History on the Puma used by SAAF spans over quite a few years. The first ones were delivered to SAAF in December 1969. They were used mostly by 19 Squadron.

The kit that I used was a Heller kit no. 80332. This kit is a remoulding of the old Airfix kit. The only difference is that this kit also comes with the extended air intakes which some of the SAAF models used.

All over camouflage in olive drab and dark earth. Some variants  had the springbok - castle on the side of the fuselage and others no markings. All had serial numbers on tail and centre front of nose.

The kit had a lot of silvering which had to be removed before assembly. It is a very basic kit and no real problems were found. Had to use some filler where sides join and had a big gap between the front window pieces.