1:32 AN/AVQ-10 Pave Knife laser designation pod (1 pcs)

The store that began the era of laser guidance

The AN/AVQ-10 designation pod was given the code name Pave Knife and reached the combat squadrons of the American armed forces at the turn of the sixties and seventies. An operator in the rear seat of a Phantom worked it: in a rotating head he followed the ground through optics, held a laser beam on a chosen spot, and a bomb fitted with a guidance kit then rode down that beam. The most famous strike led this way was aimed at the Thanh Hoa bridge, which had earlier withstood dozens of raids with ordinary munitions and cost the US Air Force a number of lost machines.

The workmanship of the casting

In the package there is one pod in 1:32. The rotating head, the ribbing of the skin and the bracket to the pylon arose by casting in resin, a material which manages sharp transitions and small projections with no parting line running across the whole part. The set does not solve the windows of the optics with a transparent part, so count on your own solution. The surface is smooth and free of marks from the mold, so the long sanding which on injected stores takes more time than the painting itself falls away.

Recommended procedure

The pod was hung on an inner wing or a fuselage pylon and the position differed between individual squadrons, so check it against photographs of one particular machine. The casting block tends to be placed on the lower surface of the body, so once cut off a mark stays out of sight. Cover the washed and dried casting with a primer, and only onto that lay the gray shade of the skin. Pick out the glass of the head with a drop of gloss varnish at the very end, once all the other work is finished.