Trumpeter 1/32 US Bombs First Look

by Michael Benolkin

First Look

About four years ago, Trumpeter released its US Aircraft Weapons set ( look here) and provided many of the sprues that had appeared in the A-10 and other of their earlier 1/32 attack aircraft sets. These were the equivalent of the weapons sets produced by Hasegawa in 1/48 scale that allowed modelers to bomb up their projects beyond whatever was included in the kits.

With the release of their latest generation of 1/32 super aircraft, notably the 1/32 F-14 Tomcat and 1/32 F/A-18 Super Hornet kits, Trumpeter had tooled up more weapons that are now packaged separately to support your other large-scale projects.

Included in this set:

• 4 x Mk.84 2000 pound bombs
• 4 x Mk.83 1000 pound bombs
• 6 x Mk.117 750 pound bombs
• 6 x BSU-49 500 pound retarded bombs
• 6 x Mk.20 Rockeye cluster bombs
• 6 x SUU-30 submunition dispensers
• 2 x MER
• 2 x TER

This set provides a nice assortment of unguided gravity weapons. Like the other sets previously released, this set fills a gap in decent, relatively low-cost external stores.

This set provides a good selection of slicks - the Mk.83 and Mk.84 bombs (no Mk.82s or Snakeyes in this set as these are covered in the earlier US Aircraft Weapons Set I.

What is interesting is that the Mk.117s in this set appear to have the right shape whereas the Mk.117s in the first set looked more like fat Mk.82s. So not only do we have a good set of Mk.117s (essential for a good loadout for the F-4 or F-105) but also the BSU-49 which is like the Snakeye, but instead of metal speedbrakes on the tail, the BSU-49 uses an inflatable speed brake to slow the weapon, hence this is another retarded weapon.

In the submunition dispenser column, we have both the Rockeye and the SUU-30. These also will look right on your Vietnam era mud movers as well as others.

As with the first set, we have a pair of multiple ejector racks (MERs) that can carry up to six smaller bombs/dispensers plus a pair of triple ejector racks (TERs) for three weapons each.

The beauty of these weapons sets is that you can arm up your aircraft in a way not available straight out of the box that will make the final project more noticeable. As with any weapons, if you slap them together with a little paint and some decals, these won't help you. But if you treat each weapon as a detailed model of its own right, they'll really pop on under wing wings of your next project.

My sincere thanks to Stevens International for this review sample!