FRAG: German Opel Blitz 1.5 Ton Truck
Thought you gentlemen would like to see the latest German Truck in FRAG’s motor pool. It’s a 1.5 ton Opel Blitz Lorry (as the Brits would say) or LKW to our Deutsche tankers. This makes a total of 7 German transports for our battlefield (5 are 1/16[SUP]th[/SUP] scale and 2 are the 1/18[SUP]th[/SUP] Indiana Jones versions)
This one started out as a yellow 1940 Ford stake bed 1/16[SUP]th[/SUP] scale, die cast truck by Highway 61. I did away with the stake sides, the headlights, front bumper and ground off a lot of the engine hood area. Then an Opel Blitz radiator, hood sides and front bumper were cast in resin (from molds made from the last Opel truck I built), and all was glued in place.
Lots of holes were filled with putty and a small deck plate was fabricated from brass to hold the gas cans I wanted to add on one side. A tool box was added to the other side.
I also cast new headlights, a Notek lamp and the gadget on the cab rooftop..........any one know what it is called?
Rear fenders were needed for this model so I cut a small section of 2x4 to replicate the shape. The bottom portion was ground off to create the rounded shape. Over the bottom form was laid short pieces of fiberglass cloth which had been soaked in water….I used 3 layers. This material comes in a 2” wide roll for wrapping broken bones in a cast. Then the top of the mold is set in place and weighted down. The fiberglass edges are forced down over the rounded sides and held in place. Curing takes about 10 mins. To this I added layers of green putting and sanded till smooth. Then they were cut and fit over the rear wheels and glued in place.
The most time was spent scratch building a new truck bed from bass wood and brass bar strips for the new stakes and canvass stringers overhead. I ran brass pins thru the wood planks and soldered strips over the pins on the inside to hold them firmly. Hinges, bolt head castings and step irons were added to the rear gate, and small pins on chains were fabricated for locks at the corners.
Subassemblies were painted gray and then everything was assembled, decals were added, all was coated with weathering chalks and then a final spray of Model Master’s dirt was applied along the sides, front and rear. Although it is not totally correct, it is a close replica and makes a nice addition to our truck stable. These last couple pics show it with one of the Open Blitz 3 ton trucks. My only regret is that none of these are RC’d.
Happy New Year to you all. PP
Last edited by Panzerpaul; 12-31-2014 at 04:31 PM.