A number of paintguns were built in Brazil in the early to mid 1990s because of the costs associated with importing from the United States.
Most common and well known to those of us in the United States are the Brute 1/2 nelson based pumps and the Brute-A-Matic F1 clone blowback, which were distributed in the United States by Hal Robinson’s Paintball Mania Supplies (Nitro Duck).
Many of these paintball markers were short lived with small production runs and likely never reached the United States. I would image most of these markers remained in South America and over the years many were discarded but a few may have resurfaced.
Somehow, one of the more complex examples of Brazilian engineering, The Speed Master Auto Pump, by a company named Thormax, did manage to makes it’s way to the US during the early 90s. I would guess this paintgun arrived with a traveling team from Brazil, which there were several of in the early to mid 90s. However this paintgun arrived on US soil, Sergey Levkov, of Lapco, saw it and managed to take it back to California with him.
The Speed Master Auto Pump is a Semi Automatic Nelson kit built on a pump clone of the NW Spitfire. The semi automatic components are integrated into the shroud and a small airline runs drilled through the 1/8th npt (or metric threads?) rear valve body down the aluminum body from to the back of the shroud. The airline then flows into the regulator and is transfered to the switch (3/4 way) and the from there the ram to “Auto Pump” the bolt.
I haven’t been able to find much history on this paintgun aside from the great information posted on mcb by Mendel Diesendruck.
Living in Saò Paulo, Brazil, Mendel found examples of both Thormax’s initial Speed Master Pump and an Auto Pump (the only other Auto Pump I’ve seen). The Auto Pump showed up for sale on a local craigslist / ebay style website. Mendel’s also been able to dig up a little bit of background on both.
Find Mendel’s post detailing different Thormax and other Brazilian paintguns here:
http://www.mcarterbrown.com/forums/vintagerex-com/156134-brazilian-paintball-markers-all-them-pic-heavy.html
In another post, specifically on the Speed Master Auto Pump, Mendel writes that “there were only 30 of these ever made, all of them in 1994/1995. The factory closed around 1998 or so.” From the sound of it Thormax made a variety of different paintguns throughout the 90s including the Speed Master Pump and the Speed Master Auto Pump.
Sergey’s Auto-Pump is, I think, an earlier version and Mendel’s is the later style, since it uses a vertical asa, has the name engraved (or stenciled) on the side, and a serial number stamped.
When Sergey initially purchased the Green Speed Master Auto Pump he had the idea of adapting a more refined assembly to NW’s pumps but never got around to it. So this semi sat mostly untouched for a decade (or more).
Here is a low quality short video of the shroud disassembled. I’ll be posting a complete breakdown eventually when I have time to edit it.
And here is a satirical video where we used the Speed Master Auto Pump. Don’t worry, everything is attached with only camo duct tact and there haven’t been any modifications to this rare specimen. Please remember, this isn’t serious, just a little bit of poking fun at scopes and sniper tactics in paintball.
Big thanks to Mendel Diesendruck for his research and for sharing his findings. Otherwise I would have no idea at all about identification on this paintgun!
Did you manage to make it work again?
I never ended up rebuilding this. Someday I will hopefully. Thanks for the comment!