Pola G 331865, G-Scale Opel Blitz

Sooner or later my garden layout is going to grow and I'm going to enrich it with a lot of decorations in order to turn it into a real miniature world. There are several options available here and one of the most recognized is the Pola G line of models. I was really anxious to try a Pola G model so I went ahead and bought this nice looking Opel Blitz truck building kit:

The model's number is 331865 and, yet again, I placed my order at MSL. The recommended retail price is set at 32,99 € but it's slightly cheaper at the store and it cost me less than 28 €. The model comes in a very sturdy and a rather big box:

My first reaction after opening the box was: where's my model? All I could see was a lot of light grey paper.

But no worry - it's there. And all this paper filling is a great idea, since it really helps avoid the parts touching each other during transport.

All the parts are painted (great for lazy people like me!) and there are around 80 of them. Some of them are very big while others are really tiny. Decoration stickers are also included. Glue is not.

The manual is of course also there. It's 12 small pages long describing the entire process in around 40 steps. And it's almost exclusively pictures. Text is used only to indicate places where glue should not be used.

The manual is mostly very clear about what you need to do, although there are steps where you need to use your imagination. And you also need to pay attention to the pictures, since it's very easy to miss installing a smaller piece here or there.

OK, let's start. The first step of the build is creation of the front wheel set. The tires are real rubber which is a nice surprise. The wheels are connected to each other with a rod and they always turn left or right together.

Unfortunately this is also the step where my first doubt appeared. I'm simply not sure whether I should be gluing the tires to the wheels or not. The manual does not state "don't use glue" but I'm pretty sure my cement won't react with rubber. What to do? Let's leave it unglued for now...

Now it's time to attach the front wheels to the chassis which is really straightforward as all the elements fit perfectly.

Next come the back wheels. And here's another surprise - the manual wants me to use a hammer to force the axle into the wheels. Luckily, being a huge Lego fan, I do own a hammer with a rubber head and it works perfectly here.

It's time to place the engine and the radiator in the front of the truck.

Then the seats, the gear stick and a spare wheel.

Next it's time to create elements of the driver's cabin...

...and use them to complete the cab.

It's also time to build the truck bed along with the fenders.

Once the cab and the bed get attached to the chassis, the truck is complete except for some small details. This step however is not so simple. The bed snaps nicely onto the chassis and the manual is clear here about not using the glue.

The cab however is probably expected to be glued. That would be fine and not problematic at all, since the cab fits perfectly in its place, but it's just not clear where to put the glue. And once I test-fitted it there to see where to apply my cement, it somehow attached to the base and wouldn't allow me to be removed. So that's another thing I left without gluing...

All that is left are some details like side-mirror, windscreen wipers, stickers, etc. Once installed, it's time to take some nice photos.


How did I like the set?

Well, I absolutely loved building it. It can probably be done in around two hours but I spent four very relaxed evenings working on it. And I enjoyed it very much.

I also like very much the model itself. It looks great and it's just a very nice thing to have in my collection. The colours are great and the level of detail is impressive. The plastic used for model's parts has also a very strong "quality feeling", so I definitely don't regret the money I spent.

What I like a little less is how fragile the truck seems to be. It cannot be used as a toy at all, and it would break immediately if played with. And that would be fine, since this IS a model and NOT a toy. Except for the fact that the kit is declared weather-proof and could be used in a garden layout. My feeling is however, that it's not safe to place it in a busy garden (we get up to 10 kids in our garden at times) and that even some bad weather (like a heavy rain) could break some of the more fragile parts.

Would I recommend buying it?

Yes. It's fun to build and a real pleasure to look at. Just remember that it's not heavy duty. Die-cast metal models will be a better choice if you don't have a full control over who's playing with your toys :)

Pros:

• great looking
• fun to build
• good quality plastic
• weather-resistant
• acceptable price

Cons:

• fragile
• instructions not always very clear

Making my own backdrop

My second N scale layout is a temporary one so I placed it in an area that used to be a kitchen. I did not make any changes to this space, so it still has some of the kitchen facilities. That's fine except for the fact that I'd prefer to watch my trains in a more realistic setting. And instead of kitchen tiles in the background, I'd rather see some trees and the sky. Seems like I need a nice backdrop.

I could have just bought a backdrop BUT:

• I had a problem finding one that would be long enough (I needed almost 4m/13ft)
• for my temporary layout I needed a free standing backdrop, so I would need to glue it to something anyway
• they cost money... :)

And I decided to build my own. I started searching for a panoramic photo and this one caught my attention:

It's green at the bottom and blue at the top. That's what I needed. And it's available on Wikipedia (meaning: free) so it's OK to use it. The full resolution picture can be found here.

Now, how do I print it on a 4m long piece of paper? I checked the possibility of printing it at a professional studio and it's definitely doable. However:

• the cost would be almost as buying a pre-made backdrop
• it would still not get printed on anything that could act as a free standing backdrop

So again - let's improvise...

Using a PosteRazor software I divided the picture into 13 pages. I also set it to include a 1cm overlap for easier gluing together. I have to say that PosteRazor is really user-friendly and it all took me literally 5 minutes.

 

I've printed my pictures on 13 regular A3 pages. This is what they looked like after printing and cutting the top and the bottom margins.

Of course the regular printer paper is very flimsy. So I also bought A3 cards (stiff paper) to act as a base for my backdrop. And a lot of glue of course, since I was going for an area of over 1m².

I started gluing the printouts to the card base. It was not difficult at all and I wasn't even very careful with the glue assuming it would become transparent after drying.

Three pages already connected:

The base cards I bought came in A3 sized pages. So of course they needed to be connected in order to form the full panorama. I decided not to rely on gluing them together only with the printouts. Instead I glued some additional support at the back where edges of the cards meet. Unfortunately the photo does not show it very well, since it's all just white...

Here the backdrop is getting longer and I'm having a problem taking a nice photo in my living room...

The work is finished in the evening and the glue is dry the next morning. I need to move the backdrop to the garden in order to take a full picture. In the sunlight and from a distance it looks quite well.

Up close several defects are visible. The glue did not become transparent, the printouts wrinkled at their edges, and the print got damaged in several places where I bent the paper too much.

But it does not look bad when added to my layout..

And now instead of watching my trains like this:

I'm seeing them like that:

It turned out pretty good for a first try. There are several things I could have done better:

• The photo could have been printed with a better quality. I used the laser printer at my office with all the quality settings and it still does not look great.
• I should have been more careful with the glue. Or perhaps I should have used a better one. Hard to say, but I definitely have glue traces visible on my backdrop.
• I chose to print with overlapping pages so that I don't get any gaps at the edges. Looking at the result, I have to say that perhaps the connections would have been less visible if there were no overlaps. Difficult to judge without having another go...

Was it worth doing it myself? I think so. Considering my needs, the result is fully acceptable.

My visit to Kolejkowo

I should feel ashamed. I declare myself a train models fan and a person who loves beautiful "miniature worlds", and yet, for months I've failed to see the only train layout in my city. So it was really the time to catch up and see the wonders of Kolejkowo.

The layout is a G scale creation and it's placed indoors. It's actually located in a retired train station building so it all fits perfectly. It covers a large room on the ground floor but is soon to be extended to include also an upper level.

The layout is split into 3 sections:

• Forest and a village
• Lower-Silesia urban/industrial/mountain area
• Scenes of the city of Wroclaw

I've counted 6 trains running at the time of my visit:

• PIKO BR80 (37125)
• PIKO V60 (37140)
• PIKO BR204 (37563)
• LGB "Steinz" (70403)
• LGB Tram (23360)
• LGB Köf II (23930)

The place is definitely worth visiting although it's a little pricey if you choose to go with a large family. Of course you could just run through the exhibition in 10 minutes but you can also spend hours looking at all the details and enjoying the work that has been done there.

The most impressive (to me) was the amount of landscaping and custom work done on the buildings. The layout recreates some of the real places in the lower-Silesia part of Poland very well and if you know those places, you'll recognize them immediately.

There's even a miniature of the station building that Kolejkowo resides in to be seen. You could try to imagine that there's an even smaller version of the Kolejkowo layout inside that model!

But of course a picture is worth a thousand words. So it's time for the photos!