History

The original Paveway series, retroactively named Paveway I, gave way in the early 1970s to the improved Paveway II, which had a simplified, more reliable seeker and pop-out rear wings to improve the weapon's glide performance. Both Paveway I and Paveway II use a simple 'bang-bang' control system, where the CAS commands large canard deflections to make course corrections, resulting in a noticeable wobble. This had relatively little effect on accuracy, but expends energy quickly, limiting effective range. As a consequence, most users release Paveway I and II weapons in a ballistic trajectory, activating the laser designator only late in the weapon's flight to refine the impact point.
The GBU-49 is a Enhanced Paveway II with a 500lb iron bomb at its center, with GPS guidance added to the nose.

In the box

The two missiles are packed in Eduard's standard blister pack, which holds the resin parts, a instruction sheet and a small set of stencils.
The two missile bodies are cast as a single part each with some fine raised and recessed detail moulded in. The rear fins are cast along with the main bodies, but four small vane extensions at the rear of the bomb need to be added. each missile will also need the four front steering vanes added, which fit into a predrilled socket. Two choice's of seeker head are supplied, but you will need to drill a 1mm hole in the seeker head to attach it to the main body.
All the parts are attached to a small casting block which will need to be removed. The casting as ever from Eduard is flawless with no warping, bubbles or mis-casting found on the parts.

Decals and instructions

A small but comprehensive looking set of stencils are supplied. As two differently painted versions are shown, there is two sets of stencils, one in yellow and one in white.
The instructions are ever from Eduard with their Brassin range of weapons, are easy to follow, and have a colour painting guide as part of the instruction leaflet. As already stated there is two colour variants, one is overall olive drab, with the other being olive drab with grey, nose and tail sections.
All paints are for the Mr Color and Aqueous range.

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