That’s a nice bit of Stirling – lots of usable parts there

Just to put the record straight I offered you a number of Spitfire parts some of which were airworthy, not just the leg. There was also a carry through spar and some windscreen parts. If you think the turret is worth an airworthy Spitfire leg you are deluded. I would have gladly offered more but it was a bit like dealing with a meerkat.

Not a surprise when you initiate a post asking what the FN4 was used on, then ignoring everyone who took the trouble to respond – still insisting it came from a Lancaster. All the while, a child could have googled FN4 and found the answer in under 30 seconds.

Yet again, the facts seem to be a stranger to you Tristan.

You can keep calling it a Lancaster turret until you are blue in the face if you like, but it will still be an FN4. These were not fitted to Lancasters. It may have originated from a yard a Lancaster was scrapped in does not make it a Lancaster turret. This was explained to you very carefully before you went ahead and sold it Tristan. To sell it as a Lancaster turret is not right.

Also, as previously explained, the mod plate on the turret is unmarked. This turret was never issued and either sat in the stores or was used used for ground training. If it had come off a Sunderland I would expect it to have some mods on it at least, but there are none. Take a look at the mod plate – it’s plain to see. We (the Brits) had a funny habit of shipping oddball turrets out to the colonies during WW2 for training purposes. Mike Berry owns an FN16 turret front turret in Canada. No FN16 was used operationally in Canada, again, it went out there for training purposes.

Take it from someone who has been studying and restoring these turrets for the past 16 years.

What you have there is just over 1/3 of an FN4 turret. The cupola is missing and a number of internals are absent too. My offer to exchange some choice Spitfire parts for it still stands.

The problem with rebuilding an FN4 is a lack of parts – there simply are none. They are not interchagable with other Fraser Nash turrets. I have a pile of parts collected up from crash sites in the UK over the years – enough to make a new cupola and replace the missing parts. Other than that I honestly do not know where you would obtain the missing parts from.

I suspect there’s still a lot of it out there.

This turret is an FN4 not an FN20. There is an awful lot of black paint on it to be Sunderland. I really think this turret was destined for bomber command. Also, if you look carefully at the mod plate in the first picture it is unmarked. This strongly suggests it was never actually issued and was probably used as a training aid. This may explain how this FN4 ended up in Oz.

The mod plates arrived John – thank you very much.

Elliott