"Kucing Laut"

Historical Background

In the 1960s, the British Army issued a requirement for improved helicopters. As the French Army also had the same requirements, Westland Helicopters and Aerospatiale signed an agreement in early 1967 to jointly develop the helicopter for their countries' armed forces. While Aerospatiale became the design leader for the large helicopter (eventually emerged as the Puma) and the 'small' helicopter (which became the Gazelle), Westland took up the development of the medium helicopter, initially known as WG.13 (and later as the Lynx). The first prototype of the Lynx flew on 21 March 1971. In 1972 a Lynx broke the world speed record over 15 km and 25 km by flying at 321.74 km/h and then set a new record for 100 km closed circuit by flying at 318.504 km/h. The British Army put an order for more than 100 Lynx AH.1 to perform various roles including transport, armed escort, anti-tank, reconnaissance and evacuation. Deliveries began in 1977

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy found that the Westland Wasp inadequate and had a strong interest in the Lynx. Therefore a navalised variant was developed as Lynx HAS.2. While the naval HAS.2 retained the twin Rolls-Royce Gem turboshaft engine of the Army Lynx, it differed by having fixed tricycle landing gear, foldable main rotor and tailboom, deck capture and and restraint system, emergency floating system and a bigger nose containng a Ferranti Seaspray radar. The colloquially-named Sea Lynx first flew on 10 February 1976 and officially entered service in 1981. The HAS.2 was then upgraded to HAS.3 with the addition of a towed magnetic anomaly detector, uprated transmission, Gem Mk 204 engines and Orange Crop ESM. In 1984, an enhanced version called Lynx-3 was proposed but was not pursued with due to insufficient orders. However in the early 1990s, Westland incorporated some of the Lynx-3 technology into a less radical design called the Super Lynx. This variant featured BERP rotor blades, new tail rotoer (derived from WG.30 design), a new under-nose 360-degree coverage radar, Gem 42 engines and optional EO turret in the nose. Royal Navy Lynx HAS.3s upgraded to Super Lynx standard were known as HMA.8. The Super Lynx was also offered to prospective clients as upgrades to their existing fleet or as new-build craft.

In order to fulfil maritime patrol, anti-submarine, anti-surface and SAR duties, the Royal Malaysian Navy placed an order for six Super Lynx Series 300 in September 1999. These would also complement the then newly-delivered Lekiu-class frigates. The RMN Mk.100 Super Lynx is powered by a pair of LHTEC CTS800-4N turboshaft engines rated at 1,563 shaft horsepower. It also incorporated an all-new glass cockpit with active LCD displays and new avionics. Half of the fleet is equipped with EO sensor on the nose. The pilots are also provided with NVGs for night-time operations. Anti-submarine weaponry consists of two A-244/S lightweight torpedo while anti shipping vessel weapons consists of up to four (but usually just one or two) BAe Sea Skua missiles. Pintle-mounted FN MAG 7.62 mm or FN M3M 12.7 mm machine gun may also be be fitted. The Lynxes are grouped into No.501 Squadron and was land-based at KD Rajawali.

The Kit

Hobby Boss came up with a bunch of Sea Lynxes in 2009. The HAS.2 version was the first release, followed by HAS.3, Super Lynx, Sea Lynx Mk.88 and Sea Lynx Mk.90. For this build, I chose kit No. 87239 (Lynx Mk 88). All the kits generally have nicely engraved and raised details although most details for the cabin interior is missing save for some equipment boxes and jump seats (which I think were usually not installed in the naval Lynx). The model is also missing the pedestal-mounted winch for SAR work. The nose is separate so that modelers can chose either to have the radar nose of the one with the EO sensor dome. There are also two styles of main gear fairing so chose according to your reference. For external ordnance, two styles of torpedoes (a pair each) and a pair of Sea Skua missiles are included. Decals provide markings for two Bundesmarine birds.

I however intended to build a RMN bird and so have purchased a conversion set from Naza Model Works. This set includes a new engine fairing, exhausts, the aforementioned winch, a new instrument panel, central console and also a small decal sheet.

Construction

As usual, the construction steps started with the interior of the aircraft. However, this time I started by sawing off all the resin replacement parts off their pour stubs and hacking away portions off the main fuselage halves. The NMA conversion kit did not actually show the areas to be removed but their FB page shows a post of the conversion part being dry-fitted to the basic kit and that indirectly shows which area of the original kit to be removed. Only then did I continue with the interior. There wasn't much to do here as the kit's interior is quite sparse (there wasn't even the collective stick!). The troop seats can be left off as the Super Lynx (at least in those in Malaysian service) were rarely used as troop transports. I just add the seat behind the pilot for the cabin interior. The holes on the cockpit floor were then puttied in. However, the base for the rotor shaft cannot be used as the replacement engine housing is too thick at the opening for the rotor shaft and cannot be drilled through easily. 

Next, the replacement engine fairing is put in place. But before that, holes for the exhaust were cut out (the resin is thin over the openings). The resin wafer covering the air intakes can be left on (and painted black later on) or removed although the latter option means they open into nothingness (not really a problem actually). Since I cut badly, extra putty were needed to cover the gaps between the fuselage and the engine housing. There are two types of sponsons provided and the one similar to RMN Lynxes' were used. However the chosen sponsons lacked some detail such as tie down eyelets. As RMN Lynxes have both radar and EO noses, decision has to be made here and it was, more or less, dictated by the provided decal sheet. The latter only provide markings for M501-1, -3 and -5 which have EO sensor on the nose

Although the conversion kit includes the winch assembly, I didn't use it as I have the cabin doors closed. The ESM antennas on the rear of the fuselage was not fitted on RMN Lynxes and the holes were puttied in. The blobs on the mount were removed and transplanted to rear of the sponsons. Obliterated cabin door railings were restored using styrene strips (one looks rather OK, the other, quite bad!). To ease handling while painting and decalling, the landing gears, weapons pylon and the rotors were left off at this time. Oh yeah, one more thing, part of the landing gear sponson is actually covered in canvas, so I have to mask, apply putty and sand before painting.

Painting and Decalling

I have to confess: despite my year of dabbling in scale modelling, I still can't correctly identify which colour to be used without being told which is which. In this case, I'm not sure whether the helicopter is painted in medium Sea Grey or Dark Sea Grey (despite being in front of it). Fortunately, there is a photo of the pre-delivery M501-1 in front of a Royal Navy Merlin. I know for sure that RN's Merlins were painted MSG (the instructions for an aftermarket decal sheet said so(!)) and as the Lynx looks darker than the Merlin....then it must be painted in DSG then. The area around the engine intakes, the anti-glare panel and the ESM antennas were painted Flat Black. For markings, both inbox and the conversion kit were used with the inbox decals providing most of the stencils. However, there are some 'misses' with the in-box decals. First, the port 'rescue' arrow has a different orientation than the one on the real aircraft. Secondly, a number of decals are missing from the decal sheet - there are only two decals for the kick-in steps and there is only one stripe decal for the Sea Skua missile.

Decal application went without a hitch, except for a warning sign on the starboard engine casing; the carrier film was quite stiff and somehow unable to stick to the surface. I replaced it with paint but being unable to replicate the stencil, I just painted dots to replace the alphabets...haha. Having looked into my spares box for suitable replacements, the port 'rescue' arrow had to be placed into wrong position. Another inaccurate decals are the 'Step' markers on the main wheel sponsons. And finally I decided to paint the warning stripes on the tail rotor rather than using the decals. 

Finishing

I started by adding the EO dome and the missile rack. Speaking of the latter, Hobby Boss instructed you to use Parts D5 and D6 which somehow look dubious and not used on RMN Lynxes and I believe is for the carriage of two missiles each. I decided to replace it with Parts F3 and F4 as the missile pylon can fit onto it. Test fitting however showed that the missile would be lower than the landing gear. This required further modification by removing the upper part of the pylon. On the real aircraft, there is a cable running through the antenna blades at the bottom of the tail but I decided not to add them. The main landing gears were canted outboard a bit as the real aircraft is usually seen as such (unless the wheels are chocked). The panel lines were then applied with AK Interactive Paneliner. The missiles were cemented to the pylons and the rotors were put in place.  After that the whole model was sprayed with Mr Color Semi-Gloss Top Coat, the masks removed, finishing the build.

Conclusion

Hobby Boss's Lynx is a fairly nice representation of the real thing in 1/72 scale. The outside surfaces are fairly detailed although the interior, especially the main cabin is very sparse although with all doors closed, it wasn't a problem. The decal is also quite disappointing as Hobby Boss missed quite a number of the more prominent ones especially for the kick-in steps. As for the conversion set, NMA has come up with another excellent conversion set for Malaysian armed forces'birds. My complaint against the set was just the lack of cabin machine gun mount. Although the Lynx kits from Hobby Boss are modular, and basically the same among the HMA.8, Super Lynx and Lynx Marks 88 and 90, I finally realise why NMA recommended the Mk 90 as the basic kit for the conversion - the Mk 90 kit 'essential information' decals are more appropriate for a RMN Super Lynx!