Wiking Modellbau

Now owned by German Siku Toys, in Lüdenscheid, the company specializes in models of cars and trucks dating from the 1950s to the present day.

Wiking was founded in 1932 by Freidrich Karl Peltzer who had built ships from cigar boxes in his youth.

[2] Before and during World War II these models, made of lead based zamac, were used by the German military for training and tactical planning.

The ships were accompanied by Modell-Hafen (Model Harbors) which were wood representations of piers, buildings and oil facilities to assist in attack training.

Based on the Wehrmachtsmodelle, Wiking also made some civilian vehicles whose production ceased at the beginning of World War II.

In 1947, Wiking started to produce simple car models that usually consisted of a single part - with no windows or chassis.

[3] In the early 1960s, Volkswagen's Wolfsburg plant commissioned vehicles in a larger 1:40 scale with unique company designed packaging.

The most expensive Wiking model ever sold is a Mercedes tank truck from 1962 which was produced as an advertising article for the Thyssen company.

Today's Wiking models try be perfectly detailed miniatures in their own right in a similar manner to their competitors (e.g. Herpa and Brekina).

This is perhaps slightly different from the earlier philosophy of producing a variety of vehicles more oriented toward HO scale railroad sets.

Another big change for the company came in September 2008, when it was announced the traditional home of the factory would be closed and all production would be transferred to the Siku / Sieper works in Lüdenscheid.