I’m building Modelcollect’s 1:72 B-2A with the GBU-57 bombs. Modelcollect provides no paint guide for these so I’m wondering how to paint them as they would appear on an operational mission.
There’s a number of pictures on the internet of GBU-57s with an overall white paint job and a blue band. I know the blue band indicates it is a test/dummy weapon whereas a live weapon would have a yellow band. So white with a yellow band seems plausible and I’ve seen computer graphics depicting it as such.
However there’s also a video on youtube of a test drop of a GBU-57 from a B-2, and that weapon appears to be olive drab with the yellow band plus a medium gray rear area where the fins are attached (the fins themselves appear to be OD). So this seems plausible as well.
Is anyone familiar enough for the rules governing how certain weapons are painted that can say what the most likely color scheme for an operational GBU-57 would be? I’m leaning towards painting them OD because they’ll show up better against a white bomb bay, but I do strive for accuracy when possiblbe.
Live ordnance (bombs) are OD with the yellow stripes; the grey painted area “might” be the same ablative coating that the Navy uses on their bombs but that’s strictly a guess.
Thanks! Some weapons (seems like primarily air to ground missiles) are white, so I wasn’t sure where the line was. I was going to say cluster bombs like the CBU-100 are white, but in looking more I see pictures of them in OD as well.
White has gone out the window for most US ordnance since the early 1980’s, with the notable exception of the Mk.20 Rockeye CBU and AGM-88 HARM. Most air to air stuff is now Light Ghost Gray, and has been produced in that color since the Reagan years, aside from old stock. Most bombs, which have their smart bomb kits added on to make them smart bombs are OD. Yellow striping is for live rounds or warheads. Brown stripes indicate a live rocket motor for air to air and air to ground missiles. Blue stipes or bodies are dummy rounds. AGM-65 Maverick missiles can be white, Light Ghost Gray, or OD, depending upon the version and when they were produced. The ablative coating on Navy bombs was originally OD, but has changed to Light Ghost Gray as well. Two yellow stripes are also seen on those bombs to indicate the ablative coating, on both OD or LGG bombs, as well as the Rockeyes in White.
Most of the bomb is definitely OD, and light ghost grey looks right for the ring in the back. I had said the pop-out guidance fins were OD but the more I watch the more doubts I have about that. It’s really hard to tell what they are because they’re in the shadow of the bomber. Maybe an orange or copper color though… would anything like that make sense? Or are they grey as well and they just look different because it’s a mesh with holes in it?
I’d agree on the light ghost gray for the rear section, and also likely for the fins as well. Although that drop sequence almost looks like CGI as opposed to actual footage. The impact sequence is the real deal, and that weapon is in typical flight test high visibility colors.
The old GBU-8 and early GBU-15s had some of their flight surfaces in unpainted metals, which looked like some sort of alloys, if you think it was a different color.
Hmm you think that sequence might be CGI? It’s very well done if so.
I have an F-15E on my shelf lugging a pair of GBU-8s, and the sort of brass/bronze color on those looks a bit like what I’m seeing here. So I might try to do something similar with these.
I need a break from the cockpit of this thing. Every review I read warned me about it but I dove in anyhow. I’d like to find the guy at Modelcollect who designed it and ask him to show me how he thinks it goes together.