1:72 GBU-10 Paveway I laser guided bombs with BSU-4/B fin and BSU-3/B wing (2 pcs)

Paveway I laser guided bombs for 1:72

The set contains two bombs with a first generation guidance kit. The combination of the stabilizer and the wing unit corresponds to older deployments, so it suits machines from the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. The set therefore does not belong to a single type of machine only.

How a bomb became a precision weapon

The Paveway guidance kit turned an ordinary bomb of the two thousand pound weight class into a weapon that hits a bridge or a bunker the first time. At the front a head with a seeker for the reflected laser beam and four small control fins was fitted, at the rear a wing unit extending the glide. The target could be illuminated by another aircraft or by an observer on the ground. It was precisely this principle that started the era of precision munitions and it spread quickly into the arsenals of the allies. The breakthrough was all the greater because this was a comparatively cheap modification of an already established bomb, not a new weapon designed from scratch.

Painting in a small scale

The smaller the part, the thinner the coat has to be. Thinned paint applied in two passes preserves the engraving as well as fine rivets, whereas a thick application in this scale will reliably flood them. The marking bands at the seeker head are best handled by a thin brush with a good point and paint thinned to the state where it flows along the edge of the part by itself. Before you hang the bombs, go over the mating surfaces with a file, so that they sit parallel with the axis of the fuselage.

Whom it will serve

• Builders of F-4, F-111 and A-6 machines in 1:72
• Modelers with an interest in early precision munitions
• Those who want more realistic external stores
• Collectors of small aircraft ordnance

The set comprises a pair of bombs and nothing else.