ChairmanMilo

Here is a thread for all those that are either thinking about starting or already have a collection of diecast military aircraft. I collect mostly 1:72, with some 1:32, 1:48, 1:144 and 1:400 mixed in there for good measure. I also collect diecast armoured fighting vehicles in 1:32 and 1:72 scale. I have limited space with which to display my collection of 100+ armoured fighting vehicles and 400+ warbirds. I am currently able to display about 1/4 of both collections at one time.



^ the shelf on my desk where I keep some of the best. I have the new Hobby Master ROCAF F-100A (HA2104) & Mirage 2000-5 (HA1609) on the top shelf, the five latest Hobby Master Harvard/Texans to the left of those, Korean War jets (four Corgi F-86s - AA35801, AA35804, AA35806 and AA35810 and a Corgi Meteor - AA35004) on the middle shelf and Vietnam War jets on the bottom shelf (Hobby Master F-4D Phantom II HA1901, F-4J Phantom II HA1902, F-100D Super Sabre HA2101 and F-100D Super Sabre HA2102).



^ I'm a big fan of these two, other than that the Mirage keeps dropping missiles every time I breath in the room.



^ four Vietnam War jets, including two recent additions - Hobby Master's F-4E Phantom II "Arkansas Traveller" and the Hobby Master Harold Comstock F-100D Super Sabre HA2101 (couldn't resist).



^ both of USAF fighter pilot George Laven Jr.'s fighters by Hobby Master, F-100C Super Sabre HA2105 and F-104C Starfighter HA1001 "Really George". I've been waiting quite a long time to display them together like that.

I reorganized my four shelves of planes; I have the FAA and Coastal Command birds on top, with the latest FAA Avenger and Hellcat by Hobby Master (HA1210 and HA1111 respectively) underneath the Corgi RCAF Catalina (AA36107). The displaced Corgi Swordfish (three of them) are tucked under the Corgi Catalina, Wellington (AA34805) and Liberator (AA34005). Corgi's Swordfish has wings that fold back, so they are easier to display in limited space. The first shelf down has the RAF as before, except it is half Hurricanes (left) and half Spitfires (right) with the latest Corgi Typhoon (AA36506) on its stand in the middle. The second shelf down is now full of USAAF Mustangs, Thunderbolts, Warhawks and Airacobras. The third shelf down now has a Luftwaffe of the Battle of Britain collection, with the three "Adler Tag" aircraft (Ju 88A AA36705, He 111H-3 AA33711 and Ju 87B-2 Stuka AA32514) displayed together for the first time along with all four of my Dragon Bf 109Es and five of my Corgi Bf 109Es. The colours on the "Alder Tag" planes aren't as bad as I had originally thought - the green is darker than I've seen in photos online. I really like the latest Avenger and Hellcat, too.

QF A380

I nearly fell of my chair. Great collection. Love that Catalina. There was a Cat base here in Perth at Crawley Bay during WWII. QANTAS Cats would fly the "Double Sunrise" run non stop to Ceylon. (They saw two sunrises during the flight because of it's length.)

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ChairmanMilo

That's an interesting story. I often wonder whether Corgi/Hornby will ever get around to releasing an Qantas or RAAF Catalina. There seems to be a huge market for RAAF aircraft - just look at how many have been released by Corgi, Hobby Master, even Franklin Mint. Maybe it is just a matter of time - the Catalina tooling is one of their newest ones, after all.

It is to my everlasting shame that I ran out of room for more Catalinas after I bought only two. I have the RCAF release, the most recent (obviously) and the United States Navy "Black Cat". I've been after the Pembroke Dock release for a while, but as I said, I have very little room for the gigantic boxes that the Cats come in.

matt109

Simply WOW! It's great to see another person reading Osprey Aircraft Books (Y), LOL...
I have to agree with you, that Mirage is really neat, and the USAF Sabre's are even better. You have a great collection, keep up the good work, and nice one for getting some really awesome models .

Matt

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ChairmanMilo

Thank you for the compliment.

The Don Schmenk F-100D is one of my top ten favourites so far. I hope that Hobby Master doesn't release any more desirable F-100s. I have four that I'm incredibly happy with, but I don't have the money and storage space for more! The next two releases - a French Armee de l'Air F-100D and Danish Flyvevåbnet F-100D - are of no particular interest to me.

The Mirage 2000 is a fairly neat release. I (and plenty of others) hope that Hobby Master will eventually solve the licensing issue and release a line of Mirage III/5/50s in the future.

Silverbird

thanks for sharing pics of your great collection
Would be nice to have a closer look on your WWII collection shelfs.
The Catalina is in every sense of the word a great model. I also got one (the black cat) and hardly find a good place to display it. They should consider a 1:144 version in future.
As we're talking about warbirds here, I like to share a link to Tim Healy's blog about Warbirds. From there you can also go to his excellent Twin Plane pages which need a password that is published in the blog :
Tricatus’s Daily Log

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ChairmanMilo

Tim Healy's site is the best resource for a diecast warbird collector out there, especially for Corgi collectors.

I'll try to get some shots of the bookshelf. I rotated a few of the aircraft since that shot you see there - swapped the Typhoon for the new Corgi Blenheim and switched two Airacobras for some Dragon F4F Wildcats. Looks great.

ChairmanMilo

Here are some photo updates.



^ Dragon Warbirds DRW50215 Bf 109E-1 as flown by Fritz Losigkeit of II./JG 26. I've had this one for a while, and recently took it out for a shelf of Luftwaffe aircraft from the Battle of Britain. Note that it now has a Hobby Master pilot in the cockpit. The poor fellow had to lose his legs and have his rear end shaved a bit, but he fits in that tiny cockpit.





^ The first Corgi Blenheim (AA38401, a Blenheim IV) displayed with my Hurricanes and Spitfires on the RAF shelf. It is, of course, the top shelf, just as it should be. I did not know the Blenheim was that small until I picked this one up and compared it to my HM Beaufighters. I was more started, however, by the huge box that Corgi saw fit to release it in. The Mosquito fits in the smaller box. Why not the Blenheim?



I switched HM Hellcat Mk.I HA1111 for HM Hellcat Mk.II HA1102 (No. 804 Sqn FAA, 1944). They look better together.



My Korean War display with a newly added FG-1D Corsair (Corgi AA33012), as flown by Jesse Folmar of VMA-312 in September 1952. I love Corsairs, even if I have only three by Corgi so far. I do wish, however, that Corgi would have added some underwing rockets or bombs to this release. It was used for close air support.



My Vietnam War collection, with my newly added F-105D Thunderchief (Hobby Master HA2501) as flown by David B. Waldrop of the 34th TFS/388th TFW out of Korat AFB in Thailand in 1967. I am greatly impressed by the size of this new diecast warbird and I can't wait to get my hands on the third release and whatever F-105G they release first. I don't know that I have room for much more than that. Also on display for the first time is a UH-1C Huey "Frog" (Hobby Master HH1004). I like HM's Hueys and I have the next Huey gunship and the medevac chopper pre-ordered.

vince1159

When they arrive could you post a photo of all three Huey's together.Also do the F-4's come with gear?...I'm not a big collecter of military jets or warbirds(yet),fantastic collection.

ChairmanMilo

You'll find all the info you need on Hobby Master releases here:

Hobby Master Collector Home Page

The manu has its own website, but HMC is the best source for information on new releases.

The F-4s by Hobby Master come with gear-up and -down configurations. I have four so far with two more on order. They are gigantic pieces of diecast, but I just can't get enough of them. Regarding the Hueys - when the next two pop up, I will have five altogether (a UH-1B Huey "Heavy Hog", two UH-1C Huey "Frogs", a UH-1B Huey "Dust-Off" and a Dutch Navy AB.204B). I will have the four Vietnam War choppers on display together for sure.

I would love to see some Canadian Forces UH-1s in the future.

vince1159

Thanks for the link,i'm definitely going to have to get a couple of the F-4's sometime.

ChairmanMilo

Two update photos for you.



^ my first Hobby Master A-10A Thunderbolt II (HA1308).



^ my three Hobby Master ROCAF jet fighters: an F-104 Starfighter (HA1015), an F-100A Super Sabre (HA2104) and a Mirage 2000-5Ei (HA1609). The only ROCAF aircraft missing are the three Dragon P-51Ds (which I have) and the three Dragon F-16s (which I don't have).

ChairmanMilo

Here are some updates.



^ Corgi's second Blenheim, a Mark IF night fighter (AA38402).



^ my RAF night fighters, including the Hurricane, Spitfire & Mosquito by Corgi, Beaufighter by Hobby Master and Defiant by IXO/Altaya. I rather hope that Corgi will eventually release an all-black Mk.IF with AI antennae. Until then, the first three will definitely tide me over. I have the third release (a desert Blenheim I) pre-ordered.



^ Corgi's first Messerschmitt Bf 110C (AA38501) as flown by Hans-Joachim Jabs during the Battle of Britain. Despite the roasting it seems to have gotten from a lot of diecast warbird collectors, I like it. I have the next two pre-ordered, but I don't know if I have interest in adding more. I have all of the Hobby Master Bf 110Gs already, with another one pre-ordered. If Corgi releases some decent MTO Bf 110Cs I'll be in heaven.



^ a wide shot to show my Luftwaffe shelf (bottom of the photo) with the newly added Bf 110C, with the He 111, Ju 88 and Ju 87 making up an "Adler Tag" display for the first time. The colours match, and the aircraft look great together.



^ my now-complete set of all five Corgi F-86 Sabres from the Korean War, with a newly added F-86A (sharkmouth, AA35807) as flown by Joseph Fields.

MYT DC-10

Great collection there. I never new Corgi made so many Sabre's with the Yellow stripe, I have only managed to find the "Birth of the jet age" range F-86.

Your WW2 RAF collection is very fascinating, I only new the Blenhiem was made other day when I came across it in ModelZone. Also liking the Hurricanes, I havn't managed to get one of them as they are too overpriced for my taste.

And I just found out that Corgi are coming out with a C-47 Dakota and 2 Westland Lynx (Navy and Air Air Corp.) Im definitely ordering the Lynx.

P.S Who makes that Paul Deffiant?

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ChairmanMilo

Here are my first updates for about half a year

With my new job in the heart of Toronto's financial district, not as a security guard this time but as an actual participant in the madness that is the financial industry, I haven't had a lot of time to take photos and post them. I have had time, however, to add a significant number of new aircraft to my collection, not to mention dramatically downsize my collection of 1:32 armour.



^ the equally long-awaited USAF A-7 "SLUF", which has since been put away to make room for HM Thuds.



^ my SEA collection after a bit of a reorg. That CW stand looks god-awful, but it wasn't on display like this for long.



^ my SEA collection after the most recent reorg to get all three F-105s and those three F-4s on display together. Note the Israeli F-4 and A-4 on the shelf below. Even with the wrong wing leading edge, that F-4E looks pretty slick. I wish the A-4 had different weapons options.



^ my "Shamrocks" F-8 by CW & F-4 by Hobby Master. My cunning plan worked - the wife loves the shamrocks.



^ the most recent Corgi Spitfire in my collection, an early release - the Malta-based Maurice Stephens Mk.VB/trop.



^ my most recent Corgi Hurricane, another early release - the Malta-based Robertson Mk.I/trop (see a pattern here?)



^ my John Landers set - the "Big Beautiful Doll" P-51D from Dragon & recent "Texas Longhorn" by Corgi.



^ my first Helldiver, as flown by the FAA. Even if it wasn't used in combat operations, it looks great in those colours.



^ the Galland & Schroer Bf 109Es by Carousel 1, since swapped on display with the two new Buffalos.



^ my first two Buffalos by Hobby Master, the Dutch & the long-awaited Finnish releases.



^ two lovely photo-recce Spitfires by HM. It is nice to finally have something Swedish in my collection.