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

[NavyShooter]

Phil, that's amazing brass work!  Well done good sir!

 

You have the 'heat shield' part of the grenade lockers right - having been an ammunition custodian on a modern warship (Halifax Class) all of our upper deck lockers had a heat shield which was normally painted white that was stood off a couple of inches from the lockers to provide shade and natural cooling.

 

Originally, as fitted, the ships didn't have these heat shields, and we ended up having to put shot matts on top of some of the lockers and put a fire-hose spraying a light amount of water over them to provide some cooling while in the Persian Gulf back in the 2001 time-frame. 

[Dr PR]

Brad,

 

Thanks.

 

If you look closely at the blueprint drawing for the grenade locker you will see that the heat shields actually had chamfered edges, about half an inch (12 mm) angled 45 degrees from the larger surface. At 1:48 scale that comes out to about 0.010 inch (0.26 mm) wide chamfers. I have a photo etch metal bender and tried to make the bend in some 0.003 inch (0.08 mm) brass, but it wouldn't grip the metal tight enough and it kept slipping out of the bender. So we will just have to imagine the chamfer.

 

In hind sight I should have used 0.010 inch (0.25 mm) brass for the shields, and then I could have filed the chamfer on the edges. Maybe next time!

[Jim Lad]

She really comes alive with all that beautiful detail, Phil

 

John