February 2026

AW-159 Wildcat HMA.2

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Leonardo AW 159 Wildcat HMA.2

815 Sqn, Fleet Air Arm, HMS DRAGON, 2019

Air-Graphics 1/72

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Text & Images  © www.gengriz.co.uk (unless otherwise indicated)

The AW-159 Wildcat is a development of the Westland/Aerospatiale Lynx, replacing the previous aircraft’s Rolls Royce Gem engines with more powerful LHTEC CTS800 engines (LHTEC was a joint venture involving Rolls Royce and Honeywell) and fitting a new tail unit and nose.

The RN’s interest in Wildcat came from the realisation that the planned all-Merlin fleet would not always be practical for operation from smaller ships; whilst possible, Merlins are large, heavy, complex to handle on deck and expensive in hardware and crewing/ maintenance terms.  By tagging onto the Army’s Battlefield Lynx replacement programme, a more affordable option was identified.

Elements of the Merlin’s avionics and glass cockpit were added to the existing “Super Lynx” design.  A very high degree of commonality has been maintained between naval and land based variants, with the most obvious difference being the radome beneath the naval nose.

UK Wildcats can be armed with up to 20 Thales Martlet general purpose missiles (for anti-tank/aircraft/small ship), or with up to 4 of the larger and longer range MBDA Sea Venom, carried on distinctive side wing mounts.  A pintle mounted heavy machine gun can be carried in the cabin door.  Sting Ray guided torpedoes or Mk.11 depth charges provide the main anti-submarine capability.  South Korean and Philippine aircraft carry K745 Blue Shark torpedoes and SPIKE missiles along with Thales FLASH dipping sonar and sonobuoys.   

RN Wildcat HMA.2s entered operational service in 2015 onboard Type 23 Frigates and Type 45 Destroyers.   Wildcats are normally also carried by the RN’s QE Class aircraft carriers as a defence against small attack craft and for general utility use.  The HMA.2 variant is operated by 815 Sqn and 825 Sqn, whilst 847 Sqn also operates the AH.1 land attack variant for the Royal Marines.

Building the Air-Graphics Wildcat kit

Naval aircraft are definitely my modelling "thing" and for most of the last 50 years, that has mostly mean helicopters.  Sadly, these have not been entirely popular as modelling subjects, such that whilst there are quite a few kits available, few of them are really "up to date" (standfast perhaps the Italeri/Revell Merlins and EH-101s).

However, you can often count on Air-Graphics to source the bits needed to overcome this shortfall - I remember purchasing some excellent Lynx Mk.8 resin from them in the early 2000s when they were trading as Model Alliance - the resulting model is still my favourite Lynx, despite having built a number of "out the box" Lynx Mk.8 kits since then.

The Royal Navy and British Army's current AW-159 Wildcat is a good case in point - whilst there are plenty of kits of its predecessor, the Lynx, there is no sign of any mainstream manufacturers coming up with the goods for the current aircraft, but Air Graphics have, albeit that it has been in very short supply ever since it was first released as a conversion for the (very flawed) Hobby Boss Lynx.

The new issue is a complete kit, supplied in a small sturdy box with the resin and a small number of 3D parts sealed in a set of polythene pouches.  It certainly looks good in the box, although the current lack of building instructions has put off a number of modellers.  Fortunately, the Air-Graphics website still has downloadable instructions for their previous conversion.  The new kit, I assume and hope, uses the same main parts, but with the donor kit parts now done in resin, including clear resin for the windows and screen.  

According to the original instructions, the resin Masters are by Colin Pickett, casting By Tomas Valch and artwork By Jon Freeman.  Separate parts are provided where needed to allow either a naval or land-based variant to be built.

A quick glance at the instructions shows that the kit is not going to be "shake and make" and will probably require some careful scratch assembly and some extra preparation.  An ideal project for the Xmas holiday period and into the new year!

Continued below….

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I started by decanting the parts from their plastic pouches into a sealable box.  The conversion kit instructions don't transfer directly, with e.g. parts 13 & 14 (cabin interior)  now ready moulded into the cabin sides. Indeed the full kit seems to improve on quite a few shortfalls of the conversion.

Initial assembly of the cabin interior went well, with most parts separating nicely from their pouring stubs/blocks.  I broke both the (nicely thin) pedal sets, so have had to leave these out (I didn't notice there were 3D printed alternatives!) but experience suggests that at this scale they will not be visible through the nose windows.   

The seat configuration needed a little research - the conversion instructions show a mid-centre seat, which does not seem to be included.  I have certainly seen this seat on AH.1 Wildcats, but pictures from the latest CSG deployment show a rear facing seat behind the pilot (which seems to be of the same type) on the RN HMA.2 versions, so I have positioned a replacement here (not least because I want to fit the winch and leave the door open).  

The optional nose parts caused me some confusion, but after some research, it was clear that the part with the oblong side intake is intended to be the naval one, although this intake should only be on the starboard side and not both as moulded (but see later, as it didn't survive in any event).

Continued below….

As resin kits go, this one started off as a relatively straightforward build.   The major fuselage parts needed some fairing in and filling (but not as much as the conversion instructions suggested).  Clear parts are reasonable, but not entirely clear.  Surface detail is a little soft, but again quite acceptable.    

I found that the fit was mostly OK, but the chunkiness of the parts does limit how well you can put things together.  Air-Graphics have provided some good photos in the instructions (that can be scaled up on your screen), but further reference pictures are easily found on the web.   The two cabin halves fitted together easily after a little fettling of the rear seats (they are a little too wide for the cabin).

Joining the major parts also worked reasonably well at first, although filler was needed to blend them together.  However, at this point things began to go badly awry.  When the radome was attached, it became obvious that the lower nose is angled way too far up.  It looked very wrong, so I attempted to remove the radome, hoping to shim it or at least reshape it to be more parallel to the ground.  It was firmly fixed and not moving, so I tried to cut it off with the razor saw, accepting that there might be some ensuing damage to the main part.  Then whilst I did this, the entire nose section fell off.  

So:  I reprofiled the joint between this and the main cabin to angle the entire nose further downward and reattached it.  Still not right, but better!  This is actually quite a major shape issue and I'm not sure if it was my mistake or a fault in the kit.  Either way the radome is definitely not the correct shape so if you are building this kit, beware and add a shim to keep it flat. Interestingly, an angled up nose is one of the more obvious faults on the Hobby Boss Lynx kit and it wonder if this has been inadvertently transferred to the new resin Wildcat nose.

Sadly it got worse from here before getting better.  Having reattached the nose and applied filler to the other joints, when I started to sand it back, I noticed that the entire fuselage seemed to have a longitudinal bend, front and back.  The nose was almost certainly my fault through not sanding it back evenly when I corrected the upward twist, but having been sensitised to this issue, I found that the tail section also has a slight bend.  Not much I could do about that, but the nose was taken off again at which point I I noticed that the front of the nose section is quite badly twisted, so that the windscreen is not at all parallel to the nose platform section.  I checked the 2nd nose piece (the AH-1 version) but this was exactly the same.  

This required a more difficult resolution and I decided to cut the nose section in two just in front of the lower windows, reattach the front part parallel to the windscreen then fill and sand any gaps (sadly losing some detail - like the incorrect nose vents - as I did so).  

As there was really no choice about this "surgery", I took the opportunity at the same time to resolve what I still think is a nose that turns up too much.  I did this by placing a shim inside the cabin for the front of the cabin floor to rest on - this now aligns the nose more correctly, but of course meant that the front doors and windscreen now did not fit (these were actually quite good to start with).  Time for another shim, this time using some thick plastic card at the top of the windscreen.  A little more trimming of the doors and front of the windscreen, after which I was left with small gaps that I could live with (and fill with Krystal Kleer).

A small bag of 3D printed parts comes with the kit and these are very nicely formed.  They include the winch, undercarriage legs and a replacement for the radio antenna on the port aft fuselage. The 3D "wire" antenna is slightly better than the resin part, but strangely, it bends in the wrong direction, which means some careful bending of the part when you attach it.  

A set of fold down steps is also included, but this left me quite perplexed as it seems to be inside out - if you fit it with the supports in the correct position the step appears to have folded down!  To correct this I cut off the upper support and attached the whole thing upside down.  A single step platform is also provided and this is where a 0.5 inch machine gun can be carried.   I missed this out, using a weapons pylon from another kit to mount a single Sting Ray practice torpedo (also from another kit).  

A few additional antenna and miscellaneous parts (one of which I couldn't identify) are also provided as are collective levers for the cockpit that I didn't use because I had used the resin parts.   The winch is good and easily attached.  Door rails (top and lower) need to be fabricated from plastic strip.  

Continued below….

On the other hand, the provided resin BERP blades are an area of real disappointment.  I do appreciate that there have been some changes in the shape of BERP blades over the years, but as far as I can see, none of them look like the ones in the kit.  From my research, I believe that BERP IV blades are fitted to the Wildcat - these are NOT the same shape as those on the later Lynx and the Merlin (the paddles seem a lot longer).  The faired inner end is also missing.   After some soul searching (in theory, nothing is unbuildable), I decided the kit blades were best not used and that I would need to make my own.  

I have fudged up BERP blades before for a folded Lynx by adding new plastic card paddles to the end of a set of conventional blades (ex-Airfix) and this seemed to be a reasonable approach.  Using a scaled print of the Airfix 1/48th Lynx instructions as a template, I printed out a more correct shape and cut out some new tips.  These were attached to some trimmed Airfix conventional blades, left to set, then filled and sanded back, with a slight bend added to the tips - not perfect, but much better than the kit.  Unfortunately, the vibration damper that fits on top of the rotor head appears to be much too large, something I only noticed after I had attached it.

Initially I was unconvinced by the tail rotor parts - they seemed to be far too short.  However, after finding a suitable photograph and scaling it down to match, they are almost exactly correct;  the curved tip is too pronounced, but despite pre-assempbly appearances, they are the right length and chord.  However, the port side protrusion that mounts the tail rotor is too long.  After scaling it against some photos, I removed nearly 3mm from it (a scale 21cm!).

The tail surfaces and fins fitted well - the conversion instructions would have you replace these with plastic card, but I suspect this is one of the changes between the conversion and full kit - those supplied look perfectly good to me.  Unfortunately, once the undercarriage was fitted, it became very clear that the tail section has a slight twist, leaving the horizontal surface clearly not horizontal.  I removed the parts, sanded the joint and reattached it with a slight tilt to give a better visual look to the tail boom.

For the main paint scheme I used Humbrol 127 and 164, with an acrylic (W&N) matt varnish finish. Air-Graphics do a decal set that includes Navy & Army Wildcats, sadly not currently in stock, but I found one on e-bay.  This was a little disappointing as it only includes the main markings, not (as I had hoped) things like the walkways for the cabin roof and sponsons and the white stencils/danger markings on the fuselage that are different from the Lynx.  These were fudged up where feasible from some modified Lynx decals and hand painting.

To sum up this kit, it is highly challenging with some disappointing flaws, but ultimately a quite satisfying build if you manage to complete it!  Whilst not cheap, for a resin kit like this its price is about what I expected and the finely moulded resin and 3D parts are done very well.  However, it has significant assembly challenges plus I believe, some shape and detail flaws, so don't expect it to build "out the box".  If you are a real perfectionist, you may become extremely frustrated trying to correct things.  I was pretty frustrated too, but as is my modelling want, I persevered and only tried to correct major issues and assembly snurglies.  

Most of the joints needed filling and unfortunately most are also in positions that are awkward to tidy up afterwards - not a criticism of the kit, as it is a strangely shaped helicopter after all!  The twisted, misaligned nose and the blade paddles are the most difficult issues to fix and whilst it is perfectly possible to do so, it will require some work, some skill and some improvisation to get an acceptable model out of it. Clear parts are good, not perfect, but they fit OK and their slightly distorted clearness doesn't detract from the finished kit. Interior detail is good.

Although my frustration levels grew with each new step  (not least as it is a resin kit assembled with my pet hate - CA glue!) and I cursed it at many points during the build, I am relatively pleased with the end result - but can only recommended it to those with experience, patience and an overwhelming desire to have a Wildcat kit!

Something easier next I think…………

Above - for comparison, an Army AH.1 Wildcat (at Fairford)

Above - Two Royal Navy Wildcats fire decoy flares during the Yeovilton Air Show

Below - a selection of HMA.2 Wildcats at Yeovilton

Picture - Kirsten Tulloch  - An RN Lynx in Cyprus