Well it's that time of year again! Bastille Day and I'm continuing with my Aeronavale theme. Last year I built a French F-8 Crusader and this year it's a Super Etendard. The Sue is still the main attack platform for the French Navy despite being almost 30 years old! despite it's long service it is still most famous for its use in the Falklands Conflict where it sunk two British ships using the Exocet anti-shipping missle.

The Airfix 1/48 Super Etendard (or Sue) is a great kit in my opinion. It has recessed panel lines and options for flap position and wing folding . There were some fit problems around the wing roots but it wasn't too bad. My main complaint with the kit is the cockpit which is sparse and the ejection seat is rather basic. Unfortunately, I don't know of any aftermarket sets for this kit, so I built it right out of the box. Well OK I added a GBU, but I'll get to that later on...

The construction went smoothly and quickly. The kit comes with decals to represent a French Navy aircraft or an Argentinian jet. I painted the kit to represent the French unit. (Bastille Day remember?) The markings are for aircraft No 32 of No 11 Flotille as she appeared in 1999. She is done up in NATO 50th Anniversary markings. The plane also carries five Kosovo mission markings. I do enjoy my ceremonial aircraft markings!

The one non-OOB modification was the scratchbuilding of a bomb rack and the addition of a GBU-12 laser guided bomb. The bomb was gratuitously donated by fellow ARC'er Eddy Grantham and it's about time he saw what I did with it.

Well, that's about it. I want to thank all the ARC'ers for all their help. This kit was done with their help!!

Photos and text © 2005 by Anton M. Alerte

August 8, 2005

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