Finished Opel Kapitän (1/35)

Director Holm from Nystrup Gravel aquired a model 1939 Opel Kapitän just before the war broke out. Tight import restrictions made it impossible for him to get a new and fancy American car and he continued to use the Opel well into the 1950´s.

The director on visit at the loco shed. The weather is obviously warm as the rear door is left open for some fresh air.

I worried that the assembly of doors and roof would be very difficult, but the final assembly worked out fine. The warping of the roof was rather easily dealt with by taping it down while the glue set. A slight gap was taken care of with Humbrol plastic putty and sanding. The time spent on painting director Holm's yellow haired 20 year old daughter probably wasn't worth the trouble, as not much of her can be seen through the door.

The 1:35 Kapitän with the roof taped down while the glue dried.

After priming with 'Chaos Black' I painted the car with Vallejo's 71036 mahogany from the 'Model Air' range. It is prethinned and works great from the container straigt into the air brush - no fuss! I did the chrome lining and bumpers etc. with Vallejo 'chrome'. A steady hand and good eye sight is an advantage. The kit's decals weren't good. They all disintegrated when they came in contact with water. Not quite what you would expect from decals! I managed to save the dials for the dashboard, though. The license plates are from 'Skilteskoven' my usual supplier of special decals.

Even though the car turned out better than expected I think it will last some time before I set out to build another ICM kit. Even if ICM do some pretty interesting subjects, their kit design with many subassemblies and a lot of tiny parts makes building quite time consuming and painting difficult. Fortunately I have a Tamiya Citroën TA waiting to be built. Probably with only half the number of parts!

Previous posts on the building of the car can be found here:
Progress on the Opel Kapitän
Director Holm's Opel Kapitän