Bronco Models

1/35 German Light Saloon Coach Model 1937

Kit Number: CB-35054

Reviewed by  John Kelly, IPMS# 3010

MSRP: $44.98 Website: www.bronco-model.com Kit Supplied by Stevens International: www.stevenshobby.com Background After obtaining this kit I have come to the conclusion that there are no enforceable copyright laws in China or Japan. This is a model of a 1937 Opel Olympia. Opel is a historic automobile marque from Germany that has been producing cars since 1899 and was purchased by General Motors 1929. Apparent the Bronco model company decided it could avoid paying royalties to GM by just dropping any reference to the actual name of the vehicle on the box or the instructions. (Tamiya did the same thing when they released their 1/48 "US Staff Car" kit a few years ago. That one was actually a 1942 Ford.) Just because they do not call it a 1937 Opel Olympia does not change what this model represents. Opel is one of oldest automobile brands in Europe. The Olympia was brought out in 1935 and the name represents a tribute to the 1936 Olympic games held in Berlin. It had the distinction of being the first European car to have an integrated steel body and frame. The Olympia did not change much in the three years this version was in production; this one is identified as a 1937 model by the perforated steel wheels. The earlier versions had solid wheels. Although sold as a military vehicle, this is a civilian car. Parts are referenced that would seem useful to make it militarized version, but they are blocked out on the instructions and clipped off the sprues in my example. This is kit of a two-door sedan (saloon in European, or at least British, terminology). There would seem to be a cabriolet version available, but doesn't seem to have made it to the US market yet [yes, reviewed here on IPMS ]. I assume further military-only kits, probably with black-out lights and other modifications, will be along in due course. The Kit The kit is nicely molded, with 80 parts in a medium sand colored plastic, 14 clear parts, 40 parts molded in black plastic, and a photo-etched fret with 15 parts. All the parts are crisply-molded with no flash and an appropriate level of detail for the subject. You won't have to worry about panel lines or oversized rivets on this baby. There is no engine and there is no provision for an open hood. I suppose the final result would be what the car modelers call a curbside model. Five of the parts and four photo-etch parts are for a suitcase and a briefcase that go in the trunk. You have to install them before you attach the body to the frame, as the trunk does not open either, so they would be invisible in the completed model.

The black plastic parts are for the five wheels and tires. Each tire consisted of layers of five discs, which trap the three-part wheel and brake assembly. At first glance, this seems to be unnecessarily complicated, but the final result very convincing and turns out to be an ingenious solution to the problem realistic tire treads. Each of the five discs that make of the body of the tire is different, and they have to be lined up precisely so they fit snugly together. The outer discs have pins on them to ensure correct alignment. Believe me, they are not interchangeable and they go together only one way; I know, I tried. The photo-etch parts are mostly final-detailing parts: the windshield wipers, license plate brackets, interior light fixtures, latches for the suitcase and brief case, and the "Olympia" logo for the grille. The clear parts are individual windows, and lenses for the headlights and tail lights. There are decals for license plates for three different cars and two instrument panel gage faces.

Assembly As there is no engine, assembly begins with the chassis. Luckily, the instructions are, for the most part, quit clear and explicit. There are a few pitfalls: the perspective of the drawings seem to imply that the rear axel should be glued to the frame. Don't do it. Like every other car in the known universe, the rear axel should be glued to the rear springs. The kit is designed to allow steerable front wheels through the old trick of melting a mounting pin after it goes through a loop on the steering gear. I did not bother and I glued the whole assembly together. It is possible to install the rear suspension hangers upside down. The drawings tell you how to do it, but pay close attention, the drawings are correct, but subtle. One final tip: the front suspension arms are small and delicate and not interchangeable. They also have no positive alignment reference, so you have to rely on the ol' calibrated eyeball to ensure they are aligned with the rear axel. If one of these is wrong, the wheels will be out of line and/or they will not all touch the ground. The interior is pretty straightforward, but one of the instructions steps seemed wrong to me, so I changed the order of installation. The rear seat back has pins molded on it so it will line up properly with the seat bottom and arms parts. However, the instructions tell you to mount the rear seat arms on the body, rather than trap the pins on the seat back and cement them to the frame. It looked to me that the pins would hinder the body from fitting on the frame if the arms were glued to the body rather than the frame. I glued the arms to the frame, trapping the back seat parts. When it came time to mate the body and the frame, it fit perfectly. The next step in the instructions was the addition of the interior body panels and windows, but in reality, you need to paint it before going further. Like most civilian vehicles, the Opels of the late 1930s came in a variety of colors. The instructions give you two options, black and champagne gold. Black was a color available for a 1937 Opel, champagne gold was not. According to the website autogallery.org, Opel offered 12 colors: Schwartz, Marienetiefblau, Hellsandgrau, Dunkelgrau, Feldgrau, Atlantikgrun, Mittleblau, Dunkelrot, Opelbeige, Hellgrau, Mittlegrun, and Graubeige. The "champagne gold" of the directions seems to be the "Opelbeige", which is similar to the Panzer Yellow familiar to armor modelers. I found a nice picture of a restored example painted in a light blue-gray, similar to RLM 65 Hellblau, but a little bluer and grayer. Matching colors from the internet is always a fools game, so I decided that Humbrol 47, Sea Blue, was close enough. The painting instructions seemed to differ from the pictures I found on the web. The wheels should be painted the same color as the body, and, for 1937 at least, the hubcaps are also painted the body color. The directions call for the hubcaps to be chrome plated. They also call for a chrome strip along the side of the body. I could find no photographic evidence of such a chrome strip. There is a small chrome strip on the front fenders above the headlights and a chrome strip down the middle of the hood. I used Bare Metal foil for these as well as the grille, bumpers, and trunk hinges. The other small parts I painted with Modelmaster Chrome Silver. The interior is painted with Modelmaster Flat Interior Tan, which seems to be close enough match for the few interior photos I was able to find on the internet. The interior body panels are another cleverly engineered assembly. The side windows have a tab on their lower edge that glues into pins on the door and rear seat panels. You can attach the side windows without having to use any glue on the transparent part. The windshield, rear window and wing windows attach conventionally, but the fit is precise and responded well to an application of Tamiya extra-thin liquid cement to the edge, and letting capillary action distribute it to all sides. The dashboard is another part where the directions are not as helpful as they could be. They give you no color directions; if you follow the practice of modern cars, the dashboard would be painted the same color as the interior. It isn't. Until the 1940s and 1950s, most automobile dashboards were painted the same color as the exterior of the car. Photos I found confirm this practice for the 1937 Opel. The instrument cluster surround in many of these cars was chrome plated, and I could find no clear interior shots that confirm or deny this with the Opel. I used Bare Metal foil for the instrument cluster. The kit provides decals for the instruments. There are lots of little, fiddly parts to complete the interior: lights (which go on the door posts), photo-etch sunshades and rear-view mirror. If you wanted to waste time, you could paint and install the briefcase and suitcase in the trunk. Since they would not be visible, I did not bother. I'm sure that there is a project that calls for a 1/35 scale suitcase somewhere in my future. The completed body easily slips on the chassis, leaving only the detail parts. The taillights of cars of that era were not red, but what we call turn signal amber. The taillight parts are molded in clear plastic, and they look good painted with Modelmaster Chrome Silver and Turn Signal Amber. The kit provided two kinds of photo-etch license plates and brackets, and I could not see any reason to choose one over the other. Since the restored example I found on the internet had larger variety, that was the one I chose. I am sure the license plate decal represents some state or city, but I have no idea what they may be. The final picture is of the completed model displayed with a die-cast 1/32 1935 Chevrolet. Even allowing for the difference in scale (1/32 is about 10% larger than 1/35) it is apparent that this is not a large car. Debuting in 1935, it is interesting to note the design features, such as fared-in headlights and less prominent fenders that did not appear on American cars for another five years. This is really a nice little kit. It went together easily with few problems. The molding is excellent, with little flash and only a few injection gate stubs and ejector pin marks to clean up. I cannot comment on its accuracy, but some European websites thought the front fenders were too narrow. I collect 1/32 antique car models, and this one fits nicely in with them. The kit should have wide appeal to those who want to give their armor collections or dioramas a wider dimension, as well as to those who like models of civilian subjections. I would like to thank Bronco Models for supplying the kit, but I can't. I was not awarded the IPMS review sample, so I bought this one.