YaG-6 conversion candidate?

Serendipity is a funny old thing. There was me searching for a completely unrelated bit of information and quite by chance I came across a vehicle that may very well fulfil my need for a YaG-6 lookalike!

The photo above shows Finnish troops examining the two YaG-6 trucks which they captured from the Soviets during World War 2. I want to include one of these powerful trucks in my Finnish army collection as a prime mover for my heavy artillery company.

However, as I mentioned in my first post on this subject, while there are a couple of 1/72 kits of this vehicle out there they are prohibitively expensive - even if you can locate them. So I started thinking about converting an existing readily available truck of similar size and shape.

My first thought was the British Scammell, but today I came across what I feel is a better match (meaning I have less to convert). I discovered a WW2 Italian truck called the Lancia 3RO 

6.5-ton, 4x2, Cargo.

Lancia 3RO. Picture source: Engines of the Wehrmacht

Obviously the similarities between the two vehicles are only slight - if you close your eyes a bit - but I feel that the Lancia is a better foundation on which I can start a conversion job.

Now, the good news is that there is a reasonably - if not exactly cheap - 1/72 kit out there of the Lancia and it's a readily available make - Italeri (naturally enough).

The kit isn't - unfortunately - the 3RO Cargo, but a SPG version called the Autocannone 3 RO with a mounted AA gun. Still, I can easily scratch build a flat-bed with drop sides to mount on the back in place of the gun. And at £14 it's a hell of a lot cheaper than the rare resin Yag-6 kits I have come across.