Wayne,

I checked on my JS, and I was mistaken that I had disassembled a JS. I had disassembled my KV-122, which is similar. After examining a disassembled JS (I'm working a project) and comparing that with my instructions, there's just a few ways to get the recoil unit out in my opinion.

Simplest is to remove it just like it went in. You will, of course need to break the glue joint that forms the nose of the turret (part D2 needs to be removed from the turret). It would be a reverse of step 33 in the instructions, sans splitting the top/bottom half of the turret. Once you pull off the nose, everything comes out with it. Destructive...but you would just have a plastic repair and touch up paint to get it back together. I'd also suggest scratchbuildiing some sort of bracket to utilize screws to secure the nose when you replace it. That way, you've never got to do this again. Time consuming, yes...but possible.

Second idea is possible, but I'm not sure how feasible it would be. The idea is to drill access holes through the roof of the turret to get to the two mount screws on the top side of the recoil unit. You'd have to drill two blind holes in the correct spot. Very difficult, but might be possible. Afterwards, you could plug the holes with some tape, or just putty them over and repaint. Just don't do too good of a job patching the holes, as you'll need to find them again.

Sorry to give 2 bad options, but they seem to be the only ones from my viewpoint.