Eduard FAB-500 M54 Bombs (648424) 1:48

[Mike]

FAB-500 M54 Bombs (648424)

1:48 Eduard Brassin

 

 

Russian iron bombs, dumb bombs of free-fall bombs.  They have a lot of names, and come in a variety of sizes from 100kg all the way up to 9000kg.  This one is a 500kg M54 unit (designed in 1954), which is surprisingly still in service alongside the M62, but can be differentiated by the more complex fin arrangement with four larger and four narrower fins at the rear, the larger ones overlapping the stabilising ring.  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.

 

 

Inside the clamshell are two bomb bodies, two fin units and a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, with stencils on a sheet of decal paper.  Once cut from their casting blocks, the two parts are lined up and glued together with super-glue (CA), with the fins connecting to corresponding grooves in the rear of the body.  The cut rear end of the bomb body is finished off with one of the small circles of PE, with a raised section and a hole in the centre.

 

Painting is shown on the guide diagram, and it's a dull grey (H/C308 in Gunze shades), with just the one stencil on the side (with a spare, in case you can't see on the pic).  There's plenty of options for weathering, as bombs are often moved more times than they are dropped, so scratches, rust and missing paint, as well as fading is often seen.  These types have been seen many times on multiple ejection rack pylons on Tu-22s, forcing them to remain subsonic unless they are carrying the newer M62 units that have no ballistic ring on the nose and are designed to cope with the forces associated with externally carried munitions on a modern fighter.

 

 

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