KI-67 Dorsal turret.

[lyric1]

I was trying out the updated KI-67 offline & tried out the dorsal turret. The updated version is like the older version very little downward firing to the sides of the fuselage. I got the Japanese service manual from the Smithsonian for the Dorsal turret & uploaded it online.

https://www.scribd.com/document/330111151/KI-67-Hiryu-Dorsal-Turret-Service-Manual

In it there is two drawings that appear to show how to set the limit switches to avoid accidentally shooting off vital parts of your own aircraft.





There seems to be an indication here that the dorsal gun could point downwards enough to possibly shoot off its own elevators when they are deployed.
I can't think of any other reason for drawings like this with angles drawn other than help with mechanics to set safety limit switches. Plus there is drawings in the manual that show limit switches.

In a few books they show drawings for the Prototype KI-67's and its gun arcs. As can be seen in these two a fairly steep downward angle is indicated.






Thoughts?

[EagleDNY]

Seems like you would have room for a little downward (less than level) play - but the receiver in the turret (and the gunner standing up to the top of the turret to aim) would seem to limit that. 

[lyric1]

Seems like you would have room for a little downward (less than level) play - but the receiver in the turret (and the gunner standing up to the top of the turret to aim) would seem to limit that.

We do have that now you can just shoot under the horizontal stabilizer on the tail.
So where is that 20-30 degree angle come into play then on the drawings. 

[lyric1]

So where is that 20-30 degree angle come into play then on the drawings. 

Think I might have this figured out.
Since these drawings are for the prototypes those aircraft were not fitted with the 20mm cannon in the turret yet.
This did not happen until the 20th aircraft produced everything prior had the 12.7mm machine gun.





I do have a photo of one of the prototypes.



Take note of the of the 12.7mm turret and then the 20mm below it. You can see there is a bit of difference in comparison as to how high the turret sits in the aircraft on the prototype compared to the 20mm cannon version below.

Also the 12.7mm guns sits much higher in the turret compared to the 20mm.





So the much steeper downward trajectory is very feasible on the prototype turret.
Where it is impossible with the cannon turret to get the 20-30 degree call out in the drawings I have posted.

So knowing what drawing to focus on these downward firing angles are far more realistic to achieve from the service manual for the 20mm turret.

[lyric1]

Looking at the angles in the turret drawing and what we have in game it looks pretty close to dead on. 
One thing I did noticed when you push the gun downward when its over the fuselage it buries it's self into the outer skin of the plane.



I think the stowed position of the gun is sitting just a tad low in the turret compared to real KI-67 images that I can find.









Scale profiles have it mounted slightly higher as well.

[Volron]

I may be a change they made so it could fire a bit lower?

[lyric1]

I may be a change they made so it could fire a bit lower?

6 degrees and 1 minute is what is listed on the dorsal cannon service manual.
That is based off of the stowed position directly facing aft.
That is what I get from my limited ability to check this sort of thing.
I don't see anything that needs to change other than having the gun barrel stop cutting through the skin of the plane.
If it was raised a bit to match the photos that would stop it from interfering with the outside skin.