This project was shelved for quite some time because I ran into a problem in printing the ammo chutes. Several test prints failed or had so may supports on them that cutting them off would have been a nightmare, and would have ruined the look. One of the problems is that I was making them to scale with the rest of my model, which made the resulting resin prints as delicate as a feather and subsequently the support overwhelmed the actual print. Modelling the curvature proved extremely difficult in TinkerCad, so I went with Blender. Unfortunately, version 2.82 in Blender had an issue with deforming the ammo links when putting them down a path. 2.79 didn't have this problem, apparently, but I wasn't going back.
I then realized that after I printed my many failed resin prints of the ammo chute, that the partially cured resin had flexibility. So I figured, why not print the ammo chute straight and twist it to shape around the drum. Afterwards, I could leave it in the sun to cure and it would solidify into its curved shape. The design below has thicker links, and the rounds in the belt had to be shaved down in the back, which shouldn't be seen on the model once finished and glued into place. Both the ammo chute and rounds will be printed separately but are displayed together. The spacing may have to be changed. There are going to be several test prints that are going to be needed and both the rounds and ammo chute will probably have to be tweaked several times to get the right look, perhaps sacrificing scale and accuracy a bit.
The ammo chutes on the real Phalanx have several parts. A cage and many chromed flaps which are rivetted together along with a conveyor that holds the rounds and spent casings. The rounds travel from the front of the ammo drum to the M61 Cannon, where they get transferred to the M61 via an interface. The conveyor, now empty travels down the return chute to the front. The spent casings coming from the M61 go to the rear of the drum and the mechanism is almost exactly the same as the feed, except working in the other direction.
TazMan2000