TimV1969 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Rummaging through my spares box(es) I noticed that I had a nearly-complete Matchbox Lynx, missing only the three-windowed doors of the prototype/pre-production aircraft. I was wondering what to do with it, as all the pre-production aircraft with the original bullet-shaped tail fairing also had the three-window doors, when I was reminded of the Westland 606 - by finding a picture of the mock-up here on britmodeller. (For those who don't know, the Westland 606 was a proposed civilian variant of the Lynx, with a 12" longer cabin, combination of sliding and hinged cabin doors, and potentially a choice of Rolls-Royce Gem or Pratt&Witney PT-6 engines. One mock-up was made but with no commercial interest, the project got no further. Supposedly the lengthened cabin would seat 12 passengers, with one more up front. Which sounds like quite a load for the original Gem engines!). I didn't want to do the colour scheme of the mockup (XW836), not least because I could only find black-and-white contemporary photos of it, but then I found an attractive white over red scheme used in one of the few press adverts for it: http://www.adspast.com/store/skin1/images/pics9/westland742heli606.jpg so I decided to base my model on that. I stretched the cabin by a scale 12" (i.e. 4 and a bit mm), cut down some of the single-window doors to form the sliding doors, made the forward hinged doors from left-over cabin sides from an AW101, added cabin seats originally from an Airfix Skyvan and used a Hobbyboss cockpit interior as the Matchbox one was so rudimentary. I couldn't persuade 12 seats to fit in the cabin, so I went for three rows of three-across, which would have been a bit more comfortable for passengers. I used Airfix main and tail rotors as I had plenty of these spare, I quite like the detail on them, and they match the various Airfix-based Lynxes I have built. I painted it overall Halfords Fiat White 210 (which I prefer to Appliance Gloss White as it doesn't look as starkly white to me, if you see what I mean) and masked and painted the undersides in Halfords VW Mars Red (which I often use to approximate Signal Red). Then i added the black pin-stripe using some Microscale 1/64 black stripe decals, which conformed fairly easily to shape, added warning decals and the Rolls-Royce badge on the engines from the spares box, and custom-printed the Westland 606 and G-BWHL civil registrations (a fictitious but appropriate serial for a Westland Helicopters Limited product, which in real life was actually issued to an Enstrom Shark I think). I think of my model as a 'what-if' - what-if Westlands had built a flying example of the 606, and perhaps kept it as a 'company hack' in this colour scheme. So, here it is: (and more at: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/TimV69/library/Models/Matchbox%201-72%20Westland%20606?sort=9&page=1) 28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Nicely done Tim. A smooth and seamless conversion with inventive use of those spare parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancbuilder219 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Looks good to me. Great job! Just goes to show the spares box can come in handy.....dont throw anything away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwality8 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Lovely stuff! Looks proper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batcode Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 looks great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Monday Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 What a great build of a very interesting subject. Absolutely brilliant. BM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Excellent!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Very nice indeed,........something really different and I like it, Cheers Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Creative modelling resulting in a very smart looking chopper! Slick work. Kind regards, Joachim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grant Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Very tidy conversion. What if indeed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 A beautiful what-iffer! The scheme fits Lynx very well. Nice result out of an old kit! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdonnell Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Hello,Tim -My compliments to you on turning your Matchbox kit into this fine looking tribute to the early 'Lynx'. I love the clean,crisp paintwork too. All the best,Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders154 Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 I remember the mock up in westlands I believe it was exibited at Farnbrough Rodders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raeman Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Wow a 606! Always fancied having a go at this myself. I have 5 Matchbox Lynx kits stashed as I was going to make all of the prototypes one day! What next? How about the Lynx 3 ZE477? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Very nice - a real double-take subject! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimV1969 Posted January 26, 2016 Author Share Posted January 26, 2016 Thanks for your kind words, all! Yes, I think the paint scheme shows off the clean lines of the Army-nosed Lynx, something that particularly struck me half way through painting when it was in overall gloss white. And yes, a Lynx-3 is definitely on the 'to-do' list, along with some more of the early Lynxes - I have a complete Matchbox one and a Frog/Novo one also in the 'stash', as well as plenty more Airfix bits... Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinback Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Always great to see something a bit diiferent and inspiring - Thanks Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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