Light-weight mock torpedoes

[Mark Sarsfield]

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as mock display torpedoes - not de-milled torpedoes?  It would be nice to use them for the reenacting crew to load (and easily unload) the torpedo tubes for events.  If I had the tools and time, I would make circular formers for structural members and then cover them with thin, flexible balsa wood.  Paint and polyurethane would keep them in pretty good shape.  The nose and tail would take a little work to replicate.  Another idea would be to make them from composites. Very light-weight and very strong.

[Paul Farace]

The prop department at FOX pictures has lots of mock Mark 48s from the movie DOWN PERICOPE... but they don't sell them.

You could talk to cratsmen who work in fiberglass... make a mold of the ends of a fish and go from there. You're right in that fish are just 21-in. diam. tubes with pointy and roundy ends.

PF
 

[Mark Sarsfield]

One of our reenactors told me that someone had made CAD drawings for mock torpedoes a few years ago, but they never got around to fabricating them.  The idea was to use wooden supports/stgructures internally and a thin sheet metal skin.  I think the nose and tail cones would be excellent candidates for composite materials.