Neverending Expansion - The Challenge of Displaying the Collection

[RStretton]

Much like the aviation industry itself my 1:400 collection continues to expand with little thought for the impact it has - in this case on my display space and wallet. Anybody would think I didn't control its growth!

Anyway my hobby room has limited space for further model storage and I have told myself that I will expand the display areas only within their current footprints. This means I have had to start getting a bit creative and the available room is fast approaching its maximum capacity.

Here's how the central cube area which houses my Non-US/European models and the Dowse National airport diorama looked in June 2013:

Global Classic Die-cast Model Airliner Collection June 2013 by rstretton, on Flickr

Global Classic Die-cast Model Airliner Collection June 2013 by rstretton, on Flickr

There was plenty of room for additions back then but that has all changed. Recent changes have seen some shelf expansion in the central cube area. Nowadays there are 8 shelfs in the area split roughly by geographic location. At the back the lowest is for Canada, then moving upwards Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa & the Middle East and at the top the Far East.

Global Classic Die-cast Model Airliner Collection November 2014 by rstretton, on Flickr

On the right at the bottom is South America, above it the rest of Latin America and above that Oceania. Note that the Oceania shelf is different to the one in the June picture being twice as wide as before:

Global Classic Die-cast Model Airliner Collection November 2014 by rstretton, on Flickr

Oceania Classic Die-cast Model Airliner Collection November 2014 by rstretton, on Flickr

To the left has been a slim shelf for the Indian subcontinent. It used to have the Russians on it but they now have their own separate shelf elsewhere:

Global Classic Die-cast Model Airliner Collection October 2014 by rstretton, on Flickr

Recent changes have seen an extension to the length of the Sub-Saharan shelf which was immediately taken up by the recent Air Afrique A300 and several 707s. This freed the old shelf to replace the Indian shelf with a wider and longer one enabling expansion of the Far Eastern shelf which now wraps round onto the Indian one. This gives the Far Eastern shelf a bit more length than it had before:

Global Classic Die-cast Model Airliner Collection November 2014 by rstretton, on Flickr

Global Classic Die-cast Model Airliner Collection November 2014 by rstretton, on Flickr

As you can see there still isn't a lot of room for new additions here which is only going to get worse with 4 more new additions to these areas incoming.

Outside of this area to the left of the worldwide cubby-hole is the space for Non-Trunk US airlines (except BN). Here there are still a few spots but the 1990s area was full. Recycling one of the old shelfs from the bookcase part has recently enabled me to almost double the area of this part of the collection as can be seen below:

1990s US Airline Display Shelf November 2014 by rstretton, on Flickr

So I've been able to find a bit more space but keep within my rules for now. There is still some space around in the US Trunk and Local service Airline areas as well as the Europe and UK cube but its limited. My 800th model arrived last week and I'm not sure I'll be able to see anymore than 850. I feel this is going to become an issue!

[WALmsp]

I understand! My display looks like Victorville or Goodyear where planes are nose-to-tail and wingtip-to-wingtip trying to use every millimeter of space, and still remain categorized!

[JAL1628]

Man you guys are lucky to have the space.. That's a big problem for me. My models stay boxed up. I build small shelf dioramas and try to photograph them before they return to storage..

[FireAngelZero]

I do the same exact thing myself JAL1628. I have a few book shelves, with my models boxed up and stacked vertically. It saves a lot of room, I've tried displaying my jets but some of them are so big they take the footprint of 5 boxes stacked next to each other. I usually just take them out of the boxes when they need to be displayed and once I'm done they go right back in. I never leave jets on display for too long for my own OCD's...

[eugenevh]

Nice to see your models on display Richard.

Unfortunately I am in the same boat as JAL1628 and FireAngelZero.
My babies stay in their cribs for their own safety. Just don't have the space and I fear dust is my nr.1 enemy, so WHEN (I live in hope) I one day will get to display them, they will have to be in a virtually dust proof cabinet which will probably cost a fortune unless I can become quite creative myself, which will be another 'challenge' for me.

But it is lovely to see peoples models and their collecting criteria.

Wow! Over 800 models. I am stunned. Some really nice ones there too. I approve of Sub-Saharan and African airlines naturally (at least where you don't beat me to a specific collection sale item I am still hunting down) :-)

[RStretton]

Thanks guys. Yeah I'm lucky to have my own room available so I can display all 800 at once. The 1700 Schabak 1:600s have to remain boxed though! I assumed you were all familiar with the other parts of the collection as this is only about a quarter of it obviously.

On the dust front I am also lucky that this room is effectively cut off from the rest of the house being only accessible by trapdoor. With little airflow and only me visiting regularly dust hasn't been a major issue - though living in a damp environment like West Auckland - mould on wood can be a problem in the winter.

Just in case you never saw them there are some Youtube videos which give an overview of the room layout. They are a little old now but generally the room still looks like this:

This is the room in general: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc0OEgMFnoM
Here are separate smaller vids on my channel page: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo4jOuchmn30lsxXJ3UTy_A