Hi Kevin,
I'm glad you received your kit, have fun!!
The truck is not difficult, the parts are small but there are a few of them.
Coming to your questions:
- The only reinforced part is the sea base, which I glued on a 1mm cardboard. The other parts are exactly as they are in the kit.
- Concerning the tabs, HMV kits have in fact a lot of parts without them. The main advantage in using a tabless design is the smoother joints that you can achieve, since a tab always introduces a "step" in the joint, where one edge is glued on top of the other. This is especially true for the parts which have to be rolled; in the other cases, I think it's often a matter of tastes. In my personal experience, sometimes I use the part as-is with a butt joint and sometimes I add a tab (either a normal one, or an "inner" tab which I glue from the inside on both edges).
I have found some old threads that discuss the matter and give some useful advice, e.g.
What is the difference between tabs and no-tabs?
models without "tabs"
Models with and without tabs!!!!!!??
Models without tabs
I hope this was helpful.
Cheers,
Tommaso