Trucks were an imporatant part of the mechanised style of war that came about in World War Two, they were the key to getting supplies to the fast moving fronts where horses and carts just couldn’t keep up. But when it comes to making models they are nowhere near as exciting to build as a tank or an SPG so there just aren’t that many of them available in kit form. This one from Italeri is an older kit that has recently been supperceeded by a more recent offering by Tamiya.
This kit comes in a tray and lid style box and is an older one of Italeri’s kits. This particular kit is the newer production one which is cleaned up a little but is still the same kit as the older one which includes “3(t) Type S” in the kit title and different artwork on the box lid. You get two large sprues which in true Italeri fashion come loose in the box with no bags which probably keeps the price down but I do find frequently it results in loose and/or broken parts.Also included are eight vinyl tyres moulded in black and a small sheet of decals.
The moulding quality overall is good, with detail that is sharp, though there is of course the usual mould lines that will need to be removed. The plastic used is also quite a hard and brittle type so care needs to be taken when removing parts so as not to cause any cracks or splits. The instructions are clear and easy to follow for the most part, and whilst they could be improved upon the kit is a fairly simple one so it’s hard to go wrong.
The chassis is fairly simple, with the frame moulded as a single piece. To this is added a reasonably good representation of the engine and transmission, drive shafts, differentials, springs etc. There is a lot of the smaller detail missing like bolt heads on the transmission and differential, brake lines, fuel lines etc, but other than that the detailing of the underside is quite good and includes the spare wheel, gas tank, exhaust, battery box and steering assembly.
The wheels are the late style with eight lightening holes in each front wheel ( wheels pre-war had six ), with the tyres moulded as one piece each in vinyl which to be honest I’ve never liked as they are hard to clean the mould seam off and hard to paint. The wheels are also missing proper brake drums so this is one area where I do think a good set of resin wheels is a bonus as you overcome the drawbacks of vinyls tyres and get proper looking brakedrums at the same time.
The cab comes with a very basic interior and this is probably one of the kit’s major failings. The pedals in the footwell and the internal door detail are all moulded on with no real definition. If you use the two included figures this becomes lessof a problem as they obscure much of these areas but without them the inner door details in particular are quite apparent. Luckily the real vehicle is rather simple so these are easy areas to detail yourself. The floor of the cab does include decent enough looking treadplate detail but the cab does not come with separate doors so a little surgery is required if you want to model the doors open. The dash is quite good though rather plain and simple, and no decals are provided for the dials, though again the real vehicle dash is also somewhat plain looking.
The external side of the cab is sharply moulded though rather simple with no option to open the hoods, and the side panels are not separate parts. The radiator grille is moulded as part of the bumper and is tapered in a little too much at each side. This is a minor accuracy issue but if it bothers you it’s vey easy to correct. The headlights have the option of blackout covers or clear parts which are a bit heavy, as are the clear parts for the windows and windscreen, with the windscreen also having moulded on wipers. The tool mounts and mirror however are delicately made pieces, though they do require a little cleanup of excessive mould flashing.
The rear cargo bed is also very simple being just the sides, ends, floor and three bench seats. There is no option to position the tailgate or sides in the folded down position though theywould be very easy to modify if you wanted to have them down. There is no woodgrain detail, though as these parts were usually painted it isn’t really necessary as it wouldn’t be seen on the actual vehicle anyway. Again areas like the hinges and latches are over simplified and could do with better detailing but they’re better than some I’ve seen and are passable for a simple OOB build and easy enough to replace with scratchbuilt ones for a more detailed build. There is also the option of a deployed canvas tilt which is actually quite a good looking one. If the tilt isn’t used there is the option of four tilt bows moulded as a single piece in the stowed position with an optional rolled tilt. If however you wanted to add the bows in position with an open tilt or a partial one then you’d need to make your own.
The figures like most of Italeri’s attempts at figures are best not considered as anything more than rubbish bin filler. In this case they are massively undersized, stiff and unanimated, and completely dull in the detail department. If you’re going for the manequin in a truck look they’ll be fine, but if you’re going for the real people look, look elsewhere.
Decals are included for four different vehicles though no identification is given for any of the unit markings.
Italeri, now working with Tamiya, have begun re-releasing their older kits with cleaned up mouldings and better plastic so hopefully this one will get the same treatment as it’s only real downside is the quality of the moulds, which could use a general sharpening up all over, and the lack of the smaller details. However as it is this is still a good little kit that makes up into a very presenatable little model of a vehicle that was seen everywhere throughout the Second World War. Tamiya’s kit is without a question the better of the two Opel kits available in 1/35 though the Italeri offering is usually a lot cheaper ( often as much as half the price of the Tamiya kit here in NZ ). It will benefit greatly from some good basic modelling skills to add the missing details so you can still arrive at a very good end result without having to throw great wads of cash at AM bits for it.
Click on the images to enlarge ( opens in new window )
Also check out the Opel Blitz Walkaround HERE
.
Essentially the Opel Blitz with the rear wheels replaced with tracks to handle the muddy conditions in Russia. Italeri’s offering therefore is basically their Opel Blitz with an added sprue to build the tracked rear. As such much of the above also applies here.
Again a variation on the basic Opel Blitz, this version replaces the cargo bed with a fuel tanker body used for refueling aircraft.
Basic Italeri Opel Blitz as above with a new wooden cab and a coal burner added to the front of the truck hooked up to the engine ( still the gas engine of the Opel ).
You guessed it, another variation based on the basic Opel Blitz platform, this time a housebody in place of the cargo bed to turn it into a field radio truck. It comes with no interior and it really cries out for one. Verlinden make a resin set for it and Eduard make a PE set for it. Although these fit it out nicely it actually looks better if you use the housebody as a guide to scratchbuild your own out of wood. Now out of production so might be hard to find.
A big improvement over the Italeri kit in terms of the level of detail and cleaness of the moulds. The main difference between the two visually is the Tamiya version having the low sided cargo bed to the Italeri’s high sides. The Tamiya version also has the twin spring suspension of a post ’42 model but again comes with the 6-hole wheels of the earlier model.
This is a hard one to find as it’s out of production but it is the Italeri Coal Engine Opel Blitz reboxed and without the coal engine parts ( Revell also did the coal engine version but it’s even rarer ).
The major drawback to this kit is that all Italeri did was take their Opel Blitz and put a new cab on it and call it an L3000. As the Opel Blitz was built under licence as the L-701 it’s conceivable that there were simlarities but there are enough small differences that Italeri completely missed. So the running gear, chassis, engine etc are all wrong though they are passable. If you can live with that then everything that applies to the Italeri Opel Blitz applies here with the exception that you no longer get the two crew members.
A newer kit and a very nice one at that.
As above but with the tracked rear drive in place of wheels.
A new kit only just hitting the shelves but initial reports are that this is a very nice kit that could use a little improvement on some of the fine detailing.
Cargo version of the above having a metal tray with wood inside. Again there’s not a lot of info available on this kit just yet but it’s out there and it looks promising.