of the basic Frigate Defense of having a Shield Booster and an Armor Repairer, 2 modules that have to be activated in the midst of battle. I've got 3 modules that I never (at least in Mission 1s) have to activate. That's a relief.
But I doubt that the use of these modules would work for you unless you also have the relevant Skllls, you need Engineering and Electronics leveled up to 5, and then 3 Shields Skills: Management, Operations, & Upgrades. It's never enough to have a good module, you have to Skill up to use it to the fullest.