+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Super Mystère represents the final step in evolution which began with the Dassault Ouragan and progressed through the Mystère II/III and Mystère IV. While earlier Mystère variants could attain supersonic speeds only in a dive, the Super Mystère could exceed the speed of sound in level flight. This was achieved thanks to the new thin wing with 45° of sweep (compared with 41° of sweep in the Mystère IV and only 33° in Mystère II) and the use of an afterburner-equipped turbojet engine.
The first prototype Super Mystère B.1, powered by a Rolls-Royce Avon RA.7R, took to the air on 2 March 1954. The aircraft broke the sound barrier in level flight the following day. As the Super Mystère B.2, also known as the SMB.2, the aircraft entered production in 1957. The production version differed from the prototype by having a more powerful SNECMA Atar 101G engine. A total of 180 Super Mystère B.2s were built. The Super Mystère served with the French Air Force until 1977. In addition, 24 aircraft were sold to the Israeli Air Force in 1958 (locally known as “Sambad”, an onomatopoeic spelling of the SMB.2 designation), and some French aircraft were leased temporarily to compensate for combat losses during the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. From 1967 onwards, with the arrival of the A-4H Skyhawk, the IAF decided to implant Pratt & Whitney J52-P-8A engines into the Super Mystères, which were, although not afterburning, lighter, more reliable and 25% more powerful than the Sambad's original Atar engine. These converted machines were called “Sa’ar”, and from 1976 on, Israel sold 16 complete airframes of this type to Honduras.
Another SMB.2 operator became Sri Lanka, even though a small one and directly through French sources. The Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) was formed on 2 March 1951 with RAF officers and other personnel seconded to the RCyAF. Ceylonese were recruited to the new RCyAF and several Ceylonese who had served with the RAF during WWII were absorbed in the force. Initial objective was to train local pilots and ground crew, early administration and training was carried out by exclusively by RAF officers and other personnel on secondment. The first aircraft of the RCyAF were de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks used as basic trainers to train the first batches of pilots locally while several cadets were sent to Royal Air Force College Cranwell. These were followed by Boulton Paul Balliol T.Mk.2s and Airspeed Oxford Mk.1s for advanced training of pilots and aircrew along with de Havilland Doves and de Havilland Herons for transport use, all provided by the British. By 1955 the RCyAF was operating two flying squadrons based at RAF Negombo. The first helicopter type to be added to the service was the Westland Dragonfly.
Following Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's negotiated the closure of British air and naval bases in Ceylon in 1956, the RCyAF took over the former RAF stations; Katunayake and China Bay, becoming RCyAF operational stations while ancillary functions were carried out at Diyatalawa and Ekala. The RAF headquarters, Air HQ Ceylon, was disbanded on 1 November 1957. However, RAF officers remained with the RCyAF till 1962.
In 1959 de Havilland Vampire jet aircraft were acquired, but the RCyAF did not put them into operational use and soon replaced them with five Hunting Jet Provosts obtained from the British, which were formed into the Jet Squadron. These were supplemented in the 1960s with various other aircraft, most notably American Bell JetRanger helicopters and a Hindustan HUL-26 Pushpak given by India. The force had grown gradually during its early years, reaching a little over 1,000 officers and recruits in the 1960s.
In 1968, the Royal Ceylon Air Force was looking out for a more capable multi-role aircraft, and evaluated foreign types like the F-86 Sabre, the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, the Hawker Hunter and AMD's Mystère IV as well as the SMB.2. The decision fell on the supersonic Super Mystère, which was offered as a bargain from French surplus stock since the fighter was at that time in the process of being gradually replaced by the 3rd generation Mirage III. A total of eight revamped SMB.2s were procured, which conformed to the Armée de l’Air’s standard.
The machines arrived in early 1971 and were allocated to the newly established No. 3 Squadron, with tactical codes in the CF 601 - CF 609 range (CF 607 was not allocated out of superstition: no RCyAF/SLAF aircraft ever received a code with single numbers summing up to "13" or a multiple of it, and this "tradition" has been kept up until today! Even more weird: codes that openly sport a "13" are used - as long as the whole code number conforms to the cross total rule!). The SMB.2s were ready for operational service just in time when the Marxist JVP launched an island-wide insurrection on April 5. It was the first time that the Royal Ceylon Air Force actually went into combat, and the Ceylon Armed Forces were caught off guard; police stations island-wide and the RCyAF base at Ekala were attacked in the initial wave. Responding rapidly, the RCyAF deployed its limited aircraft resources, at first to resupply besieged police stations and military outposts and patrol around major cities.
The new SMB.2s were immediately thrown into the fray and supported by the Jet Provosts, which had been mothballed by 1970 and quickly put back into service within three days, carrying out attacks on insurgents. However, due to the lack of familiarity with the new supersonic type, results and operational readiness were rather poor. One SMB.2 (CF 602) was lost on the ground through artillery fire, while another one (CF 606) crashed into a hillside during a low-level attack against an insurgent stronghold. During this insurgency the left-leaning Bandaranaike government turned to the Soviet Union for more sophisticated weaponry and received five Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F fighter bombers and a MiG-15 UTI trainer, as well as two Kamov Ka-26 helicopters meant for search and rescue and casualty evacuation. However, conditions were rather chaotic and Air Force personnel even joined in ground operations and the insurgents surrendered after about a month's fighting.
With Ceylon becoming a republic in 1972, the Royal Ceylon Air Force changed its name to the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), along with all insignia. On March 31, 1976 the SLAF was awarded the President's Colour. That same year SLAF detachments, which later became SLAF stations, were established at Wirawila, Vavuniya and Minneriya. With the closure of Air Ceylon in 1978, its Hawker Siddeley HS 748 transport aircraft was taken over by the SLAF. By the early 1980s the Provosts and all of the Soviet aircraft had been taken out of active service and placed in long-term storage, leaving the air force only with five operational SMB.2 fighter bombers (a third SMB.2, CF 604, crashed over open sea after an engine failure and an ensuing fire. The pliot ejected sfaley, though, and was rescued). In order to fill the ranks, Sri Lanka procured another three Super Mystères from French overstock, which arrived later the same year, and they received the "safe" codes CF 610-612.
The refreshed small fleet was kept in flying condition and was mildly modernized with selected Sa’ar parts procured directly from Israel and integrated on site during major overhauls. Beyond some updated/additional avionics, recognizable only through two additional small blade antennae on the spine and under the fuselage, they also received an ILS system (with fairings for the respective antenna on the fin) as well as two extra hardpoints under the wing roots for light loads like air-to-air missiles. Shafrir AAMs and indigenous MERs for four 100 kg bombs were part of the equipment package from Israel, too. The updates were finished by 1982 and the SLAF Super Mystères were now primarily tasked with airspace patrols, even though they were not really effective in this role due to the lack of an onboard radar. Despite this change of core mission, they retained the tactical camouflage which the SMB.2s had been wearing since their delivery from France.
But this modest modernisation was only the beginning. Rapid SLAF growth began in the mid-1980s, when the Sri Lankan Civil War against Tamil separatists drew the service into a major, long-term security role. In 1982 the SLAF reactivated airfields at Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Koggala and Sigiriya that had been disused since World War II, all later becoming SLAF Stations. During the First Eelam War between 1983 and 1987, the Air Force grew by nearly 50 percent. In 1987 the air force had a total strength of 3,700 personnel, including active reserves.
After the 1983 riots, the government worked rapidly to expand the SLAF inventory, relying largely on sources in Italy, Britain, and the United States. Because of tight budget constraints, the SLAF was compelled to refit a number of non-combat aircraft for military uses in counter-terrorism operations against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorists. The air force had now a fleet of approximately eighty aircraft, of which sixty-four were reported to be operational in early 1988. The SMB.2s were still in use, even though their small number made them rather ineffective and their appearances had a rather intimidating role. Nevertheless, they flew a considerable number of successful CAS missions against LTTE strongholds.
To increase its attack capability and eventually retire the Super Mystères in the mid-Nineties, the SLAF acquired in 1991 four F-7 Skybolts, three FT-7s and two Shenyang J-5s from China. Revamped IAI Kfir fighter bombers from Israel joined the SLAF soon, too. With these reinforcements the SLAF SMB.2's end came quicker than expected: the last flight already took place in October 1993, and all machines were scrapped, since they had reached the end of their airframes’ flying hours limit. They were not the last operational Super Mystères, though: the Hondurean air force kept their Sa’ars in service until 1996, when they were replaced with Northrop F-5Es.< i>
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 14.13 m (46 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 10.51 m (34 ft 6 in)
Height: 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in)
Wing area: 32 m² (340 sq ft)
Empty weight: 6,930 kg (15,278 lb)
Gross weight: 9,000 kg (19,842 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 10,000 kg (22,046 lb)
Fuel capacity: 2,000 kg (4,409 lb)
Powerplant:
1× SNECMA Atar 101G-2 afterburning turbojet engine,
33.3 kN (7,500 lbf) thrust dry, 44.1 kN (9,900 lbf) with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,195 km/h (743 mph, 645 kn) at 11,000 m (36,089 ft)
Maximum speed: Mach 1.12
Combat range: 870 km (540 mi, 470 nmi)
Ferry range: 1,175 km (730 mi, 634 nmi)
Service ceiling: 17,000 m (56,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 89 m/s (17,500 ft/min)
Wing loading: 281 kg/m2 (58 lb/sq ft)
Thrust/weight: 0.5
Armament:
2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 552 cannons with 150 rounds per guns
6× external hardpoints for a total payload of 2,680 kg (5,000 lb), including a variety of air-to-air
missiles, unguided missile pods, bombs, reconnaissance pods or drop tanks
The kit and its assembly:
A very simple what-if model, just built OOB but outfitted with an exotic livery and background story. I recently acquired a cheap Special Hobby dual SMB.2 combo including a booklet – a steal, and I could not resist, knowing, though, that the Super Mystère is a rather tough cookie to whif. At first, I considered a South American operator (Ecuador or Venezuela, who would later switch to the Mirage III/V), but remembered a MiG-17 decal sheet (Carpena 7244) in The Stash™ that offered markings for a SLAF Fresco. I had always liked these colorful air force markings, and even though the procurement of French aircraft by Sri Lanka appear far-fetched, I just thought “When Honduras can buy stuff from Israel, anything goes.” Et voilà, the SLAF SMB.2 was born.
The Special Hobby kit is very nice. It features lots of exact and crisp 3D surface details, has a very good fit and offers many extra parts, so that both original SMB.2 and the Sa’ar with its longer jet pipe and additional hardpoints can be built. The only thing that caused some concerns is the fuselage, which is packed with interior details: beyond the cockpit with a wide tub and a free-standing dashboard(!), there's also a complete air intake duct with a compressor dummy at its end (probably only visible later with an endoscope?) and the whole afterburner pipe in the tail. The kit only lacks an engine dummy! Especially the front, with the cockpit and the intake duct (including the fully detailed front lang gear well) stacked upon each other, make the closing of the fuselage halves a challenge. It works, somehow, but it's a tight affair. As a result, though, I also had serious fit issues with the air intake, which is supposed to be grafted onto the fuselage and the intake duct at the same time. This did not work and became the biggest PSR area on the whole model.
For a little hardware whiffery, I gave the aircraft the two extra wing root hardpoints and a pair of Shafrir AAMs from the kit as ordnance, plus a pair of 625l drop tanks. Another small detail I added are the lowered flaps - this could be easily realized. Opening the air brakes on the fuselage is not an OOB option on this kit, probably because of the many engine details that fill the area behind them. As another deviation from the standard I left the landing gear covers open - normally, these were closed on the ground, but I have seen several pictures of French and IDF SMB.2s with fully open covers on the ground that this decision appreared plausible. However, the rest is OOB, since I wanted to stay close to the original SMB.2 standard.
Painting and markings:
This was a little tricky. The early SLAF aircraft carried a simple silver or light grey livery (e.g. the Jet Provosts or the MiG-17s, respectively), while later types like the Kfirs and the MiG-27s received a two tone (very) light grey livery with very small national markings and codes. NMF or silver might have been a plausible choice for the model's intended time frame, maybe even adorned with some flashy red trim, but as a tactical aircraft I settled upon a camouflage scheme.
This was based upon the SMB.2’s French origins and is a faithful adaptation of a unique scheme that Super Mystères operated by the Armée de l’Air’s EC 1/12 "Cambresis" or EC 1/10 "Valois" wore in the late Sixties/early Seventies. I was not able to find convincing information about the disruptive scheme' intention - I assume that it was an experimental alternative to the USAF-SEA-scheme that was also adapted for the French F-100 fighter bombers at that time, even though executed with indigenous CELOMER paints that were somewhat darker.
I was furthermore not able to come up with useful information concerning the tones of this camouflage. Some sources suggest the classic SEA scheme tones, but I doubt that. When looking at pictures of operational aircraft, the uppwer tones look very different, even when faded and worn. Especially the tan tone appears much lighter and rather yellow-ish, while the two greens have a rather greyish/dull hue and are hard to distinguish. The whole affair almost looks like a desert scheme, esp. when weathered! AFAIK this scheme was nicknamed “Israel”, but it had apparently nothing to do with the IDF? The only reason could be that this was a scheme devised and tested to SMB.2 sales to Israel - but the first machines were delivered in NMF and later French machines retained their original camouflage at first, AFAIK no SMB.2 was handed over to the IDF in this livery? Weird.
However, I decided to use this scheme for the SLAF model. The basic colors were chosen on the basis of some good real-life pictures. The tan became Humbrol 237 (Desert Tan), Tamiya XF-65 (Field Grey) and XF-61 (RAF Dark Green), with light grey undersides in 166 (RAF Light Aircraft Grey) and a straight waterline.
The cockpit interior was painted in very dark grey (Revell 09, Anthracite), while the landing gear wells became Humbrol 81 (Chrome Yellow primer), with the landing gear and the inside of the covers as well as the air intake duct in aluminum (Humbrol 56). Di-electric fairings on the fin and the spine were painted in light greys, Humbrol 196 and Revell 75.
The SLAF SMB.2 was supposed to show a (very) worn aircraft, matching the backgorund story. Therefore, the kit received a thorough black ink washing and post panel shading in order to simulate lots of wear and the influence of tropical climate close to the equator. Some additional repair paint patches were added, too, for an even shaggier look.
The few and simple markings came all from the aforementioned MiG-17 sheet, the stencils from the OOB sheet. The tactical code was modified from the original CF 903 into an earlier CF 603 through a digit switch, and since this marking alone (placed at the fin root for good visibility) appeared a bit wee, I added "03"s in black to the nose and the front landing gear cover (taken from an Argentinian Super Étendard, Airfix).
BTW, the "13" superstition nerd fact is true!
After some more weathering through dry painting, esp. with silver around the leading edges and with iron metallic around the rear fuselage and some dirt/soot stains with graphite the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
Simple, but exotic, I’d say, and I like the outcome a lot. The paint scheme already looks unusual, even though it has been patterned after a real world benchmark. But together with the colorful SLAF markings and some serious weathering, the whole package looks pretty weird but also believable. A classic what-if model! 😉
