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"Operation Trebuchet" 1/72 RAF Typhoon


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Operation Trebuchet
Revell 1/72 RAF Typhoon

1990 saw the Middle East at the brink of war. Saddam Hussain had invaded Kuwait and declared it Iraq's 19th province. After a tense three months, a US led diplomatic envoy managed to talk Hussain back from the brink of all-out war. A long and bloody Gulf War was averted through diplomatic, rather than military action. But it was not without its price. Iraq faced heavy economic sanctions. The Iraqi government counteracted this by promoting policies which encouraged a more isolated and insular state.

Sixteen years later and the trade restrictions on Iraq had placed a huge strain on the country both socially and economically. Furthermore, over the years Saddam had succeeded in enriching Uranium in secret mountain laboratories for the purposes of creating a short-range nuclear missile, although at the time it was not established whether he had successfully weaponised it. Hussain, backed into a corner by his people and the international community began lashing out to his nearest neighbours. The long years of isolation had made Iraq strong and fiercely independent. First, Saddam succeeded in re-taking Kuwait and began threatening Israel with his new nuclear arsenal. The world was held to ransom, a belligerant and jumpy dictator had his finger on a hair trigger. In a secret emergency meeting, NATO and the United Nations voted unreservedly for military action against Iraq before a potential nuclear attack was launched. In March 2006 B2 bombers based at USAF bases in the UK took off to instigate a first strike on Saddam's nuclear facilities. Luckily, they were successful destroying 78% of their targets buried deep in the mountains and paved the way for the ground invasion. As it transpires, Iraq had developed a ballistic missile capable of hitting targets as far away as Austria. Although the missile was unable to carry a nuclear warhead, liberating forces discovered a plan to use the missile to launch a dirty-bomb attack on an unnamed city.

Following the initial invasion, the Iraqi Republican Guard faced heavy losses, causing them to disperse an retreat to towns and cities across Iraq. Baghdad and other large cities became fortresses, under siege from coalition troops. Over the first two months it appeared that little ground was being made and the number of civilian lives lost increased by the day. The RAF, who now have squadrons based in Saudi Arabia and recently liberated Kuwait, instigated "Operation Trebuchet". The objective: to start a 72hour barrage of continuous unrelenting air strikes on military targets across Iraq with the view to levelling the remaining military resistance and end the multiple sieges across the country. It was the perfect opportunity to test the mettle of the relatively new Typhoon in a ground attack role.

The kit, a 1/72 Revell Eurofighter Typhoon will depict one of the machines involved in this fictional operation being re-armed and readied for the next sortie. I'll be using some aftermarket, so far I've identified the Eduard PE set but this might grow as the kit gets built. I'm hoping to have a play around with the camouflage and insignia as I am a big fan of some of the nose art of aircraft used in the "real" Gulf War. The desert pink will feature, but I may also play around with this to offer a unique what-if twist. For those of you who have seen my previous builds, I'll be using my traditional 6x6 bathroom tile as a base with some sort of diorama involved, possibly even another in-flight... We'll see.

It begins.... Edited by MattBlack33
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It begins well :thumbsup: Cracking back-story, you had me hooked right from the start and all the way through, looking forward to watching this one take shape.

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It begins well :thumbsup: Cracking back-story, you had me hooked right from the start and all the way through, looking forward to watching this one take shape.

Thanks, Col. I love to spin a good yarn ;)

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As I await the kit, I've been doing some research. I'm not wanting to spend too much on the build so will only get the Eduard Zoom set to detail the cockpit and have managed to find some nice nose art that I hope might work well with the camo scheme I have in mind:

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ML72100

I'm going to design my own camo, but I did like the look of this:

1827739.jpg

So I'll be borrowing heavily from it! I've also been thinking about putting some 'battle damage' on the airframe to add a bit of interest too. I'm looking forward to starting! Edited by MattBlack33
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I bet the Typhoon will look great in desert camo Matt.

I'm hoping so, I'm undecided so it'll be a 'wait and see' I think! I was thinking about doing a three-tone scheme but with a grey underside. .

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I like the colours worn by the Omani Air Force and they would look great on a Tiffy

Yeah, I've had a look at these as well as the Saudi AF schemes. Some of the Russian Flanker splinter schemes look great too, especially with the white radomes and grey undersides. Ideally I'll combine all of these into one scheme. I have the kit, the paints and the figures, all I'm waiting for now is the PE and I can get on with it.

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