Eduard GBU-38 & GBU-38 Thermally Protected Bombs (648385 & 648386) 1:48

[Mike]

GBU-38 & GBU-38 Thermally Protected Bombs (648385 & 648386)

1:48 Eduard Brassin

 

 

The GBU-38 is a 500lb iron bomb with JDAM kit installed that is considered "light" compared to others, and as such is used where dangers of collateral damage exist, to reduce the blast radius whilst still destroying the target.  The core of the bomb is a Mk.82 casing, filled with tritonal explosive.  The JDAM element is a bolt-on package that allows precision guidance once dropped, with a seeker head at the nose, and guidance vanes at the rear.  It is currently in-use with a number of Allied countries.  On-board a carrier they are usually coated with a thermal protection layer to prevent or delay cook-off in the event of fire.  This gives the outer skin of the body a rough, stippled finish that is often grey in colour.

 

As usual with Eduard's resin sets, they arrive in the familiar Brassin clamshell box, with the resin parts safely cocooned on dark grey foam inserts, and the instructions sandwiched between the two halves, doubling as the header card.  The two sets build in exactly the same way, with just the thermal coating differentiating them.  There are four bomb bodies, four tail units and four of four types of seeker head, plus an additional four of three inserts for the tail unit.  There is also a set of masking for the complex seeker-head attachment, which will save you endless hand-painting, and a small PE sheet with four tail-cap ends that cover the mounting point of the casting block.  Scrap diagrams show the positioning of the masks, and the alignment of the tail fins with the transport lugs, with colours being called out in Gunze codes as usual for Eduard.  Finally, there is a small sheet of decals that includes the stencils applied to the bombs, which are shown in a final diagram on the instructions.  From the sets you can make four bombs of either the USAF, USN, or B-2A Spirit specific units that use the pointed nose cones, and have their tail fins aligned differently, presumably due to the constraints of the Spirit's bomb bays.

 

 

GBU-38 Non-Thermally Protected (648385)

 

 

 

GBU-38 Thermally Protected (648386)

The texture of the thermal protection is in-scale, so is quite hard to capture in photos, but it is definitely present, as you can see from the additional picture.

 

 

 

Review sample courtesy of