John Wright Model Makers
Brand
John Wright was born the son of a Sheffield cutler, and thus was very familiar with the sight and smell of metal! His interest in miniature transport was born from building aeroplane kits, which then led to scratch built radio-controlled aeroplanes.
Unlike many pattern makers in this industry, John went to college in St. Albans to study model making. From this excellent grounding, straight from college John gained a position with a model-making company, called Master Models, where he was employed as a model maker and tool maker, creating commissioned models of aeroplanes.
Subject ID: 82792
MoreJohn Wright was born the son of a Sheffield cutler, and thus was very familiar with the sight and smell of metal! His interest in miniature transport was born from building aeroplane kits, which then led to scratch built radio-controlled aeroplanes.
Unlike many pattern makers in this industry, John went to college in St. Albans to study model making. From this excellent grounding, straight from college John gained a position with a model-making company, called Master Models, where he was employed as a model maker and tool maker, creating commissioned models of aeroplanes.
When this company was approached by SMTS to produce patterns of model cars, this work was handed over to John. This in due course spurred him on to set up his own workshop in London.
Three years later, John moved to Bristol to establish his current workshop, which to begin with was very small, approximately 7 feet by 17 feet. It was equipped with one lathe and one pattern drill.
John began working with Brooklin Models in 1993, starting with the new Lansdowne range. John’s first pattern for Brooklin was in fact the Austin Healey Sprite LDM 1. He also obtained other commissions from SMTS, making a Lamborghini Miura and a Lamborghini Espada. Dave Weaver saw John working on the Lamborghinis for SMTS, and as a result John involved him in making model car patterns too.
Along parallel tracks, Dave had been making scratch built military vehicles out of plasticard whilst still at school, which often got in the way! He attended Art college, but left as he was too distracted by other activities, including the essential work required on his father’s farm. This entailed repair and re-manufacture of parts to keep tractors working, which also took him into motor bikes. Dave worked for three years in the motor trade and engineering, with a period of working in ceramics plus a little in the building trade, but eventually realised that a regular job was not for him.
He had been working on small parts for some jewellery work, and needed some brass parts cast, and he was recommended to go to see John. Once installed in a corner of his workshop, using his machines, he spotted John working on tie-pins for a range known as the Clivedon Collection. These included 1:200 scale cars. John saw Dave’s interest and in view of the quantity required, involved him in the job.
Dave’s method of working lent itself to the way John Wright’s workshop operated, together with an understanding of engineering, and Dave has been there ever since.
Dave arrived on the scene in 1991, and ever since John and Dave have regularly expanded their capability, constantly adding more tooling and skills. Dave’s first pattern-making job was a Jaguar Mk II for SMTS. Patterns for a range of Minis, as part of a collection, came soon after. By this time he had begun to work for Brooklin, and the pattern, was then taken on by Brooklin, and used for their LDM 4, the minivan. Dave continued to undertake various commissions under John’s guidance initially. He has worked for SMTS, and also Henk van Asten, of Conquest/Madison models in the Netherlands. He made the pattern for their Buick Electra and the Packard Mayfair. Dave has made a number of the US Model Mint range for Brooklin, together with some of both the Brooklin and Lansdowne ranges.
However, more recently the market has changed dramatically for John and Dave.
About this time John’s company was discovered by the Animation industry, in particular Aardman Animation, also based in Bristol. This has resulted in them securing the contract to provide most of the machinery used in the Wallace & Grommit films, including the cars and motorbikes. Whilst John has taken on the overall management of the business, and negotiation with new customers, Dave’s responsibility in the team is towards the running of the workshop, with six people in the team overall.
They have refined their pattern-making process, using SikaBlock for the initial pattern, then using the lost wax casting process to cast the body and large parts, whilst the detailed parts are fabricated in brass.
Subject ID: 82792
Subject ID: 82792
