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Opel Blitz 3t 4x2 Cargo Trucks


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Hello modeling friends. 

I think its more than 30 years ago I build an Opel Blitz and it was also my last.

The fit of the Italeri kit was so bad, I never bought an Opel Blitz again. 

So after many many years a Dragon kit caught my eye. I bought it for my stash, it wasn't cheap and I don't see them that much, so lucky me. Quick peep in the box made me a very happy guy (the details - oh my god). 

Two months ago Hannants Special Offerings shows the Cyber Hobby Opel Blitz kit are on sale. It is in fact the same kit, except the Dragon has more options inside the box. More about that later. I took the advantage and bought two kits for the prize of one Dragon. Another great shot for my stash.

Box Art Dragon & Cyber Hobby

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Box Art may differ a lot, inside the boxes Dragon gives some options to choose from. 6 hole rims vs 8 hole rims and the low & high side boards for the cargo bed. Cyber Hobby offers only low side boards and 6 hole rims, which are in fact commercial / civilian type rims. The 8 hole rims Opel Blitz are special builds for the Wehrmacht.

Why building 2 trucks at the same time? I want them to look the same, same colors and weathering, same theater and company to serve for. 

The cargo beds are interesting because of the outstanding details and I want the sides in open position for loading / unloading. 

After I finished the AA campaign last week, I started with the 2cm 38 Flak from the Dragon kit, just for fun, sort of 'after party'. A very nice a detailed gun, but I don't want the gun in the back of a truck. Together with the platform it will be on display in my vitrine, waiting for its destiny.

Then I opened Britmodeler to look for news,  builds,  my favorite build logs and I saw someone building the Tamiya Opel Blitz kit with a nice tittle for a build log: "Workhorse of the Reich - The Opel Blitz". Following along and having some conversation about the kit, I had to start my own kits.

Steve came up with a nice suggestion, start a build log, just for comparison and link that into my build log, should be fun.

Well I agreed so here it is Steve aka Big X - A build log for comparison.

A lot of work has been done already, it has some primer a the chassis has a base color sprayed on.  

More to come very soon I need to organize some photos and pick up a story line. 

 

Robert Jan 

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2 minutes ago, Mancunian airman said:

I dont see any Link???

...it was a link in my own WIP - to this WIP - so I could find it and follow.

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So here we go with the double build.

The manuals let you start with the tires. Dragon with its option for 6 or 8 hole rims, Cyber Hobby only the 6 hole rims.

For the Dragon kit, the 8 hole rims go with gun option, which in fact was a special cross country build for the Wehrmacht. All the other options with the Dragon kit  are civilian trucks occupied from Opel production lines. Later on when the complaints came about broken rims, all 3t Opel Blitz got the 8 hole rims, which were much better / stronger and suitable for cross country.

Wheels glued, primed and painted. Rubber color will be done by hand.

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Also my first mistake. Don't glue the steering parts to the rims in this stage of the build. I did, not a big disaster, but its simply not clever for paining the tires. 

Anyhow, next up were the chassis of the trucks. A solid 'one piece chassis' to start with. 

Manual says to attach the engine and cooler at this point. Well I don't do that, because it needs some extra details.

Will show what I mean in another part of this blog later on.

 

So this is what I have now:

The two chassis: attached are the fuel tank, holder for Jerrycan, structure for cargo bed, hooks on both side, pintle, leaf springs and axles. 

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Both have a coat of Acrylic Primer and a base coat German Grey (Tamiya TS-4

 

Building kits in sub assemblies is favorite with me. It gives a build some pace. 

Dry fit of the cargo bed. Will make pictures from the underside of the bed tomorrow, I forgot to do this today.

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Its a real nice piece of model engineering the Dragon and Cyber Hobby kits have for you as the builder. If you can get your hands on one of these kits, buy it, buy both, just do it.

 

Low side boards completed, front is glued to bed, rest will have to wait.

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Mud guards, spare wheels and engine coolers primed. All goes very smooth so far. Chassis in base color German Grey (Tamiya TS-4)

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Engine hood, dashboard and cabin floor. The fit of parts is just great. Details are (really) outstanding. Never seen such a nice build up / engineering.

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Dashboard parts, cabin floor and engine hood, all dry fit

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That is it for today. More to follow soon. Hopefully with some color and detail painting for the cabin.

Also will start detailing the engine, which is a real nice tiny moulded piece of Art. Just needs some extra attention to make it even more special.

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan

Edited by Robert Jan Scholte v. Mast
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I took some photos from the underside of the cargo beds.

The high side board version.

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Low side board version. I'll leave the back in open position. 

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It builds like a dream. Watching some references, walk a rounds. I want a canvas for one of the trucks.

More updates later today I guess, maybe tomorrow.

 

Robert Jan 

Edited by Robert Jan Scholte v. Mast
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Some more to see how it builds up. For assembly it needs some minor sanding and drilling to make a good fit.

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Brake lines on the differential and front will give some interesting looks from the underside of the truck. Found some nice pictures for that.

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Will make a nice couple I think.

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Thats it for today. Thanks for looking and the interest shown. 

Until next time.

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan 

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Nice going Robert Jan, I'm in for the ride. I like your idea to make twins too. I love trucks of this type, did Tamiya's version as well, now working on MiniArt's GAZ-AA which is great fun. Some more 1/35 trucks like this in the stash, and two in 1/72 which I'll make as a pair like you're doing, great idea. 

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Just come across this Robert. I just picked up the Blitz with Flak off eBay for a song, so will look forward to the build blog as you get a long. See if there’s anything I should watch out for.


I also have the Tamiya Blitz in the stash, but I’m saving that for a Berlin diorama later next year.


looks good so far 👍

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Thanks for looking in. I have never in my life enjoyed kits more than these two on my bench. Engineering is from the top shelf of 1/35 modeling. With a little extra work, like detailing the engine, you might have a winner in your hands.

Enjoy your build, for sure I will take a look.

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan

 

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Morning Robert - I am following your build with great interest and noted the 'finesse' of the kit parts is to a much higher standard than the Tamiya kit.  This caught my eye...

 

INDICATOR1.jpg

 

The latching for the truck sides is very detailed - but underneath I noticed the 'extra detail'.  I wondered if it was an 'indicator' - like this one I found whilst looking at websites showing real Opels...

 

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Steve

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I myself was wondering too. They are what you show in your picture added, but it's a complete different and rather unique position. Mercedes trucks have them on the back of the cabin, but higher.  

Next question would be how to operate them? Gonna check some references, maybe I find something.

 

Thanks for pointing at this detail and the nice photo of the real thing, appreciated. 

 

Robert Jan

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  • 4 weeks later...

Progress is a little slow. Loads of other things going on.

But I made some pictures last week, just for comparison, looks of a 3 tons versus 4.5 tons truck.

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Completed the engine of the Civil chassis Opel Blitz. Battery though came out a little too big, so will be replaced with a smaller one.

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This side will get some additional wiring from the backside of the dashboard to the engine, levers, etc.

In the back you see a German 5 tons trailer, they call that Einheitsbauart 5 ton Anhänger. Mixed media, resin, wood, styrene and wire for detail.

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The kit comes from Bold Division, small company from Leipzig Germany. It has some issues, but with some scratch building it looks the part.

A WIP that is close to the finish line, will keep you updated on this one, its really nice. 

More to come when there is progress I guess.

 

Robert Jan 

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On 12/10/2019 at 10:48 AM, Robert Jan Scholte v. Mast said:

Gonna check some references, maybe I find something.

Robert Jan, Nice build. Not sure why but I do like the Blitz!

Those indicators were common up until the fifties. They were called Semaphore signals or indicators.

It's done by electricity and springs. A small solenoid is fitted inside the casing. 

I'm not sure if they would have been fitted in WW2 though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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