Super 530D vs. Super 530F

Hello.

Can somebody, please, shed some light to the subjet of differencies between Matra Super 530D and Super 530F, from a modeller's point of view? How can I tell one from the other, what are the colour diferencies etc. One way of telling is that Mirage F1s can carry 530F only, and M2kCs 530Ds (and Fs, of course, but I guess these were phased out), but if the missile is on a stand and no aircraft is visible..?

I am also puzzled by the photos below... The first one I gor somewhere on the Internet, and the second and third I linked from your Walkaround/Armament section: there are some differencies... On the first photo there's a yellow rectangle between the silver rings, which is missing on the second and third photo.

Hi Huha,

Welcome aboard.

Sorry, I'm not a Jet specialist & my English is not as good as I wish, but according to what I believe :

- the Super 530D is longer in size than the 530F ;
- the principal 530F wings are broader than those of the 530D ;

Unfortunately, I've no more details and no real knowledge on colour differencies...

About the yellow rectangle between the silver rings, I guess that is a "missile bon de guerre" (ready for war).
I've check French magazines and books and each time the caption told about a plane flying over Gulf, Afghanistan or ex-Yugoslavia, I can see the same yellow rectangle on 530 or Magic.
I suppose that photos in the walkaround are inert missile.

Maybe a French specialist, speaking English, could confirm the info in a close future ?

Hope it helps,
Casper.

Thanx for the reply, Casper... My guess on the missiles would be that both are live 530Ds, but different sub-models/variants... The Super 530D in the walkaround section is, IMHO, a live missile, because there's written nothing along the lines of "INERTE", as can be seen on one of three AS.30L in the respective sub-gallery; apart from that, thee is a hinge visible on the base of the rear wing... But, this is just my deduction, which might be completely wrong ...

The missile is inert. The way you can distinguish this is by the color of the stripe at the front of the forward fins. Blue stripe=Inert, Yellow stripe=Operational. Its a standard NATO color coding system for munitions.