1938 Opel Admiral Cabriolet

[Plastheniker]

Between WWI and WWII the Adam Opel AG (owned by GM since 1929) was Germany's largest car manufacturer. After WWII Opel remained no. 2 behind Volkswagen until the seventies and enjoyed a reputation of supplying modern and reliable cars at moderate prices. The decline of Opel came when GM imposed a drastic policy of cutbacks which resulted in a general quality disaster from which Opel sales never recovered despite later quality improvements. While VW, Mercedes, Audi and BMW flourished Opel existed at the verge of bankruptcy for years, only kept alive by the German government. Recently Peugeot bought Opel's remains.

 

Between the wars Opel's biggest cars belonged to the lower upper class. In 1938 Opel entered the lower luxury class introducing the 3.5 litre Admiral. The Admiral was offered at the same price that Mercedes demanded for a 2.3 litre car. The beginning of WWII stopped production after less than 7000 finished Admirals.

 

ICM's kit (currently reboxed by RoG) shows bright light and deep shadows.

Fit and parts quality are excellent , the kit is well-detailed and with some extra work the finished model looks great.

On the other hand one has to cope with several issues:

• The fit of the closed soft top is disastrous and took me more than one day to make the top fit snugly

• The multi-piece body consists of 8 parts, IMO rather anachronistic

• Panel lines are too shallow and must be rescribed (neurasthenics should refrain)

• The kit dashboard is rather simple without usable dial decals

• My decal sheet looked good but most decals fell apart when becoming wet

• Chroming is partially very poor or even missing, so praise Mr. Molotow!

 

 

[thatz4u]

Very nicely done, almost looks real....

[Spottedlaurel]

It looks excellent!

[doorsovdoon]

What a lovely looking kit, very unusual but looks amazing. Good job!

[ATHU]

Fantastic work!!

[Watertown]

Beautiful work! Extra points for using the words "anachronistic" and "neurasthenics" in a post on a model car builders forum. Full disclosure: I had to break out the Websters Dictionary for that second one... Well played, sir, Well played.

 

[Dave Van]

Very clean work!!!!

[Rakentaja]

Great work.

[grodudulle77]

Incredible details !!! Perfection is here, great job !!!???

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[Tom Geiger]

Very nice model! It’s nice to see this unusual subject in a kit. First one I’ve seen built too!

[Classicgas]

Beautiful.  Have this one myself.  What were the fit problems on the roof and what did you do? 

Edited August 29, 2020 by Classicgas

[peekay]

Despite the kit's issues, a beautifully clean and realistic result from you, Jürgen - as always.

[Rakentaja]

3 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

Very nice model! It’s nice to see this unusual subject in a kit. First one I’ve seen built too!

Tom, if this was the first you have seen, you haven't seen my builds that I did put here about two weeks ago. ?

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/154898-3-×-opel-admiral-in-the-1930s/

[svend66b@gmail.com]

Perfection in scale, and great to read your history on the Admiral too. It was very rare here in Denmark in its time.

Edited August 29, 2020 by svend66b@gmail.com

[Tom Geiger]

1 hour ago, Rakentaja said:

Tom, if this was the first you have seen, you haven't seen my builds that I did put here about two weeks ago. ?

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/154898-3-×-opel-admiral-in-the-1930s/

Wow! Nice builds overall! I have a short memory since I posted in that thread!

[ewetwo]

Nicely done. :-)

 

[Zoom]

You know how to do it.?

Very nice.

[bbowser]

Another beauty from your bench, thanks for sharing

[Plastheniker]

Thanks for the response!

 

On 8/29/2020 at 3:27 PM, Classicgas said:

Beautiful.  Have this one myself.  What were the fit problems on the roof and what did you do? 

There were conspicuous gaps between soft top and the top and the rear of the side windows, the windshield frame and the rear body. The remedy was cautious bending, adding styrene strips, putty and a ot lof sanding ...

 

[Classicgas]

I'm lazy lol. I'll just use the boot?

[Phildaupho]

Masterfully built and photographed

[Dann Tier]

Beautiful!!!!...its been so long since i've seen your work...whatcha working on next?

[PappyD340]

Beautifully done!

[Plastheniker]

Thanks for the recent replies!

 

11 hours ago, Dann Tier said:

Beautiful!!!!...its been so long since i've seen your work...whatcha working on next?

Dann,

Though actually a (mostly scratch) builder of German and American vintage trucks for almost 15 years I switch to car modeling now and then in order to avoid a one track mind.

 

For the current 12 months I have three aged 1930s kits on my to-do-list that I have never seen finished convincingly:

• Cadillac V16 Fleetwood (Italeri)

• Chrysler Imperial Phaeton (Italeri)

• Delahaye 135 (Heller)

Of course I will show them here.