An Airfix 1/72 Westland Lynx

[stevehnz]

Inspite of the hassles you've had, that looks brilliant Brian.

Steve.

[Brigbeale]

Work commenced on giving the rotors some colour tonight.

The first thing was to paint the blade ends white. This was in preparation for the yellow painted tips on the main rotor blades while the tail rotor just received white paint from the tip to about the mid point as they’re black/red/white/red in colour.

Yellow paint was airbrushed onto the ends of the main rotor.

While that was drying, I measured a 25mm strip of masking tape and cut it into 4 thin strips down its length. One strip was placed on each rotor blade from the joint where the blade joins the hub outwards. I then cut 8 very thin strips and placed 4 of them across the blades at the end of the 25mm strips. The other 4 were paced approx 2mm further out. The hub was also masked off.
The tips were masked with more tape and Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab was airbrushed on the upper and lower sides.

After 10minutes or so the tape was removed to reveal the desired effect.

 

The green covers were painted into the sponsons and near the nose on both sides.
The replacement antenna was knocked off, found and re-attached. All the antennae were painted flat black.

 

The Lynx with its newly painted main rotor assembly added.

 

And finally for tonight, I bought this off eBay for £5 +p&p.

Ive looked it up and I should be able to make the Army Lynx with skids instead of wheels.

 

[bigbadbadge]

Oooooo yeah this looks lovely, the rotors look great and the next one is here, at least you didn't need to sneak this one into the stash, you were goaded into it by SWMBO  after all, don't tell her I said that!!! 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

Earlier today, I had some time to myself while the Estates Manager went shopping with her son.

I took advantage of this and quickly knocked up an image of 3 long rectangles - two red with a white one in between. I re-sized them to be approx 1.5mm each and printed them on both clear and white decal paper. I needed the clear ones but I may need the other version at some point in the future.

They were then given a coat of spray matt varnish and left to dry for the afternoon.

Tonight, I started by measuring the width of the tail rotor blades - 3mm - and cutting 7mm sections.  After a soak they were then applied to the rotor blade tips with the overlap on the back which is only just visible. 

These decals set fairly quick so the rest of the blades were painted flat black.

Once the paint was dry, the pitch mechanism? was fitted- it’s a bit over scale but what can you do -apart from make the assembly out of wire. I may do that on the Army Lynx which I’ve seen an image of painted Green/Nato Black.

 

I then got a length of the smoke coloured nylon line I purchased from Poundland and (after 2 failed attempts probably due to the Superglue being past it and using a new pot) I finally got the line to stick and pull straight. I nipped the excess off and I feel it looks good. Not bad for a quid!

 

The rotor assembly was fitted and Revell paint pots were used to ensure it stayed vertical.

 

While that was setting, I put some wash in the main rotor assembly hub/blade mounts to add some definition.

 

I then got the torpedoes out of the cupboard and - oh dear…… the finish on the paint was terrible. It was various shades of orange and lumpy in places - so I scraped it off.

I got some Mr Color Yellow and Red and made a passable orange. This painted on a lot smoother with a brush. I’m going to let that dry fully before I mask the business ends off and airbrush them with some leftover silver/grey paint from the Canberra build. Then I can paint the sanded down parachute packs red and fit them to the Lynx.

 

The tyres were touched in with Nato Black and the wipers carefully painted in the same colour. (I’d be lost without the magnifying headset now). A few other areas were touched up and the interior floor was repainted where the blue made its way past the sponge. Some wash was applied to denote the dirty floor where the passengers didn’t wipe their feet before entering!

 

Apart from the torpedoes, the painting is done on the Lynx and it’s all but finished.

 

And the inspiration for the colour of the torpedoes on an HAS2 (French Navy?)

 

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

That’s another model finished which the addition of the two torpedoes.

They were painted Tamiya Aluminium (as I cant for the life of me, find the spare paint from the Canberra build). It was a simple case of mask the nose section leaving the front face uncovered and airbrushing the paint on. the parachute packs were painted red and a couple of strips of decal were added to break up the aluminium colour.

They were a bit of a pig to fit though, as the pins and holes are not exactly in line. I used a craft knife to taper the holes on the torpedoes to help the pins in to their respective holes.

I have purposely left the main rotor assembly not glued to the fuselage, as I remember when I built my two Matchbox Lynxes when I was a teenager, the rotor assembly or individual blades kept getting knocked off when I re-organised the collection on top of my wardrobe due to new completed additions. The rotor assembly sits quite happily on top without being fixed in position.

I also used the tip for using a blue highlighter to shade the top cockpit windows. There’s enough tint to make the difference without over-doing it.

Here’s a sneak preview of the photos which will appear in the RFI.

[Brigbeale]

The RFI is here

 

[GlueDad]

That looks proper ace on that base lad. 

[AdrianMF]

Looks gorgeous!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[bigbadbadge]

Oooooo looks absolutely stunning Brian, great job on this.

Chris

[HOUSTON]

Brian.

 

STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS  model.

 

[perdu]

That is gorgeous, gotta love Oxford Blue Lynxes.