USS Cape (MSI-2) by Dr PR - 1:48 - Inshore Minesweeper

[TBlack]

I got an idea! If no one knew what you were looking for, you could have found anything on the bottom and claimed victory. Sort of like my Naval experience. But that’s another story!

[Dr PR]

While many of my fellow Americans are having nachos and beer while watching dumjoks chase rubber balls (which I find boring) on New Years Day I have been working on the fiddly bits on the hull while waiting for some boxwood to arrive to make the stern frame around the propeller and rudder.

 

Older wooden sailing ships rarely had deliberate openings in the hulls below the waterline, so there is nothing there to model. But steam and diesel powered vessels have a variety of hull openings, or seachests, that do give us something to model. The original MSI hull had 13 openings (Austin Cox told me he added another for new accommodations). Some were intakes for taking in sea water and the others were various overboard discharges.

 

The intakes for engine cooling water and fire pumps are the most interesting.

 

 

The openings were surrounded by 3 5/8 inch (92 mm) thick wooden "plows" that were tapered fore and aft to facilitate water flow. An odd thing about these is that they were beveled around the edges with the widest dimensions on the surface away from the hull planking, and not mating to the planking. They were "upside down" trapezoids with the narrow side against the hull plating (see Section "3-BI" above). I'm sure there was some reason for this, but it just seems odd to me.

 

Here is how I made these seachests (see photo below). The plows should be 0.078 inch (1.98 mm) thick at 1:48 scale. I don't have any stock that thick (but some a lot thicker) so they were made of 1/16 inch (1.59 mm) thick basswood with 1/32 inch 0.79 mm) thick plywood glued to the back side. That comes out to 0.94 inch (2.38 mm) thick, so I will have to sand them down a bit.

 

The plywood serves a double purpose. The smaller plow has a large hole for the seachest grating that comes close to the sides. While trying to cut out the opening the basswood piece broke. But with the plywood glued to the back the pieces came together again and I was able to finish the opening.

 

The gratings were cut from very fine HO scale (1:87) brass vent screens for the sides of a GMC F3 diesel engine that I just happened to have in my scrap box. As you can see from the blueprint the grating actually had a series of long, narrow parallel openings, but at 1:48 they would be difficult to create with photo etch.

 

The grating was spot soldered to the end of a 9/32 inch (7.14 mm) outside diameter brass tube ring, and that was soldered into a short piece of 5/16 inch (7.94 mm) OD brass tube. These assemblies were pressed into the holes in the wood.

 

 

I drilled small holes into the hull about equal to the scale inside diameter of the piping in the original ships, and then used a counter sink bit to make the openings conical, as shown in the blueprints.

 

After the plows were glued in place on the hull I painted the inside if the recess black, and then glued the grating assemblies into the holes in the plows. I used Duco Cement because I have found it adheres to both wood and metal.

 

If you look closely you will see that I did not bevel the edges of the plows undercut as shown in the blueprints. I think this would make the exposed edges of the basswood vulnerable to damage. And in most circumstances these seachests won't even be visible! Why ask for trouble?

 

 

The remaining 10 seachests were ordinary pipes with flanges attached to the outside of the hull planking.

 

There were six different sizes on the ships, but i don't have a wide enough variety of brass tubing to make them all. Using commercial "telescoping" brass tubing I could make four sizes that are close to scale to the originals.

 

For some I soldered two concentric rings around the end of the center tube to make wide flanges, and some had just one ring for narrower flanges. These were then turned in an electric drill and ground down with files to a flange thickness of about 0.020 - 0.023 inches (0.51 - 0.58 mm).

 

Some of this tubing has been in my junk box for decades and is heavily oxidized and scratched. However, this doesn't matter because only the outer face of the flange will be visible after the seachests are in place.

 

 

Here are some photos of these seachests mounted in the hull.

 

 

There is a bit of dust in the openings - I will need to clear that before the hull is painted. But before that the flanges will be filed/sanded a bit thinner to a scale thickness of 1/2 inch (12.7 mm), or 0.01 inch (0.26 mm) at 1:48. All of the seachests will be painted when I get around to that.

 

That is about all of the hull detail below the main deck except for the stern frame. I won't have the boxwood for that for a week or two. So I guess now I will have to guzzle beer and munch nachos while watching a movie.

 

And I will have to start planning the deck house and all of the minesweeping gear that crowds the after deck.

Edited Wednesday at 11:30 PM by Dr PR

[Jim Lad]

Very nice, Phil!

 

John

[KeithAug]

Nice work on all those hull penetrations Phil. It's very nice when the junk box gives up its treasures, somehow it makes all the years of hoarding worthwhile.

[Dr PR]

Oops! Wrong again! I thought there was nothing more to do on the hull until the wood for the stern frame arrived. But I forgot about the bronze stem chafing plate and those wooden lining boards on the hull to protect it from anchors, pigs and such.

 

 

The stem chafing piece is shown in green. I will make it from thin brass sheet. I have several thicknesses in stock, but I think I'll use some 0.005 inch (0.127 mm) pieces in my scrap box. It is pretty easy to work with.

 

The lining boards were a problem. They are not mentioned in the blueprints, so I guess they were added later after wear was appearing on the hull planks. Fortunately I have quite a few photos of the USS Cape MSI-2 and I can see where the linings were located. There was a lot more than I originally thought. The lining planks are shown in red in the drawing above. Note: there seem to be some differences from the linings visible in USS Cove MSI-1 photos.

 

At the bow the linings extended down to the keel - this is evident in the photos Austin Cox sent of the current Cape on blocks. The anchor could bang against the hull here as it was being lowered and raised.

 

From photos of the Cape afloat I can only see the other linings extending down to the boot topping. I am guessing the linings didn't extend much lower because the hull sides curve under at these places and the pigs (floats) wouldn't go very deep. The kites and acoustic sounder could be lowered deeper but would be hanging out over the side. The entire hull did have a thin third outer planking of red oak below the water line and this would provide some protection.

 

I counted the planks in several photos, especially the bow photos, and determined them to be about 4 inches (104 mm) wide. That would be 0.085 inches (2.16 mm) at 1:48 scale. The closest commercially available wood is 3/32 inch (0.094 inch or 2.38 mm) wide. Fortunately, I just ordered 28 feet (8.5 meters) of 3/32 x 1/32 inch boxwood strips. I will need a few feet for trim on the deck house, and the rest was just to replenish stock. Looks like I will have enough for the lining planks!

 

And while looking for drawings of the chafing piece and linings I found one showing 12" x 6" x 1 1/4" (304.8 x 152.4 x 31.75 mm) zinc bars at places on the hull. I knew about the zincs on the stern frame and rudder. But there are two zincs on the "plow" for the engine and fire water intakes! A bit more detail to add.

Edited Thursday at 11:12 PM by Dr PR