Thomas Wolter

Tin Wizard was founded in 1979 by Gerd Breiter. The first model produced was a VW Golf in street and racing form, and a subsequent theme was a range of Bugatti models. Shortly after Tin Wizard’s foundation, Herr Breiter was visited by his childhood next-door neighbour and playmate, Thomas Wolter. Thomas and Gerd had not seen one-another for many years.

Thomas had studied mathematics and physics and had gone on to qualify as an optician. Although Herr Breiter started the business, he did not have the training or expertise for the work of model making. He was more at home in an office doing all the paperwork - accounts, invoices, letters, etc. Indeed, Thomas felt it was difficult to understand why Gerd started this sort of business.

Subject ID: 82961

More

Tin Wizard was founded in 1979 by Gerd Breiter. The first model produced was a VW Golf in street and racing form, and a subsequent theme was a range of Bugatti models. Shortly after Tin Wizard’s foundation, Herr Breiter was visited by his childhood next-door neighbour and playmate, Thomas Wolter. Thomas and Gerd had not seen one-another for many years.

Thomas had studied mathematics and physics and had gone on to qualify as an optician. Although Herr Breiter started the business, he did not have the training or expertise for the work of model making. He was more at home in an office doing all the paperwork - accounts, invoices, letters, etc. Indeed, Thomas felt it was difficult to understand why Gerd started this sort of business.

However, Herr Breiter had been searching for someone to help him with the technical side of the business. Thomas joined the business and started making the patterns, the moulds and looking after the general production. There were a few others running the machines, cleaning the parts and helping with all the other work needed. It was a time for learning as the quality of the models was poor and they knew they could do better

During the early years their production consisted mostly of German cars, BMW, Opel, and in particular, Porsche as they had received some orders from the Porsche factory.

They produced parts for Danhausen and other companies in Europe and the USA who were producing model cars. They also produced complete models in white metal and resin for other companies. Sometimes things did not work or turn out as expected, but all the while there was fun in what was being done and gradually they improved their techniques. They were pioneers, finding new ways to do things, getting better all the time.

In 1984, they exhibited at the Nurnberg Toyfair for the first time. This was a good decision as business was going well and it encouraged them to keep on with the work.

In 1993, Herr Breiter decided to retire from Tin Wizard, fearing the threat from the Chinese producers. Thomas then found himself ‘alone’, taking over all the office work as well as making a new start and feeling his way in a changing market.

Whilst all the time doing contract work, Thomas continued to improve his pattern making skills and even started to do his own litho work for decals and photo-etched parts. He bought a ‘Repro’ camera and, a year later, he bought his first Mac computer. He learnt to work with ‘Freehand’ and ‘Photoshop’ and was then able to do decals and photo-etched parts to a standard and quality he could not achieve before. It was a good decision – he threw the big camera away.

Having experienced so many problems with industrial electro-plating suppliers, like poor quality or loss of parts, Thomas decided to build his own in-house plating system, also a good decision. He was able to achieve the quality and reliability he wanted.

In due course, he made contact with Peter Comben of Enco Models at ModeleX and they had stands side by side there on several occasions. They started to work closer and closer, sharing ‘know how’ and as a result Peter moved his business to Germany for a few years. This resulted in the revival of the Enco Models range, which is now produced to the high standard that Peter desired.

In 2003 Tin Wizard began working with CAD programmes and since then has been able to produce perfect models. Thomas still does masters by hand, in conjunction with CAD. He finds this a perfect way to work and is pleased to have found a keen young assistant to learn the craft and eventually take responsibility when he decides to retire, although he does not see that happening for a few years yet. Thomas enjoys his work and derives great satisfaction from the technical challenge of getting new models into production. Since the beginning, more than thirty years ago, they have constantly looked for new ways to improve their skills. Key to this are his staff: Jörn Herring who has been responsible for white metal casting and building ready-made models since 1995, Stefan Himmel who has done the painting since 1991 and Malte Grünberg who is the CAD technician and has been with Tin Wizard since 2002 doing white metal casting and, more recently, mould making.

The market has changed significantly since they started. Then, 99.99% of their production was sold to the trade. Now, 95% of their models are sold direct to collectors. They do not manufacture the same number of each model as in earlier years when at times, they had 9 employed people. In those days they made more than 1000 pieces of some models. These days, about 300 pieces of a new model are made, spread over a few years. Today as a small team they only produce a small number of some models. Thomas does not concern himself with precise numbers and, indeed, does not count them.

Subject ID: 82961

Less