How do make your collection? By fleet or by model?

[Smooky]

Hello everybody!


I'm starting this topic just to have your opinion about how every one of you had the idea to create his collection.
For my part, the model i bought was the B777-300ER of Emirates ( because it's my favourite airline company ) and seeing that it was so beautiful that i had the idea to continue with every plane of this company.
Seeing how wonderful it was as a fleet, I started buying like that i mean each company would have at least three or four planes.
And this is how i'm doing until now.


PS: Admin, please delete this post if there's already an old one! Thank you!

[MarcSant]

I have some subdivisions in my collection:

- Typical and rare visitors of Barcelona-El Prat Airport (This is the main one)
- Historical Soviet Aviation
- Historical Spanish and Western Aviation
- A380 collection
- Retrojets
- Military (Air Force One, E3 Sentry...)

[uncle beat]

I try to get a model of every type of plane/airline that I have flown on (but not necessarily registration specific!!) and also planes/airlines that I think look cool or would fit into the theme of my three dioramas (U.S., Caribbean, Latin America, Europe.\
Unfortunately the 1:500 manufacturers have not produced anything even close to the full spectrum of airliners both historic and current--

[LeoMuse747]

I currently only collect models of airlines which fly to the Caribbean, because they must fit my diorama storyline some exceptions are freighter planes (ex: Kalitta 747).

I also own a few models of worldwide airlines (ex: Emirates and Qatar 777), and I don't plan on getting rid of them.

[B-HUF]

Mine is usually along these "rules" (and by sequence):
1) Planes I've flown with
2) Anything from airlines I like, e.g. anything from my two home countries (Hong Kong and UK), All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Thai
3) Releases on the models I like, incl. DC-10, DC-9/Mad Dogs, A300, A310, B737-200, B757-200/-300WL, B767-200, B767-300WL
4) Planes regularly visiting my home airports, i.e. HKG (and since I'm moving to London I'll need more European planes going to LHR/LGW/LCY)

There are also other odd choices which are really great looking, e.g. I bought the SriLankan Airlines A320NEO recently just because I like how the livery fits onto an Airbus - and I really like it.

[solicitor82]

Interesting question....
My fleet is a bit like my brain sometimes...scattered! I like a model in either scale and buy it if...
(1)The models are common to a few airports namely Mumbai (my home airport), London Heathrow, Toronto Pearson and Dubai...
(2) The aircraft I have flown is made into a regular release model (for example Emirates A380 A6-EUK)
(3) As far as BA B744s are concerned, the entire fleet of 57
(4) I admire the model in someone else's fleet and I happen to like the model enough to buy it...with restrictions being conversion rate from USD, CAD, GBP and EUR into INR and shipping rates from various retailers to India and Indian customs here...

Due to these restrictions, I have to pick and choose which ones to buy...
Sorry I haven't been able to buy much this year (only a handful of models) because of conversion rate and dumb Indian customs (two parcels were sent back or destroyed due to their ignorance!)

[United930]

Like others my collection has categories:

1:500 scale:
*International airlines that fly to SFO (actual aircraft type or suitable equivalent...basically something that has the range to get here so always a widebody)

1:400 scale:
*Domestic airlines that fly into SFO (just one model each...always a narrowbody)
*International arrivals from the Americas (had to go 1:400 with these because Herpa will never make most of them...all narrowbodies just one model each)
*Any and all things United Airlines...they are the "home team" here and thus my favorite!

Then I have one shelf each for a unique display of Boeing and Airbus Launch Customers...just to get a few "classics" in.

I have two misfits...two 1:200 scale United Airlines models.

As is common my decision to collect in this manner was purely based on available space. I don't fleet build nor do I have space to allocate to a model airport (although I'd love to make one...maybe someday)

[JALPAL]

Japan Airlines and its offshoots like JTA and JAC,
ANA official models by Hogan,
Hawaiian Airlines

All in 1/400 scale

[DutchCollector]

I try to collect everything that flies in to AMS/Schiphol. That includes a heck load of KLM, so I have multiple models of certain birds

B747 x11
A333 x2
A332 x3
B772 x4
B77W x7
B789 x2 and so on..

[sheepxs]

(almost) everything




*edit*


kidding.....more or less, i collect the models that i like but the majority seems to be narrowbodies. If i don't like the livery i won't buy it. And I usually don't collect military ...with a few exemptions of course.

[Smooky]

Hello everybody!
I'm glad to see that this topic beeing interesting
Thank you for participating!

[captainflynn]

I grew up by Heathrow from 1984 to 2000 so try to collect models of aircraft that visited there during that time. However I also like collecting rare/limited models, special liveries and samples.

[Diversion]

For me, I collect based on airports. So, my collection is mostly centered around an American/US Airways fleet, to match my PHL model airport project, and then the planes that come into my local airport, BGR (this is mostly regional jets, but also a ton of military airlift, and then diversions from Europe). Part of my collection though is just for looks: Air Tahiti Nui 787, 4 Air New Zealand birds, and 3 Thai Airways birds for example.

[phil8900]

My collection is solely based on planes I already flew on, and although I am not in the air as much as I used to this led to a pretty diverse collection of which I am incredibly proud of
Before I started collecting some years ago, the only thing I had was all my boarding passes of all flights in my life dating back to 1995 and the first step for me was to build a complete flight log with flight numbers, airlines, departure and arrival airpors and dates. At that point I was basically interested how many flights I had already taken in my life, the distance it covered and which airlines were my personal favorites. It was not before my father got me an Air France A319 in 1:500 for my birthday which was the first plane I ever took alone as unaccompanied minor that I started to think about collecting my personal fleet and well - it has been a hell of a ride!



The problem with my flight log was pretty obvious - while I knew the details mentioned above from the boarding passes, the plane types were mostly guessing and I didn't want to build my collection based on assumptions. I went through my flight log, flight by flight, in order to find out the exact plane type and registration which was hard work, relying on different sources like acarsd or the BTS Ontime Stats and various other websites - pretty much everything is out there for us to be found, but it can get difficult from time to time when flight numbers and callsigns have changed. I even asked airlines and airports to help me out, and to my surprise they were super helpful!


With that knowledge I started my collection and it grew fast, but one thing didn't feel completely right - I completely left out liveries of my considerations and as a perfectionist this had to change. I call the next step "photo matching" - I started to browse through jetphotos and planespotters to figure out how exactly a certain plane looked like on the date I flew with it which led to different liveries, special liveries and stickers I wanted to see in my collection - once again, my collection grew at a fast pace. But at some point I hit a dead end as some of the liveries and planes I took in my flying life were just too odd to be produced by any manufacturer. But the marvellous custom makers here on W900 came to my rescue and help me to get closer to my goal day by day, although I suspect even they sometimes wonder what weird airline I found and flow on - I am looking at you, SunAdria F100!



As some planes I had the pleasure to fly on were simply too small to be represented in any manufacturers 1:500 range, 3D printing proved to be an amazing opportunity to realise planes like a Saab 2000, Jetstream 31/32 and some Twin Otters as they were available through Shapeways or similar services. But there was one plane where it was more difficult and it meant a lot to me - the Robin DR400. My dad earned his wings on that small and pretty plane and took us places, so I knew I wanted to have one in 1:500 which was quite a project, but after going through manufacturers manuals and a lot of literature and pictures, the Robin DR400 was ready to be printed

As you might see, I put a lot of effort into my collection which only includes planes which I already flew on and I am already planning new flying adventures

[tomek-czarnyszewicz]

Basically the rules are as follow:
1) 1:500 scale models only, due to limited space;
2) Aircrafts I have flown, possible with exact same registration;
3) LOT Polish Airlines aircrafts;
4) Aircrafts from airliners with Polish registrations - Polish Wings;
5) All new aircraft type or new airline, based on rule that the aircraft can reach Poland.
As almost all collectors there are some exceptions:
1) 1:200 scale model of LCC (snap-fit models, mostly bought inflight);
2) 1:500 scale models of transportation aircrafts, one of each type;
3) 1:500 scale models of military aircrafts, one of each type.