Model RAF FN5 gun-turrets from 1940

These were built over around 6 and a half years, chiefly from 3d-printed SLS nylon, to save weight, as the eventual intention is to film from within them mounted on a large RC model. No technical drawings remain, so they were drawn initially from illustrations, and from CAD drawings of some components done by mark Evans from wreckage. Creating the CAD drawings so that the geometry of all the moving parts allowed them to both function correctly as well as miss the internal surfaces of the enclosing perspex cupola was what took the time, as well as learning CAD throughout the whole project. Films can be found by searching Youtube for Fidd88. The most worthwhile films are linked below, the remainder more or less just documenting triumphs and disasters as it proceeded.

So they were powered automatically with no human inside is that correct?

Looks amazing

edit: or did a small human go into both these things?(I know they're to scale)

If you full screen on utube

press the print screen sysreq button

Paste into paint

save as jpg

You can get pictures

I will delete this one if you want me to

Edited By Ady1 on 28/06/2021 08:06:59

A most impressive pair of models. Original research, CAD, and modern build methods.

1940 turrets surely contained a gunner, and the rear-gunner had the most dangerous job on a thoroughly dangerous mission. Requiring even more courage in my opinion was the Ball Turret slung under the belly of a B17:

The gunner was folded up inside, isolated from his mates, exposed to flak, and the first thing to hit the ground when the undercarriage failed...

Lest we forget.

Dave

They are amazing models

1200 rounds of .303 miniaturised to .0843" calibre must've been quite a challenge.

I'd thought tail turrets carried 4 guns in .303 and 2 when later modded to carry .50" Brownings?

To reply to all above:

Adv1: yes the turrets had gunners inside, although not for take-off or landing. Mine will added much later in the build when the FPV (First Person View) cameras are installed in the turrets.

Sillyoldduffer: Amen in all respects. I was taught to fly gliders by an ex Lancaster tail-gunner. Even with eyes 50 years older than mine - I was in my 20's, he would spot other gliders many seconds before I did - at least to start with!

Mick B1: I made the rounds with the belt connecting them non-functional, but actually linked them with tapered pegs to the adjacent round underneath. this allowed them to be twisted into shape in the feed-chutes and then glued into position so that they progressively curved in the track, rather than deformed. I'll post an explanatory pic of that later maybe. In the Mk III Wellington or later, the rear-turret was indeed a 4 gun FN20. Prior to the Mk III, it was a two gun FN5 in the Wellington.

Edited By Timothy Huff on 28/06/2021 14:52:09

I've figured out how to make an album, and have added a small selection of photos of the turret builds. There are many many more which I can add, should people wish to see more. Sometimes the stills show things more clearly than the films on youtube, so please let me know if you'd more stills, or have questions about the build, or wish to see sectional views in CAD etc. Was a lot of fun.

Very impressive turret models.Lots of hours spent getting so far. Good luck with your future plans to put them in a RC model, very brave!

Glad that I am of the age that I never had to fight for my life in one.

Best Wishes

Graham

Edited By Graham Butcher on 29/06/2021 10:32:19

My father was a Sgt Pilot in the RAF right at the end of the war, and when I was a small child, took me to the Polish Airman's memorial at Northolt, and used to tell me about them, as it was on the way to my gran's house. Hence my aircraft will be a Polish example of a Mk 1C Wellington, which I think he would have approved of, as I later learned he took a very dim view of how both Bomber Command and even more so the Poles, were treated after WW2. When you remember 57,205 BC aircrew were killed in training or combat out of 125,000 mustered, a loss rate of 46%, all volunteers, it's pretty sobering.

On a lighter note, dad was an amateur engineer/chemist like me, but in 1940, after Dunkirk, aged 15 or so, he turned his mind to preparing for the eventuality of "Jerry" invading suburban Greenford, and started producing prodigeous quantities of home-made gun-powder, tested in increasing quantities with my uncle on grans's path or atop the Anderson. Eventually a particularly ambitious "bomb" caused the local sirens to go off, and a 'collision with authority' followed. They were adjured to "join up without delay before someone gets hurt" but were spared further by the magistrate who apparently was having difficulties not laughing!

He remained a tinkerer, and my aunt still laughs at the memory of an electro-mechanical "wasp-trap" he designed and built 70 years later.

Losses are not spread evenly over the course of the war.

If you win, which we did twice the big numbers happen in the first 50-60% of the conflict

In WW1 1914-16 was a bloodbath, relatively speaking

My Grans brother did bombers from 1939-45 and was the sole survivor in his squadron from the early days

Survivability increased as the war progressed because so did tactics and equipment

The Dambusters had a high attrition rate because they had to fly on a full moonlight night

Bomber command didn't do bomber ops on full moonlight nights because it was too easy to shoot you down so the Dambusters were about the only aircraft over the whole of europe that night