In my opinion, the worst thing the Navy ever did was to go to the tactical paint scheme. Gone were the colorful markings that had been around for 20 years. Replaced with boring greys and reduced sizes. Fortunately, this trend went from austere to something a bit more colorful in recent years. It used to be that there were no colors on these planes at all, and these two examples are from the era of no color, but at least a bit of interest in the schemes. Since this is a 1/72 sheet, you have but one kit available, and that is the rather old Hasegawa S-3A, complete with raised panel lines and minimal internal detail.

Both of these planes are in overall FS 36375 with the canopy and anti-glare panel in FS 35320.

First up is the VS-33 'Screwbirds' S-3A aboard the USS Nimitz and homeported at NAS North Island. You'll be interested in knowing that when these planes were in the overall light gull grey camo, when looking at a line-up of 6 planes, no two 'screwbird' markings were exactly the same. The result of being pretty much hand painted. This representation is an S-3A so no kit mods are really needed.

Can't say the same for the VS-32 S-3B. Based in Florida and aboard the USS America, VS-32 was one of the first units to transition to the S-3B and so you'll need to add the new wing tip antennas, the chaff/flare dispensers, and the extra cooling vent on the left side. All but the vent are part of the Eduard detail set if you are so inclined.

There are enough data markings to do one aircraft. During this time, the intake warning stripes wrapped into the intakes so don't forget to do that when you build yours!

Sheet courtesy of me.

February 2005