Revell AG 1/32 Lynx HAS.3

The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to the development of both battlefield and naval variants. The Lynx went into operational usage in 1977 and was later adopted by the armed forces of over a dozen nations, primarily serving in the battlefield utility, anti-armour, search and rescue and anti-submarine warfare roles.

The Lynx was the world's first fully aerobatic helicopter. In 1986 a specially modified Lynx set the current Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's official airspeed record for helicopters. The Westland 30 was derived from the Lynx as a civil utility helicopter, however it was not a commercial success and only a limited number were built. In the 21st century, a modernised military variant of the Lynx, designated as the AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat, as multirole combat helicopter scheduled to enter service in 2014. The Lynx remains in production under AgustaWestland, the successor to Westland Helicopters.

Several years back I picked up this kit at a deep discount, but have not gotten around to previewing it until now. I'm usually not that big a rotor-head, but I've always like the sleek look of the Lynx. Of course, that has since changed with all the blisters and warts on the HMA.8 and the even less sleek Wildcat.

Revell's kit is molded in white for most of the fuselage and interior and grey for everything else. The kit comes with the later BERP rotors so those hoping to backdate it to an earlier variant are out of luck.  You'd expect a lot of detail in a kit of this size and you get it. Each of the cockpit seats, for example, consist of seven parts. Belts are molded in place so no need for aftermarket. All the controls are there including cyclic, collective and pedals. For the back, you have three sets of webbed seats with two of them back to back facing the cabin doors.

The kit has quite a few inserts for other versions, no doubt, so you'll have to deal with installing those. In a like vein, there are quite a few holes that will need opened for various bits. There are a lot of these so you have to be careful to only open those you'll need.

With the tail section separate, you'd think that it could be posed folded, and while it looks like it can, the instructions do not show it as such. Both the main and tail rotor assemblies are nicely done and appear quite convincing. As mentioned, there are quite a few weapons to go with this including air to ship  missiles, door machine guns and torpedoes along with their mounts. However, neither of the markings options should have these fitted so save them for doing a version with aftermarket decals. Be sure not to open any holes for these items if using the kit markings options!

Instructions are the book style that we have come to expect from Revell AG in their larger kits. The construction steps are void of any wording in keeping with the international flavor of their kits. All paint information is limited to Revell paints, a couple of which will need to be mixed. The decal sheet is huge and nearly fills the platen of my scanner. This sheet includes instrument and rotor decals as well as the usual plethora of stencils that you'd expect on a kit of this size. There are two options, both based on an overall grey color. One is the box art aircraft with the big lynx painted on it. This aircraft is with 702 NAS' Black Cats aerobatic team from 2008. The other is a standard version with gloss red doors and rear tail boom with 815 NAS when aboard HMS Endurance on an Antarctic expedition in 2001. As such, neither option would be carrying any external weapons as I mentioned earlier.

I'm a real fan of the Lynx and look forward to tackling this one (though my record for actually building big scale kits is pretty poor). A boxing of the earlier version would have been quite nice, but even this later one hasn't gotten too ugly with all the additional lumps and bumps that aircraft seem to get as time goes on. One thing for sure is that folding blades would have been appreciated as this one will have quite a rotor span.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Lynx

May 2023

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