I've recently gotten back in to aircraft modelling (it's been a good decade since I've done anything!) and am encountering a familiar old problem: painting bombs, missiles, ECM pods, etc. For some missiles I figure I can drill a small hole where the motor would be in the rear, but what about other small objects with less-obvious areas that I can clamp or stick something in to?

As an aside, does anyone know of any online resources regarding paint schemes for ordnance? (AIM-9s, AGM-65s, etc.)

Hi Michael

Great to have you with us.

Most rockets and bombs in kits have attachment points (holes or notches) where they fit on the pylon or bomb cradle. I use this to mount them on a toothpick - if it's a shallow notch, a tiny amount of CA will usually hold well enough for airbrushing the overall colour.

Another useful trick is a strip of double-sided tape to attach small items to for painting. Blu-Tack is also great a temporary holder.

I don't know of a one-stop-shop ordnance colour schemes site, but if you try a web-search for most modern weapons you'll usally find a selection of colour photos - typing "AGM-65" brings up dozen of pages-full under Google's images tab - so you should be able to find what you need.

All the best

Rowan

Missiles and rockets use on most aircraft have a solid booster. So the backs of them are solid looking. Depending on the scale some of the missiles have slots where you can mount the stabilizer fins. Using a toothpick or small stirring stick in that slot can help a lot.

Bombs are a different animal. Usually the fins are a different color than the main body itself. So if you assemble the Bomb. You can hold the fins paint the main body then reverse the process to paint the fins.

The color schemes are pretty simple only a couple things you have to know in the Ordnance field.

Everything is color coded.

Yellow is live explosives

Blue is inert ( basically concrete for weight)

Brown is propellant ( I.E Rocket/ Missile motorsa and such)




If the link above works you will see the blue stripes on the missile bodies. This means that the whole thing is inert.

If they were live the the blue stripes in the rear would be brown and the ones in the front would be yellow.

Hope this helps. welcome to the site and don't forget to weather the ordnance with the plane. They do get dirty as well.

Paul

P.S If this works here is what I live one looks like.

[img]http://www.geocities.com/aws_572/images/Weapons/agm65_03.jpg[img]