Wiking (WM)

Friedrich Karl Peltzer began professional model making in Berlin in 1932, producing waterline ships at 1:1250. Wiking-Modellbau Peltzer & Peltzer entered the commercial register in 1936. Aircraft models followed, including plastic aircraft from 1939, while vehicle models appeared at the Leipzig Autumn Fair in 1938. During the Second World War, the company supplied models for military training and records.

After the war, WIKING restarted with household goods before returning to models. It introduced plastic vehicles at 1:100, initially with steel wire axles, as well as ships and larger vehicle models. The 1951–53 changes included transparent glazing and the replacement of wire axles with rolling axles and floor plates. As model railways grew in popularity, WIKING’s roughly 1:90 vehicles became widely used in railway layouts. The range later expanded to include 1:160 miniatures and, from the 1960s onward, detailed cars, trucks and agricultural vehicles.

Peltzer died in 1981. Sieper acquired Wiking-Modellbau Peltzer & Peltzer on 1 July 1984 and renamed it Wiking-Modellbau GmbH & Co. KG, continuing the WIKING product line. The company began systematic redevelopment of its 1:87 range in 1986, and its history records production in Poland from that year. Subsequent additions included 1:32 agricultural models and further car, truck, tractor and emergency vehicle ranges.