ORIGINAL: David Gladwin
slower approach speeds by drooping ailerons on the Buccaneer and, I believe, the F4.
Concur! Drooping ailerons will reduce Vs. But the Bucc has a blown wing and other aerodynamic clever bits to offset tip stall and other unwanted effects. The F4 and the Airbus also have other clever bits to get rid of any nasty tendencies - spoilers, saw tooth leading edges, dihedral breaks, vortex generators, etc. Even the US Navy Goshawk gets rid of the toblerones found on the inboard sections of other Hawk wings - these provide stall warning at the expense of lift, but for carrier landings, lower Vs is important as it reduces the energy of the deck landing. The Goshawk has an alpha gauge and audio stall warning instead of the traditional 'onset of light buffet' stall warning you get in other Hawks.
For modelling, as Mike has said, Reynold Number has an effect, as does the lack of clever aerodynamic bits due to difficulty in building and testing these at small scales. Crow braking works at slowing the aircraft down, but it needs to be set up right for best efficiency. As you say David, perhaps the flaps are drooped slightly further to compensate for the loss in lift from the reflexed ailerons. The variables are almost infinite! I reckon we are all arguing round the subject in general agreement, but choosing one aspect as our 'champion' to put our point across.
PS - Mike, in a steady state descent, Lift does still equal Weight!