Evening Rocketeers,
I know you all have been waiting with baited breath for an update. Ok, this is an update so to speak, but as far as big progress it ain't!!! You know I have been scratching a 4WD version of the Opel Blitz 3ton truck for my T-Stoff tanker. There is a story behind this and it began in the first days of May. I saw a kit in evilbay that would allow me to do the conversion in resin and not use the Plus Model resin kit. It was from ADV Azimut (my favorite) and looked like this,
It uses the basic Italeri kit as a base and includes resin and white metal parts. I wanted it very badly, but I was out bid by €12. It sold with postage, for €54 to the door and too rich for my blood (and my beer money)…..
Ok, I then got this wild hair up my butt and said "hey, I'll just scratch the 4WD stuff myself and call it a day". I then won the Mercedes 3000 4WD conversion from Plus Model, but it was exactly the opposite of what I needed for the Opel. (Are we asleep yet!!!!!!!!!) I modified and scratched up my version and now we will bring Murphy's Law into play. A bit after my last update on the Opel, I found another one of these kits in evilbay and the whole day, it sat at €8,50. I said to myself, "Is it worth it to be over bid again?", as the kit is in demand, but this one was missing a couple of parts. It was missing the cab and the Kofferaufbau roof. Now these two pieces were not really a big deal to me as I wanted the hood/fenders and all the 4WD
crap fine quality parts and with a bonus of the late style wheels….
Just before the auction ran out, this puppy was still at the same price. I threw a bid of €26,79 down at the last few seconds and............BAM. I won the thing for €10,50 + €5 postage, a total of €15,50. I needed a beer immediately!!!!!!!!!!! I got the kit today and when I got home from work, I started cleaning some of the parts up. It's an old kit and it is in really good shape, well detailed and nicely molded,
It has white metal springs, drive shafts and the steering mechanism. I also got a sheet of white plastic and one of clear plastic for the Kofferaufbau windows. Next, I opened up the Kofferaufbau parts to check them out,
The iPad color focus was flipping out, but all the parts look good although there is a few that are warped a bit. Don't need these anyway for the T-Stoff Tankwagen. I then took a gander at the destructions and low and behold, worse than a Dragon kit!!!! Exploded drawings and then something struck me kinda funny,
You have to hack up the cab from the Italeri kit as well as the frame to build this. Huh!!!!!!!!!!!
If you look closer, the cab is made up of the
Pieces Italeri as denoted with the
*…….DOH!!! The cab isn't missing at all. Moving along, we now look at the assembly of the Kofferaufbau,
Now you know that the white plastic card is for the roof!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is no mention of the clear plastic sheet anywhere, but who cares. Kiss my Grits, I have a 100% compete kit in the box and for a heck of a savings too. Sometimes Murphy's Law happens and we get lucky. Yea, I tore up some Blitz parts to make my conversion, but now I can move forward with a big
eating grin on my face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With some luck, I will take and post a few side by side photos of my conversion and the Azimut kit conversion tomorrow. I do have a long drive and I hope to get home at a reasonable hour. Sorry for the boring update, but I think this only happens every once in a while and this time I got lucky.................
Thanks for staying awake and looking in. Have a great week too!!!
Prost
Allen