German aircraft gun turrets

[rickshaw]

The German Luftwaffe was a bit slow to catch on that a rifle calibre machine gun on it's own wasn't sufficient to defend their bombers against marauding British Spitfires and Hurricanes.

So, as the war progressed you see a profusion of single MGs sprouting out from all quarters of their cockpits.   Then we have a series of different turrets appear, such as the HS131:





And the FDSL 131:



The MG151/20 turret:



The Ju 188G-0



Does anybody know where I can get a 1/72 HS131 tail turret?

[jcf]

That'd be the HL 131V turret, and aside from the one in the old Toad Resins 1/72 He 277 conversion yer probably SOL.

[ChernayaAkula]

Revell's He 177 A-6 (LINK!) has got the turret seen in the first two pics. The kit may even leave you with the option of building it with the single gun turret (as in the He 177 A-5, Revell's first release of this kit), but I'm not sure 100% sure about that.



EDIT: Checking the instructions posted on scalemates.com, it seems you can nick the HL 131 turret from the A-6 and still have the parts to finish the model with the A-5's turret.

[ysi_maniac]

Absolutely cool. Thanks for posting

[rickshaw]

Ah, ha!  Found a HS131 turret in resin:

http://modellbau-schatton.privat.t-online.de/html/preisliste.html

[NARSES2]

Now that links got some interesting stuff on it    If you get the turret please let us know what it's like.

I reckon that fitter on the Me 10 has dropped his spanner 

[The Wooksta!]

The only snag with that turret is that it was exceedingly cramped, so they'd have to use Hitler Youth as gunners - no, not you, Ratzinger, you're going to be Pope!