hello,
is there any noticable differance between Heller's and Tamiya's WWII U.S. 2 1/2 ton 353 CCKW 6x6 ? our 15 year old boy has been building 1/35 armour for a few years now (his first model happened to be Italeri's 2 1/2 ton 6x6).A few months ago he was able to pickup the Heller 2 1/2 353 CCKW 6x6 ,on ebay,and put the model on a shelf. A couple of weeks ago ,he found the fuel tanker conversion by CMK ,on ebay and got it,it showed up monday ,the ebay seller clearly stated ,that it was for Heller's 2 1/2 ton truck ,while we where checking it out ,,it shows that its for Tamiya's 2 1/2 ton truck. Will it work on Heller's truck? any concerns or issues he might face,he was hoping to start on it this weekend.
joe

The Heller kit isn't bad, it's just older and its age shows. It has many more parts than the Tamiya or the Italeri kit and might have a few fit problems (I don't remember -- it's been at least 20 years since I built it). I do remember lots of knock-out pin marks to fill

The CMK fuel tanker set is a drop-fit for the Tamiya kit. The Heller kit will probably need significant alterations for it to fit correctly. The frame consrction is different in the two kits and this is where the problems will come up.

My recommendation: Build the Heller kit as is and pick up a Tamiya kit for the CMK conversion.

I have to agree with Bob. Build the Heller kit as is and buy at a later stage the Tamiya kit for the CMK conversion. One major difference between the two is the width of the chassis, the Heller being much narrower and unless you are pretty clued up as a modeller you will have majors converting the CMK kit to fit.

The Heller kit is more detailed then the Italeri kit with a full motor and other detailed improvements. Plastic is a bit soft and if you are carefull there are no major fit problems.

I had trouble with the resin CMK conversion but from what others have told me I probably just got a bad kit and it does happen sometime. Watch the decals as they break up easy and benefit from a setting agent.

Cheers
Cliff