MPC 1/72 Westland Lynx

The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose twin-engined 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 is a fully aerobatic helicopter with the ability to perform loops and rolls. In 1986, a specially modified Lynx set the current Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's official airspeed record for helicopters (category excludes compound helicopters) at 400.87 km/h (249.09 mph), which remains unbroken as of January 2022.

Several land and naval variants of the Lynx have been produced along with some major derivatives. The Westland 30 was produced as a civil utility helicopter; it was not a commercial success and only a small number were built during the 1980s. In the 21st century, a modernised variant of the Lynx was designed as a multi-role combat helicopter, designated as the AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat; the Wildcat is intended to replace existing Lynx helicopters.

 Airfix kits were very popular in terms of reboxing in the US during the 1970s and 1980s. They were imported and reboxed by MPC with little more than a change in box design. They were also inexpensive compared to those kits imported from the UK so like many, I bought a lot of them. This is one of those.

Molded in a dark blue plastic, the kit portrays the first production model, the HAS.2. Of interest is that construction starts with the main rotor. It then moves on to the cockpit, which is lacking a collective. For the cabin, there are web seats to fill the space. This is all trapped between the fuselage halves. There is some room under the cabin floor for weight and I suggest placing a fair amount in there. Note that before closing the fuselage halves you'll need to open holes for the landing gear and sponsons.

The tail rotor is then added along with the engine bits. As this is an early aircraft, there are no intake screens provided nor any exhaust diffusers. Next are the clear bits for the upper forward fuselage along with the cabin door and its rails. You can build this so the door will slide open and closed. Next are torpedoes and the main gear/sponsons. Lastly is the rotor assembly and the nose. If you forgot weight under the cockpit floor, you can add some in the nose.

Instructions are well done and you are provided generic color references. Markings are for one aircraft, unit unknown. The decals are ok and in register, but a bit thick and have a fair amount of clear carrier. There are some aftermarket decals, but not really all that much for the HAS.2.

It has been a while since this kit was last released. The most recent has been the Mk.8 boxing with a new sprue. I've built the HAS.2 twice; once as a Dutch plane using Modeldecals and once as a HAS.3 using a SAM decal sheet for a Falklands plane. Both times I liked the end result and found the build experience to be a good one. This is old school raised panel lines, but if you can get past that, you'll find it to be a nice kit.