"..semi-conformal carriage would've been preferred for drag-reduction purposes "
Surely from our point of view, but as far as I know, this SFECMAS/Nord design
is shown without any recognisable armament in all other drawings (a fact, that
would have made it absolutely useless !) and all comparable tailsitter designs, eg.
SNECMA or Morane Saulnier, are shown with a similar arrangement. Of course, as
again all published material seems to go back to the same source, this may be
erroneous, but nevertheless it's nearer to our sources, than a conformal missile
carriage á la F-4 Phantom, I think.