Westland Navy Lynx Mk.88A - 1:32 Revell

[Greg B]

1:32 Westland Navy Lynx Mk.88A.
1:32 Revell (04652)

Revell have released a new tool kit of the latest mark of Naval Lynx to serve with the German Navy

History
The Westland Lynx was born out of a late 60's requirement for a multirole replacement for the Scout/Wasp and was to be more advanced than the UH-1 Iroquis therefore offering a viable alternative to US helicopters in the export market. Originally a joint venture between Westland and Aérospatiale (with Aérospatiale taking a 30% share in manufacturing), the intention was that the French Army and Navy would buy Lynx and a reciprocating agreement would see the UK Armed Services buying Puma and Gazelle. Unfortunately, the French Army subsequently cancelled its requirement for Lynx and therefore the Army Air Corps, Royal Marines and Qatari Police became the sole users of the Battlefield variant of the Lynx. The Naval variant has enjoyed a far greater export success with 16 foreign Navies employing various marks.

The Lynx is a twin engined machine with a semi rigid rotor which enables exceptional manoeuvrability and precise handling which makes it very suitable for ship borne operations. A variant also holds the world speed record for helicopters. The initial Naval variant of the Lynx, known as the Lynx HAS.2 in British service, or Lynx Mk.2(FN) in French service, differed from the Army Lynx AH.1 by having a tricycle undercarriage and a deck restraint system, folding main rotor blades, an emergency flotation system and a nose-mounted radar.

The subject of this model kit is a German Navy (Marineflieger (Mfg)) Mk.88A which is itself an upgrade from the standard Mk.88 by the addition of Rolls Royce Gem 42 engines and an under-nose radome with 360° sweep radar. The Mfg Lynx, unlike RN Lynx do not feature folding tails.

The Kit
Moulded in white plastic which seems to my observation to be slightly on the soft side, the kit features both finely engraved panel lines and raised details where required to represent the actual details of the real aircraft. I am not a fan of white plastic used for kits, whilst it will help where you have large areas of white to paint, I feel that it makes checking for surface flaws during construction more difficult because of the lack of contrast and of course it has made photographing the sprues for this review a more difficult task. However, whilst not readily apparent from the photos, the detail is exceptionally good, certainly one of Revell's finer kits and care will have to be taken during construction to ensure detail is not lost if any filling and sanding is required. For more detail, a built up test shot in grey plastic has been featured in the Rumourmonger area of the forum here.

A full cabin interior featuring sliding side doors, textured side walls, and roof. The modular dipping sonar equipment racks complete with observers seat are also provided. These are very well represented and with some careful painting and some additional cabling details added by the modeller will really enhance the interior. The cabin also has a fit out option for a heavy machinegun and mount complete with gunners seat and multipart passenger seats. A detailed cockpit with instrument panel (decals are provided for dials, screens and gauges) and multipart seats together with optional open pilots doors will build up into a fine representation of the front office. The undercarriage, rotor head, and transmission casing is also finely detailed out of the box. The exterior has also received a lot of attention to detail with raised patches, intakes, aerials, sensors and other lumps and bumps peculiar to the Mk.88A being provided. Again, careful reading of the instructions to open location holes and what parts are required for what option will be required. Finally, there are frames and pylons to carry the 2 x Torpedoes or 2 x Sea Skua anti ship missiles provided.
 
 

Instructions
The Instructions are clearly laid out in Revell's usual style and printed on off white recycled paper. Careful attention will need to be paid by the modeller as to what interior option he is building, as they require different fit outs. In total, there are 93 construction stages detailed before the painting options are reached, although some will be skipped depending on what fit out you are building. My gripe as ever with Revell instructions is that unfortunately the paint call outs are solely for their own brand paints with some needlessly complicated mixes being required to make a required shade. Whilst I can understand the 2 x orange colours required by one of the decal options not being readily available out of the tin, the other colours are available ready mixed by other manufactures. Please Revell, you make some cracking kits at a great price, a BS, FS or RAL number would provide a quick and cheap fix for what seems to be a recurring source of irritation for both modellers and reviewers alike.
 
 

Instructions

Marking Options
 
 

Two marking options are provided:

Option 1: A display machine (83+09) of Mfg-3 based at Nordholz in 2006 celebrating 25 years of Lynx Operations. This option has a very striking fuselage and tail art scheme of a lynx painted down both fuselage sides. The base colours are Dark Blue over a white underside. The scheme will require some careful masking and the mixing of 2 x orange paint colours will be required as the decals just provide the Lynx's marking details. Masking details are provided in the instructions.
 
 

 
 

Option 2: A line machine (83+12) Mfg-3 based at Nordholz in 2010 in the later Grey (possibly medium sea grey) scheme with white undersides.

The decals are glossy, very finely printed and have good colour density and representation. Full stencils for the aircraft are provided. According to the sheet they are designed by Syhart Decals (who specialise in display schemes) and have been printed in Italy for Revell, whilst they are not Cartograph, they certainly have plenty of detail and look to be of a higher quality than normal.

Accuracy
It's a dangerous thing to say on an online forum, but it does look like a Lynx to me! Unfortunately, I'm not in possession of scale plans to lay the kit against to check dimensions. Neither am I going to comment on the accuracy of the surface detail other than I would suspect that like the RN Lynx, no two Lynx will be exactly the same so please check your references to your particular machine. Apologies to any Lynx experten out there, any further information regarding accuracy of this kit would be more than welcome.

Conclusion
I like it! Well laid out, well engineered, well priced (around £20) and an interesting set of decal options. With the exception of my minor gripes concerning plastic colour and paint colour call outs, this is a very well detailed kit that looks like it will build with ease into a cracking model. With a little extra care and the addition of some wiring/detailing and seat belts this will be a an attractive addition to anyone's display case or shelf.

Highly Recommended.
 

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

[Arkady72]

I am sick about this model... Is there any big differencies between Mk.88A and HAS.3? Honestly said I prefer HAS.3 due to the British markings. So, can I use Eduard PE sets which is all dedicated to Mk.88 on my HAS.3?