Rooting through my pile of kits I found an Airfix kit for a wartime GMC CCKW 353 Truck. Not my normal kind of thing but you might be surprised to know it's not the first time I've built one. Not this kit, but this prototype. My friend, Chris Mead, has a layout called "Overlord" which shows part of a dockyard in the run up to D-Day. On the quayside there are lots of tanks, which people get very excited about, and lots of trucks which they mostly ignore.
Since the layout is 40 feet long, there are quite a lot of trucks and I suspect that most of the people Chris knows have built a model or two for him. Normally the GMC comes from a Hasegawa kit and I'll be honest and say it's not the best moulded thing out there. However needs must and I've built a few, even converting one to a rail mounted shunter.
Seeing and Airfix kit for the same prototype I wondered if it would be any better. And sometimes I want to do no more than stick a plastic kit together which is why it joined the pile. Construction starts with the chassis and what a beast it is. The truck has 6-wheel drive and the kit includes all the shafts and stuff to make this look like it works.
Everything fits reasonably although I felt some of the location aides could have been slightly better moulded. The fuel tank and box beside have pegs that fit in a tapered slot in the frames rather than a hole. The suspension is a bit fiddly too but that's more a result of the prototype than the model. Build in stages and let things set seems to be the best plan. Or build it all in one go and plonk a bit of lead on top before the solvent hardens to try and make sure all the wheels set touching the deck.
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