1/350 SS Botany Bay Help

I'm up a creek because I can't find any perforated/mesh material that looks right for the 1/350 resin SS Botany Bay panels. The brass found here: Kit Kraft inc., Model Building Materials, Tooling Foil and Sheet Metal, Perforated Brass Sheet is great for the 1/2 scale studio model of 21.5" (albeit expensive at $30 a small sheet!) but much too coarse for a 12" model. The panels that came with the kit are clogged with too much flash in between the very fine mesh and I'd like to try to cut them out and substitute some other material like copper mesh. Trouble is the interior dimension of the panels is less than 3/4" x 3/8" and require a rather fine "weave," not to mention careful cutting.

Anybody come across this problem and what was your solution?

Amaco #80 brass mesh seems to be the closest thing to match the small scale but it's too flexible and problematic to work with and maybe too fine: Amazon.com: Wireform Woven Metal Fabric 16"X20": Office Products

Here's what the 43" studio model shows:

In that scale, the mesh would be extremely fine. There is fine brass mesh made for detailing military and car models, but as you say it is flexible. Maybe you could try cutting panels of clear plastic sheet, and mist it with brass paint. A translucent brass panel might work at that scale.

robn1 said:

In that scale, the mesh would be extremely fine. There is fine brass mesh made for detailing military and car models, but as you say it is flexible. Maybe you could try cutting panels of clear plastic sheet, and mist it with brass paint. A translucent brass panel might work at that scale.

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Thanks, Rob. The color of the finished panel would not actually be a shiny brass but a brownish/grey color. I only mentioned brass because the material of metalic mesh is often brass (or copper). I never thought of a translucent colored panel, though...

On mine I used the mesh from a coffee filter. Had the right effect (you could see through it) but not very accurate to the original. At that scale though I'm not sure that it matters.

feek61 said:

On mine I used the mesh from a coffee filter. Had the right effect (you could see through it) but not very accurate to the original. At that scale though I'm not sure that it matters.

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Thanks, I'll look into that. Think I'll visit my neighborhood Linens & Things or Bed Bath & Beyond; they have a lot of coffee makers. But I just had my appendix taken out so I have to lay low for now. It's become my little obsession now to find something that will look relatively accurate. I hope I can do the surgery on such tiny parts. How did you cut out the existing resin mesh, with a simple X-acto?