Airfix

[Captain Canada]

Great pic of the nose guns. I had always figured that they moved side to side. Only makes sense.

[NARSES2]

Whoa I need one of those portable workbenches! Is that official Humbrol merchandise?

I've got one Tom and they are quite good. A little pricey perhaps but I use mine when working in the living room if it's to cold in the model room. I find them surprisingly stable on the lap. Ideal if you work off a kitchen or dining table

[PR19_Kit]

Great pic of the nose guns. I had always figured that they moved side to side. Only makes sense.

But you can't see how it would work. The curved 'glacis plate' though which the guns protrude is only curved in the vertical plane, and it would need to be spherical to train in azimuth as well.

[Hobbes]

It looks like the guns are attached to a panel which sits behind a horizontal slot which could provide some horizontal movement. Then that assembly sits in a larger vertical slot.

[PR19_Kit]

But there's nowhere for the panel to go if it moves outboard. It would have to stick through a slot in the outer part of the 'turret' and there's isn't one.

[ChernayaAkula]

There's a huge pic on Wikipedia that shows the rounded bits allowing for training in the horizontal plane: LINK!

[jcf]

Direct link:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/SAAF-Avro_Shackleton-003.jpg

[PR19_Kit]

That's an SAAF Mk 3, the Airfix kit is an RAF Mk 2.

I've yet to see a pic, or indeed anything in writing from a reputable source, to say the nose guns of a Mk 2 could be trained laterally.

There seems very little written about them anywhere in fact.

[pyro-manic]

I reckon there would be a few degrees laterally, but that's about it.

https://flic.kr/p/kyxDCp

[ChernayaAkula]

Here are two pics of St. Mawgan's gate guard, a restored MR.2: LINK!





Looks like guns are mounted the same way as in the MR.3. The shadows next to the guns themselves would hint at a curved part being used there. I don't think the mount is spherical, but rather uses two cylindrical portions. One part ( shaded green) allows for sideways training (yaw axis), with the whole shebang trained up and down(pitch axis) via the portion shaded red. Hope that makes sense!  

Cropped and modified version of this pic (LINK!) found in this walk-around (LINK!) on PrimePortal.

[Captain Canada]

Ya still looks like they would move a wee bit to me. Maybe not a lot, but still....

[PR19_Kit]

Here are two pics of St. Mawgan's gate guard, a restored MR.2:

Looks like guns are mounted the same way as in the MR.3. The shadows next to the guns themselves would hint at a curved part being used there. I don't think the mount is spherical, but rather uses two cylindrical portions. One part ( shaded green) allows for sideways training (yaw axis), with the whole shebang trained up and down(pitch axis) via the portion shaded red. Hope that makes sense!  

Those are MUCH more informative than anything else posted on the subject. And it does look as if there's some lateral movement possible too, with the two cylinders mounted one inside the other.

I'm still baffled why so little ie. none, information on the 'turret' seems to have been written.

[rickshaw]

I'm still baffled why so little ie. none, information on the 'turret' seems to have been written.

Which is why I asked the question, Kit!

Thanks to one and all, you've cleared up a 50 year old mystery for me!  I suspect they had to be trainable in azimuth but as Kit has suggested, its never been written down nor really easy to see.   

[PR19_Kit]

I've found another reason why it's so confusing.

Many of the pics on the Net are of museum aircraft and lots of them have had much of the gun turret simplified so the guns can't train in EITHER direction. But if they don't mention it in the blurb how are we to know?

[Nick]

I shall have to browse my photos of the Shacks at Gatwick and Newark for a greater understanding. It makes sense that the guns can aim left/right or else the pilot would need a gunsight to line up perfectly on strafing runs.

If the Coventry one should fly again the kit will likely get a special boxing or promo deal for the Shackleton Preservation Group.