Tamiya 1/48 Opel Blitz Kfz.305 3 ton 4x2 Cargo Truck Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

By the mid-1930s, General Motors owned the Opel automotive factories in Germany and had helped them to grow into a major production company. One of their designs was a 4x2 cargo truck that would become the workhorse of Germany, the Opel Blitz. Its first baptism of fire came not on a battlefield, but rather from a dam construction project in the mid-1930s that distinquished the Blitz for its reliability, ease of maintenance, and durability. By the time the Wehrmacht began tooling up for war, the obvious choice for cargo truck duties was the Blitz.

By war's end, over 100,000 of these trucks were produced, designated as the Kfz.305. This particular series was a 4x2 with a cargo capacity of three tons. The type was so versatile that the cargo bed was replaced by a variety of box shells and containers to adapt the vehicle into an ambulance, mobile repair shop, fuel truck, communications vehicle, and more.

Even after the war, the truck was so useful that production continued, with a more modern version produced in the UK. You can't argue with success.

Italeri has tooled their famous 1/35 scale Opel Blitz kit down to 1/48 scale and released it in a special boxing together with an Hs 129. Tamiya is the first to release this tooling on its own in their limited edition series. Molded in desert yellow, the kit is presented on four parts trees, plus a seperately molded chassis. One tree of styrene clear parts and a bag of rubber tires round out this kit.

The detail underneath is nicely done and while there is no top to the engine block you see molded with the chassis, the hood isn't designed to be removed, so there's no reason to detail that area of the kit. Perhaps an aftermarket company will address this for those modelers that want that option.

The seperatly molded wheels will make painting very simple as you can do your work prior to installing the tires.

Detail inside the cab is effective and includes the stick shift and hand brake. One of the side windows is molded with the window partially rolled down, a nice touch.

The wooden cargo box provides three bench seats and a positionable tail gate. The kit also provides you with your choice of stowed ribs for the cargo box cover, or the full cover to enclose the box.

The kit provides full headlight lenses and slitted lense covers to depict the truck at different times of the war, and also a full set of pioneering tools, towing indicator, and width clearance poles.

Markings are provided for three examples, a Blitz on the Russian front (Kharkov 1942), Italian front (Bologna 1945), and Afrika Korps 1942.

While I prefer my armor kits to be 1/35 scale (or larger), these utility vehicles are great in 1/48 scale as now we have some great vehicles to park around our Ju 52, He 111 or other 1/48 scale Luftwaffe vignettes. I can easily see stashing a few more of these kits away for future projects!

My sincere thanks to HobbyLink Japan for this review sample!