Scale: 1/125

Recommended for the Lindberg 1/125 scale “Blue Devil Destroyer” USS Melvin DD-680, Fletcher class.

This accurate and highly detailed model kit represents the blast shield (hood) for the US Navy's Mk.15 Quintuple Torpedo Mount.   On Fletcher class destroyers, the blast shield was typically fit only to the aft torpedo mount.

Features:
overall dimensions accurately scaled from official US Navy drawings
details confirmed from careful study of a surviving blast hood aboard USS Cassin Young, and period photographs of mounts in service
perfectly scaled to fit a 3D-printed Quintuple Tropedo Mount, available separately
exterior stiffener rings
closed top hatch
rooftop handrail omitted (too thin to print)
 
These 3D-printed acrylic parts are designed to accurately represent features of the actual ship.  These are not 3D-printed copies of Lindberg plastic kit parts and therefore are not the same size and shape.  Some adjustment to your plastic kit's parts or other aftermarket parts such as photoetch may be necessary for best fit.

© Model Monkey LLC.  This 3D-printed product may not be copied or recast.
 
The Mk.14 and Mk.15 torpedo mounts (click here) were the standard World War II-era US Navy torpedo mounts first fit to destroyers of the Benson/Gleaves class beginning in 1937. They continued to be the standard torpedo mount for the following Fletcher (DD-445) class, Allen M. Sumner (DD-692) class, and Gearing (DD-710) class.  These ships mounted either one or two mounts.  

The Mk.14 and Mk.15 torpedo mounts launched 21-inch diameter Mk.15 torpedoes (not included). The Mk.15 Mount carried a drum-shaped blast shield (blast hood) installed to protect the operating crew from the gun blasts of a nearby 5"/38 caliber gun and twin 40mm Bofors.  The circular Blast Hood was normally fit to the aft torpedo mount nearest the No. 53 Five-inch/38 Gun Mount.  Other than the blast shield, the Mk.14 and Mk.15 Mounts were identical.
 
From Microworks.com: "In the battles of Vella Gulf and Cape St. George, destroyer attacks using torpedoes [launched from this mount] sank six enemy destroyers without losing a single man, with a fifth (the legendary Shigure) escaping only because a torpedo hitting her rudder failed to explode. 
 
"U.S. destroyer torpedoes also accounted for the only "dreadnought"-type battleship ever sunk in action by surface launched torpedoes, the Fuso, during the Battle of Surigao Strait."