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Flycatcher Guns


Benbow

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Was wondering if my fellow Britmodellers may be of assistance?? I was looking at getting some AM machine guns for a 1/48 Fairey Flycatcher from http://www.gaspatchmodels.com/machine-guns-1-48/ but I don't know which, if any, would be the correct ones. No matter how much googling I do all I can find is that they were Vickers .303 but, on looking at images of the Flycatcher, they don't appear to match the Gaspatch ones. Anyone any ideas??

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Hi Benbow,

They would be Vickers MkII which would have the same body as the Gaspatch ones but with a slim perforated jacket around the barrel in similar style to the Browning aircraft gun which replaced it. Main difference to the barrel jacket is the perforations were circular not oval. Also the Browning barrel jacket tapered towards the muzzle whereas the Vickers were parallel. MkII* and Mk III Vickers had a conical flash eliminator. Hope all that makes sense, will try and post a photo tomorrow.

Regards

Howard

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Hi, as Howard states, the Vickers guns used as fixed weapons in aircraft

of the twenties and thirties had slim perforated jackets. Gaspatch

provide First World War style guns which had the wide jackets of

similar appearance to the water-cooled guns used on the ground

but with perforations to facilitate air-cooling.

Cheers, Paul

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Here is a photo of a Vickers Mk II:

Vickers%20Mk%20II_zpsvxdwxzr5.jpg

I'm not aware of any aftermarket options in any scale. you could buy one of the Gaspatch ones and replace it with one of these:

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ABR48012

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/MR48022

or use one of these, supposedly for the Browning aircraft gun which never had round perforations!

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/QB48047

I would suggest the best option would be to scratch the body as it is very simple in terms of shape and detail and then adding one of the barrels as the most cost effective option.

regards

Howard

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Howard & Paul - thank you very much for the information, much appreciated especially the links. Methinks I'll go down one of the routes you suggested Howard. TVM.

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.......or use one of these, supposedly for the Browning aircraft gun which never had round perforations!

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/QB48047

Those are exactly what I got to replace the moulded on guns in the Airfix Fury kit for my Hawker Nimrod conversion, just need to change the flash suppressor.

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Flycatcher guns were mounted on external brackets either side of the cockpit. the ammunition feed was inside the fuselage. One of the guns was mounted slightly forward than the other to allow for the offset feed chutes.

The aircraft was fitted with both an Aldis and ring and bead sight.

I have a picure of the installation somewhere i will try and dig it out.

Selwyn

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