Eduard 1/48 M117 Bomb (Early) Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Eduard from the Czech Republic is easily the most prolific producer of aftermarket details. Period. Their series of photo-etched detail sets have brought additional fidelity to otherwise bland subjects, and have taken even the best-produced models and kicked them up a notch or two with details that cannot be produced with injection-molded plastic. Many AMS modelers will collect the relevant Eduard photo-etch sets for a given project, but they'll also go out and gather specific resin enhancements as well. Eduard has stepped up with a new product line to complement their photo-etched detail series - Brassin. Brassin is a play on words with Brass and Resin, and in many sets in this series, the resin details also include a set of color photo-etch as well.

In this release, Eduard has replicated the M117 bomb in 1/48 scale. The M117 (sometimes erroneously referred to as the Mk.117) is a 750 pound bomb that dates back to the Korean air war in the early 1950s and remains in service today. Carried by the F-100, A-7, F-105, F-111, F-4, the M117 can still be seen on current aircraft including the F-16. The M117 also became the core of the first laser-guided bomb, the BOLT-117 (later redesignated GBU-1). Eduard has reproduced the original configuration of the M117 with the early-styled tail fins (the late fins had the extended filets from the leading edge of the fins). This set provides six M117 bomb cores, six sets of early tail fins, and your choice of three different fuse types for each bomb. This one set will bomb up the TERs on an F-4 or one MER on an F-105. This set also comes with a set of decals to provide the armament markings.

Eduard continues to produce a nice range of weapons at a reasonable price which will make the job of bombing up your next project much easier!

My sincere thanks to Eduard for this review sample!