Global Scale Modeller

OK, way back in 2020 (a quiet year with nothing much happening right?) I started out on this 1/72 supply dump project and whilst rummaging through the stash over the weekend I tripped over some of the kits I'd pulled together for it and decided to revisit the Opel Blitz.

Now, the first blitz is already done and is an Italeri rebox of an ancient ESCI kit from 1974 which left a bit to be desired; so although I'd got a second one in the stash I'd been on the lookout from time to time for a more up to date example.

And as a result I recently found this one from Attack Models (nope I'd never heard of them either) which Scalemates has down as a 2019 new tool so I decided to have a look...

Here's the shiny box


The sprues


And the instructions




At first glance, things looked promising - there were replacement resin wheels, some PE to lose and moulded clear window parts (instead of Italeri's acetate sheet & cutout stencils)

So... one of the problems I had with the old kit was getting a driver figure to fit; as you can see here the driver sits nicely on the seat/bench in the Attack kit whereas I'd already started to hack at the much higher seat in the older kit...


So far so good, the fit of most parts was mostly butt-joints with little or no guidance - like a limited run kit. The cab sections were put together and filled with sprue goo along the joins... it's ok... not great but ok... and will need a little more tidying


Now, the other problem I had with the old blitz was that the cargo I had didn't quite fit so I was hoping that the new one would solve that problem...aaaahhh... it turns out that genius here hadn't spotted that the new kit was for the 1.5Tonne blitz and the old kit was the 3T so it was... umm a different size which became apparent when I started to fit out the load bed...


And a quick check on the chassis confirmed my stupity


I did consider kit-bashing the two together but decided that was just going to get really messy... so I cracked on with building both kits and this is as far as I got...


So... what started off with an intent to get started on a 1/16 StuG this weekend ended up farting about with a couple of 1/72 Opel Blitz instead... how the hell did that happen

I'll press on with these and try and knock them both into some kind of shape

Thanks for looking

Getting side tracked ( in a good way ) is a part of the genetics for a modeller.
Well it looks as the dio is going to be a little more filled out with eye candy.
Looking interesting

digger303 wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 10:37 am Getting side tracked ( in a good way ) is a part of the genetics for a modeller.
Well it looks as the dio is going to be a little more filled out with eye candy.
Looking interesting

Thanks mate - and yep getting distracted is definitely one of my foibles...

Taking some time away from the giant stug I dabbled a bit more with my braille scale Opel Blitz as I'd like to get them finished fairly soon...

So to that end here's the bodging I did to the seat of the Italeri one after cutting down the kit bench


I also modified the steering wheel to attach it to a length of thin styrene rod which was then drilled into the floor of the cab rather than trying to fix it to the dashboard... and I picked a different driver as well


It will all go together with a little more fettling and some final tidying up


Down the back I savaged the fuel load with some sand-paper and then where I'd knackered the edges to get it to fit I resorted to my usual get out with a strategically placed "tarpaulin" made from PVA-soaked tissue


Ok over to the Attack kit and a similar story... I did have to shave the front bulkhead & reposition the dash


But again it all fits together with a little fettling - and still a bit more tidying to do




Well sort of... we still need wheels & stuff


The Attack kit has the Italeri fuel cans in the cargo bed & they're bloody awful so we'll be loading up with supplies from other sources.

So that's where I've got to - hopefully not too far off starting to paint now

Thanks as always for looking

Ooo Convoy reference
Bonus points for sure

The old ESCi kit ... i made 2 of them, cargo and ambulance, and they were really hard to finish (but not to improve! ).

Good work and the resin figurines and load are really cool!

Had almost forgotten about this project.
Keep up the good work.

Twokidsnosleep wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 6:09 pm Ooo Convoy reference
Bonus points for sure

Thanks for dropping in mate - I'll see if I can find me some more convoy memes

ForeverPlasticKits wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 10:43 pm The old ESCi kit ... i made 2 of them, cargo and ambulance, and they were really hard to finish (but not to improve! ).

Good work and the resin figurines and load are really cool!

Thanks for checking in... yeah it looks like that old ESCI mould is the root of most 1/72 Blitz kits... the Academy one leads back there too

digger303 wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:00 am Had almost forgotten about this project.
Keep up the good work.

Thanks mate - me too - then I saw the pile when I was stash-diving for something & thought it was time for a ressurection

Ok - I decided I wanted to get these two trucks finished before cracking on further with the giant Stug so it was a couple of days of weekend eyestrain for me

I added some camo to both trucks and then made a start on brush painting the fuel load on the bigger one


And a bit later I had a pile of stripey bits - I also started working on the cab interiors


Here's how they look dry-fitted by the end of day one...


Realising something might be a bit missing... I started work on the wheels on day two; here's the big truck with everything installed... err except for the spare wheel which I forgot to install before CAing the cargo bed in place


And the little truck - I needed to apply some retrospective surgery to the suspension on this one as the wheels weren't level at the first attempt


With the cabs dry-fitted again they're looking more convoyish now


So that leaves the drivers & cabs to finish off & install windows, and I've got some crates from the command post kit that I'm painting up to add to the small truck.

Thanks for looking

Nice result and your paint even if it's the same colors is very nice with different outlines.

They look great! Nice progress too.

looking good.

ForeverPlasticKits wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:04 pm Nice result and your paint even if it's the same colors is very nice with different outlines.

BigWall wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:56 am They look great! Nice progress too.

digger303 wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 11:58 am looking good.

Thanks chaps

Still pottering along with these two from time to time...

First up for this one I dug out some assorted crates & supplies for the small truck and cluttered up the load bay


Driver was painted up & installed


Clear plastic windows were fitted with a LOT of sanding down to fit


And everything stuck together


Same sort of process for the big truck - here's the installed driver


There were no clear parts in this kit & the sheet of acetate supplied with the kit is long gone so I cut the windows to fit from acetate sheets I have in stock; then glued the two parts of the cab together... as you can see from the photo this wasn't entirely without issue...


But here it is after some clean up & repainting and of course knocking off one of the tow hooks (recovered from the carper monster)


And installed on the truck


I'll do some panel lining & maybe a quick wash & matte coat and then we're done with these for now.

Thanks for looking

Your very nice pictures highlight your builds, i like them so much!

ForeverPlasticKits wrote: Fri Feb 10, 2023 8:03 pm Your very nice pictures highlight your builds, i like them so much!

digger303 wrote: Fri Feb 10, 2023 11:45 pm

Thanks chaps!

Ok I think I've got these two as far along as I want them for the moment,

But first a confession... in the last post I said this...

Tomcat64 wrote: Fri Feb 10, 2023 2:49 pm There were no clear parts in this kit & the sheet of acetate supplied with the kit is long gone...

Turns out this was a bit of a fib as the acetate sheet for the kit was in the same bag as the decals...

Anyways - decals were added, panel lines were accented, everything was given a dosing of AK UltraMatte and the pioneer tools were added...


And the same for the smaller truck


Here they are side by side


And with the one from 2020 - which has faded a bit despite not being in direct sunlight






That'll do for now & I'll weather them up when/if I get to the final diorama stage... for now they're consigned to a shelf and I'll switch back to the 1/16 StuG


Thanks as always for looking - hopefully there'll be another vehicle along soon

Lovely builds that are building into something bigger and maybe telling a story.

I'm looking forward to both the small and larger stories. I still remember over five decades ago building the small scale Airfix armor kits and having a war with them in my back yard. With that thought, I bet your having fun with the small scale supply dump. I think in that scale, the potential is endless and I'm excited to see where it goes.

Something about that "big" scale (1/16 or 1/18) that makes it really fun too. Not sure if it's the size itself or the details that can be brought to the next level or even functional. Any way you look at it, the big scale stuff really makes an impression.

I'll be watching both builds.....

Nice progress! I like the last picture. It really shows the difference in scales