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Six Wheels On My Wagon

Graeme Ogg · 2024-02-09T20:25:42Z

Just in case anyone is wandering by in the desperate hope of finding something of passing interest, I thought I’d do a post about my occasional flirtation with modelling six-wheelers. How bizarre is that? Anyway, it all started when I saw photos of various 6-wheeled Range Rovers produced by a company called Carmichael. They were mainly emergency vehicles (fire tenders, pump units, etc.) but they also did a civilian version based on their Commando 6x4 chassis conversion. So I got hold of two Dinky Range Rovers and did a fairly simple cut-and-shut to produce an outside broadcast unit for a fictitious TV company. The two body sections (and the extended floor) were simply joined with thin strips of brass epoxied in place. With such a simple boxy shape, getting the body sections to line up nicely wasn’t a problem. I’m not sure where I found the 6 matching wheels but I thought they looked reasonable. Not having any waterslide decal printing paper, the body graphics were done with rub-down dry lettering and symbols. And yes, I think I gave it a TV receiving aerial rather than a transmitter antenna, but never mind, you get the idea. Just for fun I sent some pics to Carmichael, and they invited me to visit their factory. They asked if I could knock out some replicas for sale but I had to tell them I was in full-time employment and strictly a one-off modeller! Anyway I came home armed with lots of good photos of the Commando, and decided that with a couple of 1:24 Bburago Range Rovers I could make a better version. Same cut-and-shut process as before. The wheels are a pretty fair representation of the real thing and came from a couple of AMT Studebaker Avanti kits (they supplied alternative sets of chromed wheels with their kits) and I managed to rig up a working steering arrangement for “posing” purposes and gave the rear axles a bit of articulation so the model could sit on an uneven surface. The vinyl roof is Kleenex tissue painted semi-gloss black. A few years later, Solido produced a 1:43 model of the second generation Renault Espace. And once again I got the feeling that four wheels really weren’t enough. So I doodled a pretty simple stretch . . . . . . and cut and shut two Solidos using my tried-and-tested method to produce a fairly generic emergency response vehicle. Then, flushed with success and delusions of grandeur, I experimented with something a bit more ambitious – a high roof version. Turning this into metal involved some serious chopping, and demonstrates the advantage of working with diecast. It’s hard to cut, but you can really hack a model to pieces without worrying that the bits will bend or shatter. The various fragments were joined with a mix of brass strips and piano wire. The high roof section was formed from 3 brass hoops which were then “tiled” with thin brass sheet and blended with filler. The floor and seating unit were extended to match, and the internal seating was reconfigured using the seats from the two Solidos. (Apologies for the grainy old pre-digital photos). The end result was a high roof minibus. The roof windows were done with thin plastic heated and bent to shape on a wooden dowel. Why the high roof? Well, it was designed to transport old people wearing Abe Lincoln hats. Pretty obvious, really. For several years I firmly resisted the temptation to produce a 6x4 Trabant, Lincoln Town Car, Ford Transit van or London Transport Routemaster bus. Then Minichamps offered us a Ford Galaxy people carrier to play with . . . and I happily accepted. Once again I started with a simple version on paper . . . Turning it into metal was fairly easy, and the result was quite pleasing but not very exciting. So I went back to the drawing board and came up with an “outdoor adventure vehicle” - basically a crew cab pickup. This one took a bit more work because the rear load bay had to be built from plasticard. The “steered” front wheels are non-adjustable. Then I had one of those “Hey, isn’t life more fun when things get difficult?” moments, and set about manufacturing all the grab rails, roof rack and headlamp protector grilles from thin brass rod and fine wire. Not sure if it was fun, but it WAS quite difficult. I still didn’t have decal printing paper, so had to do the graphics with liquid decal film, a home-made backing sheet and a colour inkjet printer, which was a fussy business but worked out quite well. Now ain't that pretty? And that’s about it (Well, I did say it was an occasional thing). Footnote 1. You can’t do everything yourself, so when Provence Moulage came up with a lovely built 1:43 version of a Citroen Cruise Crosser I was happy to just hand over the money and save myself a bit of time and trouble. Footnote 2. I have an Esdo kit of a rather dramatic Citroen CX Tissier ambulance, which obviously attracted me as another six-wheeler for my collection. The kit has been sitting in its box for 20 years or more. Enthusiasm has its limits. And if you want ...

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Steve Jacobs

(@100ford2003)

Illustrious Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 7644

11/02/2024 4:52 pm

Dear Graeme,

No matter where've you been, you must be having a proper good time !

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Graeme Ogg

(@graeme-ogg)

Illustrious Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 2003

Topic starter 11/02/2024 5:10 pm

Yup. And I've been a model citizen.

Graeme.M. Ogg
London U.K.

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Marty Johnson

(@marty-johnson)

Famed Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 1659

12/02/2024 12:00 am

Wow! Wow! Wow! You are DEFINITELY the six-wheeler king! I was particularly interested because I love the concept of a six-wheel vehicle! Very cool, creative, and well executed!

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