MiniArt’s 1/35th scale German L701 3t Cargo truck.

From MiniArt

1/35th scale

Kit No#38082

Six marking choices are included in the box.

The Subject

The Mercedes-Benz type L 701 was manufactured under licence from the Opel Blitz 3,6-36 S. Daimler-Benz had to start producing this type in July 1944 when production of its own 3-tonne lorry, the Mercedes-Benz type L3000S, was halted in April 1944. The L 701 was a modified Opel Blitz with a driver’s cabin from the last year of World War II and without GM logo on the radiator. Approximately 3,500 exemplars were produced till the end of the conflict.

This truck was essentially an Opel Blitz, the “standard truck” of the German armed forces during WWII, which was created and constructed by GM subsidiary Opel with American management fully aware of its intended purpose. Mercedes began producing it under licence in 1944 in modest quantities, and then again after the war from June 1945 until 1949.

Mercedes were vexed that it wasn’t their own design (their own truck of the same class was vastly inferior and significantly more expensive), which is why you could order a L 701 truck from your Mercedes-Benz dealership after the war and end up with a truck that said nothing about being an Opel made by Mercedes-Benz except in the owner’s manual.

A few views of a restored L701 in the U.S. (you can rent this one apparently).

You will notice that this truck had a wooden cab instead of the sleeker, metal-constructed Opel Blitz cabs. These wooden cabs saved on costs and resources during World War II.

The clear plastic for the transparency & lights is, of course, included.

Photo-etch is included for the thinner parts of the kit.

MiniArt print their own decal sheet for the six variants on offer.

The six colour profiles from the 40’s to the late 50’s.

Nuremburg show: MiniArt shows the kit made up in bare plastic.

This kit from MiniArt will soon be available. MiniArt shows the kit in bare plastic at the Nuremburg show.

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