Kit: No. 710
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Roden, from Squadron Mail Order, 972-242-8663, www.squadron.com
Price: $9.99
Comments: Injection-molded, 123 parts, decals for six vehicles.
Pros: Excellent detail
Cons: Fragile small parts, sink marks in tires, poor fit of the cab roof

The Opel Blitz was the workhorse of the logistics side of the German Army. Roden’s new kit features two different cargo beds, a detailed engine, a cab interior, and an optional canvas top. A sheet of thin clear plastic is provided for the windows. The decal sheet features markings for six divisions.

Despite the small parts, building the chassis was straightforward. The instructions call for silver for all the engine parts, but I think gray was more likely. I painted the radiator hoses black/gray and the engine block engine gray. Large sink marks in the tires were filled with repeated applications of Mr. Surfacer.

Next, I built the cargo bed of the truck and installed it on the chassis. Fitting the canvas top posed no problems.

Building the bodywork in stages brought to light a fit problem between the cab assembly and roof. The noticeable gaps were between the hood/cab roof and door/fender side panels. I filled the gaps with white glue. Roden printed the outlines of all the windows on a clear sheet of photo film, and it was simply a matter of cutting along the lines.

I chose the Panzer-gray war paint scheme, worn by the SS Panzer Division LAH, Russia in 1943. Because many nooks and crannies would have been hard to reach, I painted the subassemblies and parts before assembly. I painted the model with enamels, then applied the temporary winter camouflage with Tamiya snow weathering pastel and added a bit of Tamiya mud pastel. I took the precaution of applying a coat of Microscale Liquid Decal Film to avoid having the decal shatter when soaked. The kit decals were well-printed and went down nicely on a gloss overcoat of Future.

My main reference was German Military Vehicles by David Doyle. It has photos of this vehicle, along with a bit of background text.

The finished model measures to scale, and I spent nine hours finishing it. It’s a useful addition to “small scale” military vehicle collections.

– Tom Foti