Eduard SUU-30B Early (648558) 1:48

[Mike]

SUU-30B Early (648558)

1:48 Eduard Brassin

 

 

The SUU-30B was an early cluster bomb, containing up to 665 BLU-24 or -26 tennis ball-sized bomblets for area denial and anti-personnel warfare, as well as destruction of unarmoured materiel if it happens to be in range.  It can be carried on a pylon for a “dumb” iron bomb, and once released the canister opens and disperses the bombs over the area, some exploding immediately, others on timers to extend the area denial and increase enemy casualties amongst the repair crews.  This and the dud bomblets were one of the causes of the general ban of the cluster bomb due to the potential to injure civilians and children long after the fighting has ended.  Some notable countries have refused to sign the treaty, notably the US and Russia amongst others.

 

 

As is now usual with Eduard's smaller resin sets, they arrive in the new shallow Brassin cardboard box, with the resin parts safely cocooned in bags, and the instructions folded around acting as padding.  Inside the box are four resin bodies on separate pouring plugs, four caps on a single block, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass fins & fittings, plus a decal sheet and instruction sheet.  Each bomb is built around the main body, which is cut from its base at the rear and then covered up with a circular PE panel, with the four simple fins added into the slots in the rear of the body, without the angled tips that are found on the later variants.  At the nose the cap slides into a hole, and it and the two moulded-in suspension lugs are painted silver, while the rest is painted olive drab.  There are full painting and decaling instructions on the front of the booklet, using Gunze Sangyo codes as usual.

 

 

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