Dassault Ouragan from Battlefront - 1/144 Scale

Dassault Ouragan from Battlefront Miniatures

More "Fate Of A Nation" stuff.  This is a 1/144 scale Dassault Ouragan from Battlefront, a resin and metal kit released as part of their "Fate Of A Nation" supplement to the Flames of War game.  I finished this off this past weekend, where it rained for pretty much 48 hours straight.  The prairie climate can pretty much just go f*ck itself, but I digress...

Inspiring box art

Near-total air superiority was one of the key factors of the IDF's stunning success in the Six Day War in 1967.  The IDF opened the war with "Operation Moked", a surprise air assault by the Israeli Air Force that caught the Egyptian air force on the ground and pretty much toasted it. I think they took out something like 400 Arab aircraft. After that, the IDF armoured brigades could roll out into the Sinai with full-on air cover.

I suppose the artful nose was a common thing on these planes?

Beautiful plane! The golden age of jets!

With the Egyptian Air Force in tatters, the IAF was free to strafe and bomb the Arab columns as they tried to fall back to the Suez Canal.  French-built beauties like these prowled the skies over the Sinai, crushing the Egyptian troops. No wonder the thing was over in a matter of days.

Nuln Oil pin washes are your friend

With all of this in mind, I thought it would be fun for the IDF to have some air support when we try "Fate Of A Nation" at some point in the future.  Besides, the Egyptian ZSU-57-2s will need something to shoot at, right?  And air support activity always seems to be fraught with drama during Conscript games - see here, here and here for a couple of examples.  Goodness knows what the heck will happen when this puppy gets called in...

Couple of bombs underneath

The Dassault Ouragan carried bombs and was armed with four 20mm cannons. All useful for tuning up enemy armoured columns!  

Flight stand from Battelfront includes magnets - brilliant!

The Battlefront model is very nice. The base is sturdy, and you get magnets to boot - yay! The decals are great too. You can't go wrong with the whole growling-face-on-the-front-of-the-plane motif.  I wondered where this symbol came from - it seemed awfully custom, but a cursory online search seems to reveal that it was popular in the IAF.  Or perhaps just popular with model box art people :)  Either way, I love the look of it.

I think the dice is supposed to represent how strong the actual mission is? I don't really know Flames of War that well

My only gripe? I wish it was 1/100 scale, like the other vehicles - not that it matters at all in terms of the gaming, just a pedant tic in my own mind. The model would probably be impractical at 1/100 for gaming...

So my IDF now have tanks, some infantry and air support.  Need to focus on the Egyptians now. Stay tuned for more "Fate Of A Nation" stuff...