Background

Prior to World War II, Adam Opel AG was the largest automobile and truck manufacturer in Germany. Their 3.5 ton truck, known as the Blitz, was well respected, and its chassis was used by many body builders to produce special vehicles. The subject of this kit is the streamlined “Aero” bus produced by the Ludewig Brothers. These medium size busses were used to transport people from city to city along the autobahns. This design had seating for twelve passengers in the front, setting at an angle in individual seats, plus a separate “cabin” area at the rear where eight more passengers could sit facing each other. It is an interesting design. During my research for this write-up, I found several interesting web sites related to the Opel Blitz. One is http://www.pietvanhees.nl/blitzbus/index.htm, which has lots of good photos and background material.

The Revell/Monogram offering of the Tom Daniel Paddy Wagon is a recent release of nostalgia. Originally released in 1968, the Paddy Wagon is one of many collaborations between noted show car designed Tom Daniel and Monogram. Others in the series include The Red Baron, Rommel’s Rod , The Beer Wagon, and The Garbage truck to name but a few. Anyone of a certain age will have fond memories of these kits, and if you’re like me, very happy to see them again on store shelves.

The kit contains 88 parts, and is molded in dark blue plastic, and has one sprue of gold plated parts. Four tires, a clear windscreen and two headlight covers round out the parts list. Then there are the two cop figures, more on these later. The instruction sheet contains nine steps, all of which contain multiple mini steps, and the final step shows decal placement. Paint call outs are part of each step, and are easy to follow.

Pro-Modified cars are some of the most killer machines on the planet! I mean what is not to love about an old muscle car that has been stretched, chopped, and a throwing a HUGE powerful engine under the hood? They combine power, speed, coolness and creativity into some crowd pleasing machinery. Dick Brown Motorsports runs this beautifully modified 1955 Crown Victoria with a stretched Boss 429 engine. I have no idea the last time this monster raced. I know it was driven by Norm Wizner, who also appears to be a custom builder as well as a driver. He runs a customizing shop that has a 2005 copyright on it and all the links on the bottom page were bad. I was able to find two photographs of this real machine and only one of them had a date on it…..2011. Norm must love the Fords. In 1987 he built the Mega Ford to take on the Chevys on the circuit.

Wow, how much cooler can a car model get? You take a 1932 Ford Sedan, chop the heck outta it and add a scale skeleton to boot!!! Super great idea! Man, talk about old! This kit has been around since I was born and possibly before! Having no idea about car models, I immediately hit the old internet and this baby has been around since 1964 for sure. The real car was built by Dave Stuckey of Kansas starting in 1954. A young girl from Dodge City gave the car it’s Moniker because she thought it’s interior resembled a coffin. Monogram got hooked on the car in 1962 when they saw it at the National Roadster Show in California.

Prior to its arrival I did some research for my review of this kit and I came across a statement on a social media site. “My best piece of advice when you go to the hobby shop to buy this kit? Three simple words, BUY A CASE!” Made me laugh. When the kit arrived and I opened the box I thought “BUY A CASE.” Well that was short lived. Maybe just a few. Upon further examination I found that this is the “Sizzler” kit first engineered during the 60s, just newly scaled down to 1/25^th.

Still though, fans of early drag racing (early50s to late 60s) are going to love this kit. The instruction sheet points out 6 different variations to the model. By my calculations there are well over 576 possible combinations to this kit. I can see others kit bashing different motor combinations, various wheels, wings and all sorts of crazy ideas.

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