Yesterday at the Kansas City IPMS Great Plains model contest I picked up the CMK conversion kit for the CCKW 353 fuel tanker, kit No. 3019.

What a beautiful kit! Resin fuel pods, resin deck, rails, hose boxes, etc., photo etch parts, and decals! The kit even includes 15 nice resin fuel cans, with delicately molded 3-bar handles (they look like copies of Italeri cans).

I should note here that a few years ago I attempted to convert the Italeri Water Truck kit into a fuel tanker, but ran into dimensional problems. Comparing my original conversion effort to the CMK kit, I can see now that the fuel pods I made from the water tank were too wide -- it threw everything else off.

I have lots of photo references of this vehicle, but the kit includes a couple parts that puzzle me: resin part 10 and the photo-etch tool box. Does anyone know where these go? The instruction sheet is pretty good, but does not show where these are supposed to be placed. The instructions hint that resin part 10 is supposed to be a spare tire holder, but myu references show a completely different type of tire holder -- which, BTW, is between the cab and the front of the fuel pod.

Anyone have any insight on this?

have a look in the photo albums on MSN site and you will see my tanker in new gmc pics. The conversion is not complete as no provision is made for the behind cab spsre wheel mount at all. The tool box goes on the chassis where the spare wheel normally goes on a LWB truck. If you want more info PM me. :-)

Thanks Cliff.

I think I got it puzzled out now. I kind of figured that tool box went uner the bed and attached to the frame, but I have no decent photos of that side of the truck.

I snagged a correct spare tire holder off an Italeri water truck kit.