Tamiya Plastic Model Co.
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After WW1 the German Army wished to mechanize its infantry but due to restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles Germany was limited in the number of military vehicles. The Opel Blitz was a commercial 3ton truck adapted to this use. From 1935 on over 80,000 of these trucks were produced by Germany up until the end of WW2, that's more than every tank and SP gun combined! They were used on every front from the Spanish Civil War right up to the final days of WW2 and after the war in military and commercial service in many countries. Softskins are not as popular with the masses as kits of armoured vehicles are, so any new softskin vehicle kit is reason to rejoice. Although a few people complained about the particular subject that Tamiya chose for this new kit, wanting some other similar German truck instead, Tamiya still should be commended for bringing out a "modern" new tooled kit of this important WW2 truck. Now at least Tamiya has the moulds available to build on, so perhaps they will bring out another truck. While Tamiya have named this kit a "German 3tom 4×2 Cargo Truck, no doubt to avoid any royalty issues with Opel (now a subsidiary of General Motors), it is undoubtedly the ubiquitous "Opel Blitz" truck. The Kit Tamiya sort of surprised us with the announcement of this kit, considering that Italeri have had a fairly decent kit of this subject available since the mid '70s. Unfortunately I do not have the Italeri kit so I can't compare the two kits. Tamiya have pointed out that their kit has a "realistically replicated suspension with forward included chassis layout", which I assume means the completed model sits with a forward tilt, and I assume the Italeri kit does not. However, I wonder how the truck sits when fully loaded? In any case this is a "modern" rendition of the subject and should be welcomed. Moulding is to Tamiya's usual high standard, which I believe is the best available. The styrene is a dark-medium grey, there is no flash, warped parts or short shots. There are a few ejector pin marks that need filling on the inside of the cab, such as those on the insides of the doors. The truck parts are arrayed on four sprues, two of which are duplicated, one clear styrene sprue, and two duplicate sprues of fuel barrels and jerrycans are included. The instructions are printed on a ten page foldout sheet, there is no sprue layout plan, which is something I wish Tamiya would start including with their instruction sheets.
Chassis The chassis consists of a large frame with integrally moulded cross braces. The frame on the real Blitz was actually made up of "U" shaped beams, the kit has them as solid. The open side of the "U" face inwards on the real frame so the solid parts won't be visible on the finished model. From what I can tell all the main chassis parts are there, compared to my photographs at least. A few small details will need to be added like the brake lines and rods. These are even visible on the box art! They can be made from thin solder and the rods from brass rod. The front wheel assembly is steer-able when assembled, which is always a bonus in kits... nothing is as boring as a perfectly straight set of front wheels. The tyres are Tamiya "German WW2 Tyres" that they seem to have used on every WW2 German softskin and armoured car since their original Sd.Kfz.222/223 and Horch all the way up to their Steyr. The pattern is good but lacks the "groove" around the centre, this could be added by putting the wheel in a motor tool and scribing into the tyre. The "sit" of the truck is supposed to be correct in that there is a forward incline when assembled. I assume that this is for an unloaded truck. Considering that the truck could hold 3tonnes of stores in the back then it is safe to assume that the incline will disappear. So for a loaded truck the rear springs should be compressed some. Bonnet and Front Starting at the front the bumper, fenders, running boards and cab floor are moulded as one piece. The fenders are well done and look thin on the edges. Normally I thin fenders out on softskins but there are good enough for me. A few small details need to be such as the power cable for the Notek light. A lot of these small details will become evident when reference photographs are examined. The front grill is quite well done and one will be able to see inside the engine compartment when assembled, so it is probably a good idea to add some semblance of a radiator just behind the grill. As has been endlessly mentioned before the "Open Blitz" logo is not depicted on the kit, rather a flat "Z"-shaped plate is given. No doubt an after-market photo-etched part will become available soon. I thought it would be easy to just make one from Archer Transfers' "Surface Details". The "sample" sheet contains small letters and numbers suitable for this. However... the actual plaque featured indented letters, not raised... maybe no one will notice. Why didn't Tamiya include the "Opel Blitz" logo? probably licensing issues. Cab The cab interior is not bad, it does contain all the parts that should be there with a couple of exceptions. Compared to my photographs of a collector's vehicle. The two strengthening braces on the cab ceiling are there but are way too thin they should be at least 3mm deep. Also missing is the power cable for the convoy light (that triangular thing on the roof). The door have interior detail too, although there are some ejector pin marks that need filling. The inner handles could be cut off and replaced with more 3D appearing items. The floor has a nice wood grain effect and the seats are subtly creased. The steering wheel, gear shift, gas, brake and clutch are all there and appear correct. There are two finely moulded windshield wipers on the outside of the cab, these are quite impressive actually. There should be small motors are cables for these on the inside of the cab however. The dashboard is a little "old school" in that the dials are just featureless discs. They could be greatly improved by using the German Instrument Faces from Archer (#AR35214). Included are a set of masks from the clear parts, both inside and out. These are simply printed on an adhesive backed paper that are supposed to be cut out by the modeller. This is annoying, pre-cut masks would be more useful for the beginner modeller. As is the clear parts are a little on the thick side, especially door window. I would sand down and then polish these to get a more in scale appearance. Also included are the glass parts for the head lamps. Cargo Bed There were several types of beds on these trucks, Tamiya have depicted the more common low-walled type. Others had a "fence" running along the top, some were higher and some trucks had no walls. The tailgate could be lowered although this is not mentioned in the instructions. The wood grain detail is good, not too heavy. Some photographs, particularly those of DAK trucks, show that the wood deteriorated and the grain became quite visible. The big attraction of this kit would be what the modeller could place in the back. I have seen photographs of the 3.7cm Flak on these trucks as well as the 2.0cm. One could have a lot of fun constructing a wooden rack for jerrycans to make a fuel truck, these are shown in ref.1. Some trucks were used as troop carriers and had wooden benches along the sides. I'm sure the after-market crowd will start to offer simple conversions in the near future. Details Included are six 200L fuel barrels and parts for 16 complete 5L jerrycans. These are from Tamiya's German Fuel Drum set (#35186), which I believe is close to 20 years old now. They are not bad. The drums match photographs of similar drums shown in war time photographs. The jerrycans are good but lack the inner seam that ran around the can between the two halves. They can be added by slightly sanding the inner face on each half and then adding a piece of 0.005 styrene stock between them. I am not totally sure but I don't know if this exact design of jerrycan was available in the early part of the war. The type with the "X" on the face is the design that I have seen, however this design is common on DAK vehicles. An early type jack is included, this is a first for Tamiya I think (it will no doubt be included in their upcoming Pz.2 C kit). It is a rather nice 3-piece assembly. A shovel, pick are included too. They have integrally moulded mounting straps, which can be cleaned off and new, more accurate, mounts made from thin strip stock. There is a single jerrycan and frame mount under the bed, the can is the same as the accessory spares and the frame is actually quite nice. Two figures are included... sort of. They are actually the same legs and torso but with different arms and head. They are wearing the early war European uniform so will not be suitable for the DAK marking option. They are adequate figures for an interior but certainly not up to the standards available today from Tristar or Dragon's "Gen-2" type figures. Markings and Decals Considering that some 80,000 of these truck where built there are obviously a lot of finishing schemes... everything is possible from dark grey to DAK schemes to dark yellow/dark green/red brown to winter white wash. Tamiya do provide four early war marking schemes. Three are the typical overall dark grey and one is a Luftwaffe truck assigned to the DAK. This one is over all "dark yellow", however this should be overall desert yellow (a DAK colour) with grey/green secondary disruptive patches, although overall desert yellow is also common. The kit figures would not be correct for this scheme as the Luftwaffe tropical uniform was different from the European uniform as depicted on the kit figures. The decals are typical Tamiya water-slide. They are well printed, opaque and on register. I have used Solvaset on Tamiya decals in the past with really good results, I did apply them over a gloss painted surface and coated with flat finish afterwards. Tamiya decals are a little thicker that Cartograf for example so I trim the carrier film from the decals to avoid that embarrassing ridge around the markings.
Conclusions Overall this is a good solid effort, it's well moulded with only a few ejector pin marks to be filled on the inside of the cab. The detail is good and accuracy appears good when compared to my reference photographs. I think beginner modellers will enjoy building this from the box and have fun filling the cargo area. More experienced modellers will appreciate the challenges of super-detailing the kit, most of which can be done with sheet styrene strips and spare photo-etched parts. Of course there will be the inevitable dedicated upgrades available soon. The kit will also serve as a base for some quick and easy conversions, such as mounting the upcoming Flak 38 early from Tristar for example. References I am not "up" on what books are available specifically for this truck, but I have a several books with a few photographs of the Blitz. The Panzer Colours series and the books from Concord are good examples. A really good resource is to search for "Opel Blitz" on-line. Doing so I found several excellent collections of photographs of rebuilt collectors' trucks. One must be cautious of these however as they often have non-standard modifications.
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