Peter Comben

Designer

Something Missing?

Peter Comben’s story is intriguing, and dovetails with that of Ernie Knott, model and classic car enthusiast. In the 1950s, when he was little, Peter’s parents couldn’t afford to buy him a pedal car, which set him on a path of building his own vehicles. He started with soapboxes on pram wheels, then bicycles; later, it was cars and motorbikes, most of which were customized or restyled (both body and mechanics). After leaving art and design school in the late 1960s, Peter worked at Lola Cars. In the early 1970s he worked in computer programming and management, but realized that he missed the craft side of things.

Later, Peter worked for a model making firm in Lincoln for a while; a family firm, one of whose members had worked at Bassett Lowke in the 1930s. Peter’s father in law, Tom Chapman, saw some of the work that he was making there and told him about a vacancy at Mettoy Ltd. Northampton, in the development section of Corgi Toys. Tom was the exhibition and display manager at Mettoy from 1956 to 1984 and had been the artist responsible for the artwork on the Corgi boxes from 1956 until the early 1970s. Tom had also developed inexpensive but very successful kites for Mettoy, including the Barnstormer stunt kite, often giving flying displays with huge numbers of stunt kites mounted on a single set of lines, becoming the world champion. He was frequently involved by the Mettoy Playcraft toy development department in solving their design problems.

Subject ID: 82800

Peter took some samples of his work along to Mettoy, was accepted, and joined the pattern making department in 1974. The section that he worked in was called the Proving Section. From the first dyeline drawings for new models, components were fabricated by hand, using brass for the metal parts and styrene for the plastic parts. It was accurate work and, provided that all the parts fitted together correctly, this “proved” the drawings to be correct, and these could then be finalised and passed to the pattern makers and toolmakers. The hand made proving models ended up gathering dust in a cupboard.

During his few years at Mettoy, Peter learnt many new skills and also came across cold cure silicone rubber moulding, used by Corgi’s sculptor, Steve Farmer, when developing masters for figures and animals. Steve had been trained at Mettoy by Les Higgins, and the silicone moulding had been an offshoot from the work of dental technicians. Peter could see the potential of casting low melt alloys centrifugally and asked the marketing staff if they would like authentic, working samples of “next year’s” new Corgi models for promotion at the world toy fairs. Hitherto, they’d only been able to show the buyers rudimentary wooden block models with painted windows and lights, because the new production models were yet to be tooled. Their enthusiasm was tremendous. Peter’s plan was to use the hand made proving models, to take silicone moulds off their component parts and to reproduce short runs in pewter to be painted and assembled.

One such brass body and chassis for the forthcoming James Bond Lotus Esprit was sent to a centrifugal casting firm. Although slightly squashed in the process, the pewter castings produced were salvageable and Peter worked on the mechanisms for the retracting wings and rear bumper fins, together with pantograph machined nylon rocket launcher systems for the rear end. Vac form windows were also made. They assembled six working prototypes for the six toy fairs. The marketing guys were ecstatic. Peter went to his own management and told them about the reaction of the marketing department and asked them for permission to develop this process. They drearily declined on the basis that, “We’ve always managed alright in the past.”

Peter thought, “So be it, I’ll do it for myself.” At this stage, he knew little about the white metal models market, but Geoff Moorhouse, who worked in the drawing office, showed him some of the models on the market. Geoff, who runs Heavy Goods model trucks, had previously worked at Dinky Toys/Meccano and had some original dyelines of trucks that were never made owing to the firm’s closure. He suggested that Peter could make brass masters for these trucks. Aware of the likely demise of Mettoy, Peter spent the next year or so of lunch breaks at work and in his own workshop at home building hand tools, a height gauge, a sander, a compressor, his first casting machine and many other useful items. With pattern work from Geoff and a few contacts in the field, Peter went self employed in March 1979 in the basement of his house in Northampton doing brass and plastic pattern making, white metal casting and ready built models for his first few customers. He also did industrial prototyping and pattern work, copper spark erosion tools and, later, batch production of model engines for KHD Deutz, which ran for many years.

Peter’s philosophy was that the mould is the most important component in the production chain, and he aimed to produce white metal castings that were almost as good as diecast ones. He saw so many people produce beautiful brass masters, only to end up with somewhat inferior castings that needed a lot of fettling prior to assembly. Cold cure silicone rubber moulds allow predictable joint lines and do not need brass masters. Though not as durable as vulcanized rubber, they are repairable, and Peter could see that this process had potential.

Back in 1969, just before Peter joined Lola Cars, he had met Jim Keeble, co-founder of the Gordon Keeble Car company, at the Keewest factory in Southampton for a job interview. Peter had always been a fan of the Gordon Keeble GT, but car production had finished and the factory was by then making specialist furniture. Naturally, the first car in Peter’s own model range was to be the Gordon Keeble in 1:43 scale. He decided to make it in the style of a Corgi Toy, with Swarovski crystal headlights, and his aim was that it should also assemble like a Corgi Toy: body, window, seat unit, bumpers and assembled chassis dropped in that order into a resin nest, then two screws to secure.

He visited Ernie Knott at the Gordon Keeble Car Centre in Brackley, Northants, in spring 1979 to get photos and measurements. It transpired that Ernie had always wanted a model of the Keeble, but there were none on the market. In autumn 1979 Peter completed the Keeble master and moulds and built a couple of prototypes (he still has the only surviving one). Having no expertise in marketing, he considered an offer from Ernie to buy the Keeble master, moulds and tooling, with Peter producing future masters, moulds and production casting for Ernie who planned to start his own model car business called EnCo Models (Ernie Knott’s Company). In December 1979 Peter sold Ernie 100 Keeble kits.

In early 1980 Ernie was asked by a local Skoda distributor to produce a run of 1:43 Skoda Estelle models. Peter produced the master, moulds and castings and Ernie built them at the Keeble Car Centre. When, in later years, the occasional Skoda surfaced on the market, Ernie tended to distance himself from his involvement in the project, but perhaps the jewelled headlights were a giveaway as to who had made it!

In June 1980 Ernie and his wife, Ann, bought the Keeble moulds and master from Peter and launched EnCo Models. For the next few years they commissioned from him the tooling and casting for the rest of their range: Sunbeam Tiger MkI & II and Alpine Mk4/5; Jensen Interceptor Saloon MkII & III, Convertible and Coupé; Facel Vega Facel II Saloon and Convertible; Ferrari 308GT4 European; Jensen FF. They painted and assembled the models at the Keeble Car Centre.

In due course, many other jobs came Peter’s way. One interesting job early on was to produce a set of masters for 12 English chairs in 1:12 scale, ranging in period from Elizabethan to Victorian. Peter researched several at the Victoria and Albert Museum and accessed the rest with the assistance of Arthur Negus who was the adviser for the project, visiting all sorts of interesting old houses and castles. The model chairs were owned and produced by Mark Models Ltd. Another customer saw these chairs and needed a certain model chair making for acrylic encapsulation. It was to be a 1:12 scale model of Steve McQueen’s chair from which he directed the film, Bullitt. This was, as far as Peter could see, a standard, folding director’s chair with canvass back and seat. However, the customer insisted that it must be from the actual chair used by McQueen and it duly arrived from California by Securicor at Peter’s cottage in the Lincolnshire Fens. He recalls sleeping with the chair at the foot of his bed for safety’s sake until the master was finished and Securicor collected it.

By 1987, Ernie was so busy with his full size Gordon Keeble Car Centre work that he and Ann sold the EnCo Models name and business to Peter, together with all the tooling that he had made, plus the stock. Thereafter, Peter traded all his work under the Enco Models name,dropping the capital “C”. He had developed many techniques in his casting work by this period and was able to produce castings as complex as the one piece bodies in 1:24 scale as for example, John Haynes’ Historic Replicars range). He also produced pewter badges, lamp assemblies, mascots and other components for classic car restoration. He produced many castings and models for acrylic encapsulation, for example, trophies, presentations or executive paperweights. The encapsulation process, subcontracted out, was under heat and 10 atmospheres of pressure, and was very demanding on paints and materials.

All this work was demanding on space, equipment and skilled labour. Steve Farmer, the Corgi sculptor, had joined Peter, combining his freelance sculpting work with Enco assembly work. Peter moved the business into industrial premises in November 1990 following the first ModeleX, which had brought him a great deal of work, especially in casting. He was also joined by John Fox who did most of the casting and helped him man their ModeleX stands, and by John Bennett, a retired toolmaker, who did pattern making and much of the mould making. Peter concentrated on patterns, mould making, admin. and some casting. Family and friends joined in when extra help was needed. The turnover had been increasing over the decade on a classic parabolic curve.

Two months later, in early 1991, Peter’s wife was severely injured in what he calls “the final blunder in a series of medical misdiagnoses,” and he has been her care giver ever since. This was almost the death knell for the Enco Models range and for much of his other work. For the next four years, they concentrated at the factory mostly on Enco kits and subcontract casting, which was more lucrative. Peter divided his time between work and caring over an average 12 hour day. By 1995 the strain was too great. He closed the factory and kept only a small number of his customers, working once again from sheds at home where he could be of more help to his wife. The parabolic curve reversed.

At ModeleX 96 Peter was introduced to Thomas Wolter of Tin Wizard Model Cars in Germany. They had both started up in business in 1979 and they shared the same outlook technically. As with Peter’s castings, Thomas’s also had no shrinkage from the master size. Thomas asked Peter to mould and cast his bodies for him. A few years later, Peter made the complex and expensive decision to move to Germany. There were many reasons, but one was to secure the future for the Enco Models range. Another was to introduce Tin Wizard to his mould system so that his subcontract customers could be assured continuity of supply in the future should he be unable, for any reason, to work. On the technical side, Thomas and Peter planned to pool their many years of expertise in order to take moulding to a higher level.

So it was, that in late 2002, Peter and his wife moved with seven and a half tons of workshop, moulds, masters, materials, furniture to Germany. He registered a new business, Encotechnik, in Germany, which continued the manufacture and despatch of the casting work while their son, Tom, ran the admin side of Enco Models back in England, giving the UK casting customers the luxury of Sterling billing. Assembly of the Enco Models range was set up at the Tin Wizard factory, guaranteeing its survival, with a free hand given to Thomas Wolter to refine and market the models in kit and built form.

In 2007 Peter closed Encotechnik and he and his wife moved back to the UK, to sunny Norfolk, with the moulds, masters and most of the machinery. Peter retains ownership of the Enco Models name, masters and moulds, and produces batches of castings, shipping them to Tin Wizard. He has gradually made small improvements to his masters and moulds, but to date the Sunbeams and Ferrari are still waiting for re-tooling. His recent addition to the range has been the Jensen SP.

Today, most of Tin Wizard’s own master work is done by CAD/CAM in Germany. The more complex moulds and castings are made by Peter in England and all assembly work is done in Germany. Peter continues to provide subcontract castings for his existing customers. Since 1997, he has also been involved in moulding and casting 1:200 scale aircraft, which is often more difficult than model vehicles. He is astonished how much the aircraft vary in size, the smallest so far being about 1cm wingspan and the largest around 25cm.

Peter says it never ceases to amaze him how every moulding job is different. Having made well over 1000 moulds since 1979, with individual components as large and deep as a 1:24 scale Jaguar XJ6 body, or the replacement rear lamp unit for the real Gordon Keeble at 33cm long, to some castings as small as pin heads, the challenge is always fresh.

Subject ID: 82800

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Subject ID: 82800