Regarding WWII RAF GP bombs

[Angels49]

'ello lads it's me again with another question regarding the accuracy of a kit's parts. I'm in the later stages of a build of Tamiyas Mossie FB Mk Vi..IIRC the RAF GP bombs had a rather long ring surrounding the fins' however the ones in the kit has rings that if you'll pardon the pun comes up short. I'm no expert or officinado on the subject so I'm asking were there variants of the smaller class of bombs that had a short ring like the ones that come with the kit. I'm prepared to break out the Evergreen plasticard tubes and scratch build the ring meself. The pix I've seen leave me a bit befuddled. I'm aware that at the start of the hostilities the bombs used were from a stockpile that varied and had to be used rather that go to the expense of making more and having them go to waste, unlike the bouncing, or rolling bombs created in later years

TIA mates

[stevehnz]

Mosquitos had a specially modified bomb with short fins so they could fit 4 x 500 lbers in the bomb bay, 2 in the case of the FB.VI, the front being full of cannon breeches. Sounds like the kit ones are spot on.

Steve

Edited May 16, 2016 by stevehnz

[Graham Boak]

The bombs seen on the Mosquito did indeed have shorter rings, but I don't think that they were the longer more aerodynamic shapes of the prewar bombs, being the more cylindrical and stubbier wartime production. The shorter rings became standard.

[Finn]

For RAF bombs, this is quite handy:

http://www.lexpev.nl/downloads/britishexplosiveordnance1946.pdf

it's a large file, about 50MB but lots of good info including pictures, dimensions, colours and markings.

Jari

[Angels49]

Thanx all that is the very info I needed..I'm off and running

[Selwyn]

'ello lads it's me again with another question regarding the accuracy of a kit's parts. I'm in the later stages of a build of Tamiyas Mossie FB Mk Vi..IIRC the RAF GP bombs had a rather long ring surrounding the fins' however the ones in the kit has rings that if you'll pardon the pun comes up short. I'm no expert or officinado on the subject so I'm asking were there variants of the smaller class of bombs that had a short ring like the ones that come with the kit. I'm prepared to break out the Evergreen plasticard tubes and scratch build the ring meself. The pix I've seen leave me a bit befuddled. I'm aware that at the start of the hostilities the bombs used were from a stockpile that varied and had to be used rather that go to the expense of making more and having them go to waste, unlike the bouncing, or rolling bombs created in later years

TIA mates

As the Mk VI came into service in 1943 although the carriage of GP bombs is not incorrect its more likely that at these time these aircraft carried the British MC series bombs (also with shortened fins)on operations.

The GP series of bombs were notoriously unreliable and had poor explosive effects due to their low charge weight ratio (Hence the rapid introduction of the MC bombs)

Most GP bombs were eventually used up by bomber command as " fill ins" on heavy bombloads to make up the weight to alleviate bomb shortages.

Selwyn