Courtesy of Kitsreview:

http://www.kitsreview.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2828

Good news: the truck is in "hard" plastics, like common Italeri kits.

Bad news: the 90 mm. gun is the same already seen in soft plastics. Therefore ranging from very difficult to impossible to be glued, modified and painted.
Artillerymen are somewhat well sculpted, a bit too tall for the period and the country. The helmet reminds the Russian type, more than the Italian M33 helmet.
The vehicle can only be displayed in "combat" mode, not for transport.

One striking detail -even in 1/72 scale - is the high silhouette on the ground of the Autocannone (truck-mounted gun), which confirms wartime reports from Northern Africa of its size as a "magnet" for enemy aircrafts and artillery fire.

Final mystery (for the experts out there): the top of the cab (on the interior) has a pin-mark with the number "2". Does this mean there will be different types of cabs? Therefore different types of Lancia 3 Ro versions?

of a complete set. No scrambling for gun crew. Too bad on the gun being soft plastic. I've always liked the desert era. So many field type expedients. Nice to have this Italian also. If the gun is too bad we still have a nice truck to use. Gun crew are always handy

Mike

Well, there could be Lancia as truck in plans for future, because eg. FA M3 Halftrack follows this path - this year there will be M3 GMC, maybe next year other versions.

Thanks for the link and for the "heads up" itself.
As ever, mixed news. I'm very glad to see an mainstream kit of an Italian "softskin", and more to read that it's in "hard" plastic. I think that, though simple, could be an sound basis for further conversions (i.e., basic cargo truck). The bad news are the "soft" gun... Why the Hell Italeri developed it in this stuff? I have nothing against simple or "snap-tit" kits if are in "usual" styrene (in fact, I purchased their Half-Tracks, bikes and even Panther for tranformation purposes), and I could understand even that figures should be moulded in soft plastic but... Why * the gun!? They cut off much of the posibilities of the Autocanone itself!
Well, I'll purchase a pair; even being unfeasible the Autocanone, nothing could bitter the candy of have a nice Lancia AUP (It's the Ro3 an Autocarro Unificato Pesante?).
Thanks again and cheers: Luis.

Funnily enough Hät are going a different way with their upcoming WW1 artillery sets: guns in hard plastic, crew figures in soft plastic, probably sold separately (there's an ongoing debate on this on the Hät forum).

I think production started in 1938. Could some have reached the CTV on time?

http://WWW.PANZERNOT.NET

The first 138 samples of the Lancia 3 RO were delivered, according to the producer, in 1938; probably these were all civilian trucks, but they might have been requisitioned by the Army for the logistical operations in Spain.
I have never seen a photo of a Lancia 3 RO in the SCW, for that matter; the only Italian heavy trucks whose presence is proven in Spain are:

- Ceirano 50

- Ceirano 47

- Lancia Ro

- Isotta-Fraschini D80

- Fiat 18 BL & BLR.


Plus some 100 samples of the Fiat 634 of a private freighter (Trucchi firm).