The Little World

I suppose if you are going to paint a shark mouth on the front of an aircraft – a la Flying Tigers – there is no need to be discreet about it. You’re not trying to hide anything. You might as well make it as big as possible.

This seems to have been the philosophy the Israelis used when they painted up an otherwise vanilla Dassault 450 Ouragan into a set of teeth with a cockpit. As a former dentist I think I approve…as long as I am not called upon to fill them. I noted on reference photos that some shark mouths had the red on the top and some on the bottom of the mouth.

The rest of the camouflage scheme is the ’56 blue and brown with a light blue underside. Some say this should be light grey and they may be right. I have a pot of light blue that was used on the Kfir C1 and it is a lovely shade, so it gets used.

So far my internet searches have not turned up a clear picture of an Ouragan weaponed up in the ’56 period but there is an example of one in Hatzerim with the peculiar double rocket racks. It looks awkward, but I guess it worked. I prefer the look of the 250Kg bombs.

The application of the big decal was a nervous procedure, but Micro-Sol laid the edges down and I am happy with the result. The bells and whistles markings went on well. At least no stencils on this one…

I have no idea if the Valom kits are made by the same people who make Special Hobby or MPM or whatever – they may have as many interwoven companies as the Chinese – but in any case I am well pleased with their product.