(A02315) Airfix 1/72 Opel Blitz with PAK 40, 75 mm Anti Tank Gun.

[John Symmons]

A change of pace from wingy things, but not for long.

This kit is quite well known on this forum as one of the recent posting in the armour section have featured builds of the Opel in various guises. I thought there was more, even one by Ratch but that seems to have vanished or I can't find it.

Here’s another one but with a slightly different emphasise. I've  build this mainly OTB. I’ve recently posted some builds featuring small dioramas, and found I had very little in the way of support vehicles, in my last post of three Me 109-E’s I used and old ECSI 1/72 Opel Blitz Ambulance that it turned into an (WIF) air-field hack. I’d recently saw and brought the Airfix Opel with the PAK 40 as I wanted the truck for future dioramas, the PAK 40 I considered a bonus.

There was the question of scales with a posting asking the differences of 1/72 and 1/76th so I thought I’d build the Airfix and see how it compared to the ESCI one. ( I also have the two Roden ones [ the normal truck and the Maultier.] but these will have to wait. Maybe this year, then I can line up all four.) I see this kit dates back to the 1980’s, but even so I was surprised at the quality oh the moulding and the general fit. Also the layout and build-ability while reminiscent of the older Airfix kits was actually a very enjoyable build. Easily suitable for beginner and experienced alike. Although not without it’s faults it is generally a very good little braille scale Opel and I think the only 4X4 in this scale.

Building up the chassis some care has to be taken to keep it square, but generally fairly straight forward. The cab was next, and here I decided to try and add glazing this has to be done before the roof is added or the cab is attracted to the chassis base or floor, the interior was added after the two cab pieces were assembled to ensure correct fitting of the seat and dash board. The wind screen and rear window were glazed with film as was the half open drivers window all other widows glazed with Kristle Klear. The wind screen touched up with Kristle. The roof fitting without and problems, the fit of the cab to the floor section being especially worthy of note, even Tamiya would have been proud. One modification I did was to drill out the towing shackle on the chassis and added a stretched sprue pin when hitching the gun, probably more trouble than it was worth as I kept loosing the pin, eventually having to make about five.

The cargo back again is fairly straight forwards but some how I managed to assemble one side upside down and had to cut it off and correct it. The inside of the cargo back does have a lot of ejector pin marks so if you’re not using the canopy there’s quite a lot of filling and sanding to do. These ejector pin marks is one thing that this kit does suffer with, many falling in the most awkward of places like inside the rear mud-guards and on various bit of the chassis, drive train and suspension, many being impossible to totally eradicate. Fortunately most are pretty well hidden especially once covered with dark grey paint, the only ones that are visible are the ones under the chassis side boxes, i left them as-is. When adding the rear mud-guards I found the rear wheels were not central, I now see I’ve assembled the mud-guards inside out, Easily done so care is needed there. I also found that when adding the back to the chassis it didn’t fit totally square but removing the two front locating pips seemed to fix it. The other problem I had was one simular to one I had on the Me 109E-7 in that the wing mirror was impossible to remove from the sprue without breaking. I just made a new one from scratch same as the width indicators. Stretched sprue is wonderful, When doing the interior I found the steering column way to long, eventually cutting it in half, and if you’re going to include a driver good luck in getting the gear shift and steering wheel to fit.

The PAK 40 is the usual Airfix fair and complements the Opel nicely. The kit is reasonably easy to assemble just the muzzle break needs drilling out, and the shield strays are not included, not that it makes that much difference. On mine I drilled out the trace's hinge, and replaced with stretched sprue to allow the traces to move easily. Then glued solid in the towing position, the lower shield should also have been modified for towing but I’d got lazy by them.

The model was lightly washed with some black oils, but very lightly as I wanted the finish to be reasonably clean. Overall a quite reasonable little kit, I’m even thinking if I see another one I might just buy it maybe make it into a recovery truck or something simular.

So how does it compare to the 1/72 ESCI. Actually very well, the wheel base is about 2 mm shorter and overall it’s about 3 mm shorter, height looks the same in cab, bonnet and rear roof line, even side by side any differences are hardly noticeable unless you actually measure one to the other. So finally I would quite happily display the Airfix Opel in a 1/72 setting and if anyone asks I;d say ones a 4X4 while the other’s a 4X2. See photos below I can’t see the difference can you?

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%201_zpsp2xulzyi.jpg

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%202_zps96mimvek.jpg

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%203_zpsr47wgi3h.jpg

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%204_zpsgnlrchdl.jpg

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%205_zpsw2is5yyn.jpg

and now togther with the ESCI Opel Blitz van.

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%206_zpstcuoxzrx.jpg

Note the half open drivers window on the airfix one.

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%207_zpsweanxktl.jpg

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%208_zpstgez37nx.jpg

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%209_zpskhcpihlr.jpg

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%2010_zpsghs2dfjn.jpg

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y451/idiotone/Aitfix%20Opel%20Blitz/Opel%20Blitz%20amp%20PAK%2040%2011_zpselor4ygt.jpg

Can you see the differece? I can't.

All comments weclome.

Remember we do this for fun                      John the Pom

 

[Rael]

Lovely little build, John. I built the same kit a few months ago but did the North Africa scheme. All the models I'm building at the moment I'm doing in North Africa colours, so far I've done the sdkfz 234, tiger, opel blitz and pak 40, sdkfz 7 and 88mm, matilda and have still got to build the german reconissance set, lee?grant and finish the panther (the fit on this is terrible). I'm building the in tribute to my late grandfather (opa) who served in North Africa in WW2 and was taken prisoner in Tobruk, he spent the rest of the war down a Czechslovakian coal mine. I couldn't agree with you more about what a great kit this is.

Happy building!

Rael

[nmcabecadas]

The are nice little models, and very useful for many purposes. I build both Opel Blitz, from Airfix and Esci, but don't have any with me. AFAIK, they seems to represent different models, the light 2x2 2.5L and heavier the 4x4 3.6L.

[John Symmons]

Hi Nmcadacadas

Yes you're right the two kits do represent different models the Airfix being the 4X4, that,s why I thought of doing another Airfix as a light recovery vehicle. Maybe next time I'll get the rear fenders correct. Roden do quite a range of Opel Blitz's the basic 3.6 truck in 2X2 drive with a choice of two wooden backs, a Maultier, a tanker and several busses including a command one which looks very interesting, and rocket launchers. Unfortunately they're a bit more pricey than Airfix which I find still great value even if you consider the gun as a bonus, and you get some figures.

Remember we do this for fun.           John the Pom

[nmcabecadas]

Plastic Soldier Company have a interesting set with 3 german trucks and parts to build them as Opel Blitz, Maultier and Mercedes L 3000. They are "easy build" models, but I like the qualitty and include two figures each.

[ntrocket88]

Nice work.

The Airfix Blitz scales out pretty accurately to 1/76. General consensus on the interweb has the Esci kit as an inaccurate mix of scales, but generally too small for 1/72, closer to 1/76. There is a good comparison of the size difference between the Pegasus, ESCI/Italeri and Airfix Blitz here http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.com/2010/01/opel-blitz-comparison.html?view=mosaic#!/2010/01/opel-blitz-comparison.html The Airfix Blitz is dramatically smaller than the 1/72 Pegasus version and the Esci is in between.

One thing I would recommend is removing the large stowage boxes from under the Airfix Blitz, as it seems to have been a post-war modification that Airfix copied in error...