Operation Thunderbolt - Build Log Part Six

Oh bring me bombs, lots of bombs from the starry skies above, doooon't blow me up...

I spent the end of yesterday and a bit of today cleaning and magnetising all of the ordnance for the Thunderbolts. This is pretty much the contents of the Academy 1:48 US WWII Armament set with a bunch of Imperial Guard hunter-killer and Manticore missiles thrown in for good measure. 38 Teeny magnets allow them to stick to the "invisible" layer of flex steel under the paintwork on the fuselage.

The small missile racks were intended to look like the racks on a Hawker Typhoon, I think I'm sort of there with them. The Thunderbolt wings are angled downward about 2/3 of the way along so there is a limited amount of room to mount wide racks. They look fine though and once they've got a coat of the light blue-grey will look like part of the fuselage.

Alternatively, both aircraft can be equipped with four small munitions for the stuka-like ground-pounding.

If heavy air-to-mud missile action is required, both aircraft can hang four big ol' manticore missiles on their wings. The mounts angle outwards too so look quite nifty.

In addition to the smaller wing mounts, really big bombs can be mounted on the dorsal mount.

Or a slightly smaller, fatter big bomb...

Or a slightly longer, thinner big bomb... (spot the guy who doesn't know jack about bombs)

But then, the really cool thing. The freakin' torpedo! It clamps to the yellow nose but magnetically attaches to that same dorsal mount. The mounting brackets for this will be yellow rather than the light blue. How cool is that? A torpedo!

A final tip for the day, if you've got a stack of small magnetic thingies to prime, wrap a nice big steel ruler in cling film; magnetise your stuff to it; go nuts with the spray can. When you unwrap the ruler later it will be unsullied by overspray. Perfick. Painted bombs and weathered planes to go folks! Getting close!

TTFN