S-3s rarely get any press, but this one did back in May of this year when President Bush used it to arrive on the USS Abraham Lincoln to announce the end of the war in Iraq. Whether you feel it was a grandstand stunt used at taxpayer expense or not, it has given us all another very nice Viking scheme.

This is the CAG bird with full color tail markings and the President's name under the canopy. The aircraft itself is a very easy to paint overall FS 36375 so there is no fancy masking needed other than the canopy area, which is black. The only kit that has ever been done of the S-3 in 1/48 is the rather elderly but still good ESCI version that has been reboxed by Italeri. It is an S-3A so there is some modification needed to portray a real S-3B. Good news is that there is at least one etched brass set out with the needed goodies and Black Box recently did an S-3 cockpit set that is very nice. A full set of data and insignia are provided as are the darker grey fiberglass panels over the back seats.

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