I want my bombs to show signs of wear & tear and some dirty and handling marks.
They are American bombs of the Mk-82 class, painted olive green with a yellow ring on the nose…
I like to paint the bomb body and tail fin assembly with different shades of OD for one thing to give a more realistic look. I dont scuff up mine usually. But you could use a pencil or something similar for that effect.
get far away and take cover?
i like STIK’s idea of different obvious components being slightly different shades. maybe a thin burnt umber was to get in the seams and holes.
I have also seen Mk-82’s with double yellow bands though doing single bands will be easier. Also, the low-drag fins when attached are slightly greener than the O.D. green on the bomb.
I use Model Master Black Detail Wash. Let dry for a few minutes and wipe with damp cloth or Q-tip. Stik’s method works too.
OK, some quick infor on the Mk.82 bomb, and colors.
Since late in the Vietnam War, bombs used by the USN have a rough ablative coating, to give firefighters more time to douse a fire before they cook off. Those bombs also have two yellow stripes to denote a different explosive filler. Bombs with a different explosive filler can have three stripes In the current era, the bombs are now Light Ghost Gray instead of OD. Mixtures of Gray tail units can be seen with OD bomb bodies as well
Snakeye High Drag fins can be gray or OD today as well
another Mk.82 High Drag type is the Air Inflated Retard (AIR), which uses a “ballute” instead of the metal petals to slow the bomb for low level release and give the dropping aircraft time to escape the blast area, much like the WWII era “parafrags”
Mk.82s used by the Air Force or the Navy in the pre ablative coating days are the same- smooth casing and one yellow stripe at the nose fuse
and when stored in outdoor bomb dumps in places like teh Middle East they can pick up a good coat of dust
Awesome info stik! I spent hour the other day surfing the net for just that kind of tutoring!
As always, Stik, excellent photo essay. On the ninth photo, is that a photo of USAFE preparation for Operation Eldorado Canyon, the Libyan missions? It is pre-1987 as the “Elmer Fudd” cold-weather hat wearing Staff Sergeant has silver stripes on her field jacket.
[:D]Thanks! I love things that go boom! [:P]
photo 7 is captioned Hahn AB in Germany, circa 1978.
The B&W photos with the IL-76’s in the crosshairs is PAVE Tack pod footage from El Dorado Canyon F-111 attack on one of the airfields. If you look closely at the bottom photo you can see the Snakeyes falling with their petals deployed about to make Col Khadaffi’s Air Force a few short…
BTW, Navy bombs are not always pristine either, even though they are stowed in magazines deep in the ship’s bowels out of the weather
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Drop them at altitude…
