I notice that on the cross-section they include the corridor leading to the central gunwells.
Nice touch.
I noticed this too. Looks like the actual set is lacking the hallway shown in the cross section when looking at the interior leaked photo found in this thread:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=147319&page=219
But I understand it. It's movie magic.
That's the way the sets were built in the original gunner scenes in hope.
No long hallway to the gunner access ladder
When you start to lay it out physically, in the real world it doesn't work and you need a hallway of some kind.
The DeAgostini model has it with an angled hallway:
Similar to the Hayes manual:
Steve, I know you have talked about how in TFA they show the gunner module spinning on the hull facing 180 degrees in the Jakku scenes.
I wonder if that would help solve the issue here.
If the whole gunner module spins in the center, and the access ladder tube is offset and directly under those circular viewing ports, would it make sense that the whole module spins to put the ladder closer to the main hallway when gunners need to access the guns?
I mean, Han or Rey could hit a button in the cockpit that spins the gunner module and access tube into "access position" where the ladder lines up closer to the hallway like it does on the sets. I still see a need for a hallway -but it would be shorter.
The biggest problem with this idea is the location of the ladder and opening.
It's upside down in this shot:
Because of how the gun is attached in this shot: