Here's the second new sheet for the S-3A Viking. It carries two very colorful CAG birds in the 'hi-viz' scheme of light gull grey over white. Both planes have tan radomes. Not shown on this or the previous sheet is the thin white section that goes up and over the fuselage just behind the canopy. While later repainting generally did away with that, until the plane was overhauled, the white section remained. Though not of the specific aircraft on the sheet, the photo below shows a plane from the same time period when the Viking was new. You can also see that the fiberglass panels just above the small window were a slightly darker shade from the rest of the airframe.

The first plane is from VS-21 one of the initial fleet squadrons. You may notice that the kit markings are for an East coast carrier, the JFK, while the photo above is for the USS Constellation, a West coat ship. Well, the S-3 was pretty new when VS-21 was re-established with the Viking and no East coast squadrons had yet been formed. This meant that those Viking assets at NAS North Island (where this photo was taken) had to be shared. Once new units were formed at Cecil Field in Florida, VS-21 stayed where it belonged! You might notice the slight difference in the location of the lightning bolt between the photo and the diagram. These markings were not written in stone and there were changes in them from time to time.

The other CAG bird is from VS-32. It has its CAG colors in the stars between the squadron tail markings instead of in a band as with VS-21. You may notice that it is also coded AB and from the USS JFK. This was one of the first units at Cecil Field and so was able to take its rightful place on an east coast boat!

If you have an ERTL S-3A stashed away, you may want to bring it out for one of these markings.

Please note that the sheet may look a bit short as I'll often crop off common markings to save on server space.

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