Rebuilding My Life Car Collection (with models :-)

[oo7ml]

Hi,

I'm currently building a new home office, and i'd love to add some "art" to one of the walls... and I was thinking of buying a small model of each car that I've owned to date... circa 25... including a few early cars that were not exactly that cool, however they were still the first cars :-)

I know I can locate different models from different suppliers etc, but I really want to buy all from one supplier so that they are somewhat uniform, even if they lack the details.

I've never bought a model / toy car before... can anyone suggest a supplier or website that usually has a large coverage? Thank you in advance for your help.

[Sterillium]

I've nothing helpful to add, but, I think this is a great idea! I might steal it.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

You won't (I doubt) get them all from one supplier.

I've done what you are thinking & it's quite tricky. It's just a case of trawling the internet, and there'll always be one that evades you

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

I'm guessing you'll go 1/43 scale & there's more choice.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

I can't find a 1/43 Vauxhall Viva HC (so got the nearest thing a Firenza) & my SX4 didn't look much like the model

[Mr Tidy]

I've got models of 4 of my more recent cars.

I found the first one randomly in a shop in Florida on a business trip, but got the rest from Amazon/Ebay.

Good luck finding yours.

[oo7ml]

Cool, thanks all...

I was thinking of just spraying all of them completely white, so they essentially just look like a 'silhouette'... and raising them 5mm off the wall... and wiring a very very small warm light under each of them (behind the board)... and then placing them diagonally up the wall.

I'll revert back with some photos when done...

[DodgyGeezer]

oo7ml said:

Cool, thanks all...

I was thinking of just spraying all of them completely white, so they essentially just look like a 'silhouette'... and raising them 5mm off the wall... and wiring a very very small warm light under each of them (behind the board)... and then placing them diagonally up the wall.

I'll revert back with some photos when done...

Sounds intriguing, look forward to seeing this

[blueg33]

I've been trying to do the same. Currently cantfind an Alpine GTA turbo in the right colour, or an Evora Sports Racer, or a ginetta G33

Its quite a hard thing to do

[sidewinder500]

blueg33 said:

I've been trying to do the same. Currently cantfind an Alpine GTA turbo in the right colour, or an Evora Sports Racer, or a ginetta G33

Its quite a hard thing to do

If you go for specific colours you could search long, best is to repaint the models in 'your' colour.
Good luck with the Ginetta...

[blueg33]

sidewinder500 said:

If you go for specific colours you could search long, best is to repaint the models in 'your' colour.
Good luck with the Ginetta...

I have an Evora that will be repainted, managed to get Ferrari and TVR in the right colours

Edited by blueg33 on Friday 14th July 11:52

Edited by blueg33 on Friday 14th July 11:53

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

blueg33 said:

TVR in the right colours

I've often wondered what the story is re the above. Somebody commissioned it but then never collected it. (T950 AGH)

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

It's still going, but not much use

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[BananaFama]

I've owned too many cars to try and find models of them all now .
I probably have 10% of them in 1/43 .

OP should list what he needs ,I like a good Ebay hunt .

[GTRene]

with 25 cars you can do them in 1/18 scale.

I had at least 122 cars incl trade in cars I also drove with to buy my next sporty car (maybe 4 or so forgotten) long time ago I started with some in 1/18 but way to big...

So over time I sold those and started with 1/43 scale, back then they were not to nice in details, but later they got way better, perfect even.

so started again years later for the final edition in 1/43 some were never made in that scale, some in very small numbers and so on, so took al long time and still a few have to be better, say the more right color and some very vey hard to find, but I know some exist, but say made only 300 WW so.,... have to wait till some come online again second hand. :-)

here a overview in my new aluminium and thick glas showcase, also expensive... let alone a lot of the cars way over 100,-euro a piece.

But I wanted that, so i can remember the cars I've owned once in my car life, only 20 are not in the right color or model, but have trackers on the WWW when or if they pop up, a bit of a hobby and to not forget and I like it.



here a very small part close up from my 5 ex Ford Escort RS2000 all in the right color, also the 4 Lancia Delta Integrales, I also bought a label printer to write the model en type of my old cars to put such sticker on the base.

[sidewinder500]

GTRene said:

with 25 cars you can do them in 1/18 scale.

I had at least 122 cars incl trade in cars I also drove with to buy my next sporty car (maybe 4 or so forgotten) long time ago I started with some in 1/18 but way to big...

So over time I sold those and started with 1/43 scale, back then they were not to nice in details, but later they got way better, perfect even.

so started again years later for the final edition in 1/43 some were never made in that scale, some in very small numbers and so on, so took al long time and still a few have to be better, say the more right color and some very vey hard to find, but I know some exist, but say made only 300 WW so.,... have to wait till some come online again second hand. :-)

here a overview in my new aluminium and thick glas showcase, also expensive... let alone a lot of the cars way over 100,-euro a piece.

But I wanted that, so i can remember the cars I've owned once in my car life, only 20 are not in the right color or model, but have trackers on the WWW when or if they pop up, a bit of a hobby and to not forget and I like it.



here a very small part close up from my 5 ex Ford Escort RS2000 all in the right color, also the 4 Lancia Delta Integrales, I also bought a label printer to write the model en type of my old cars to put such sticker on the base.

René, this is mightily impressive, from the modeling standpoint as well as the actual cars go.
Did you change your cars every few months?

[C5_Steve]

I have a very small list of cars I've owned but a few years ago my very clever GF made me a collection of my cars for my birthday. She used Hotwheels but painted a couple so they matched what I owned (the Civic was a Hello Kitty version apparently!). I think Hotwheels are a good inexpensive place to look, ebay is your friend if you want to look online for something specific.

[Sterillium]

She's a keeper.

[GTRene]

sidewinder500 said:

GTRene said:

with 25 cars you can do them in 1/18 scale.

I had at least 122 cars incl trade in cars I also drove with to buy my next sporty car (maybe 4 or so forgotten) long time ago I started with some in 1/18 but way to big...

So over time I sold those and started with 1/43 scale, back then they were not to nice in details, but later they got way better, perfect even.

so started again years later for the final edition in 1/43 some were never made in that scale, some in very small numbers and so on, so took al long time and still a few have to be better, say the more right color and some very vey hard to find, but I know some exist, but say made only 300 WW so.,... have to wait till some come online again second hand. :-)

here a overview in my new aluminium and thick glas showcase, also expensive... let alone a lot of the cars way over 100,-euro a piece.

But I wanted that, so i can remember the cars I've owned once in my car life, only 20 are not in the right color or model, but have trackers on the WWW when or if they pop up, a bit of a hobby and to not forget and I like it.



here a very small part close up from my 5 ex Ford Escort RS2000 all in the right color, also the 4 Lancia Delta Integrales, I also bought a label printer to write the model en type of my old cars to put such sticker on the base.

René, this is mightily impressive, from the modeling standpoint as well as the actual cars go.
Did you change your cars every few months?

Thanks, its over a period of 42 years , so no, not every month, but the first 20 years I changed a lot, I had 2 years were I changed 10 times in 1 year, those were years were I also a few trade in cars at sporty cars I sold, so for example 5 'sporty' cars I bought that looked interesting for me to drive, and I got on every car a trade in car, which I also drove for say a week or a month or so, those days I could sell easy.

In those 2 years (both years) I got a warning from the insurance compagnie, who said what are you, a car trader? ifso then you use the wrong insurance! they then want to throw me out...

But, my dad worked also for that big compagnie, so no problem, but I also had to insure them by law! and no i was no car broker/dealer or whatever, so I explained, when I want to change my car and get another one, I have to insure it because of the law (when the car is on the street) and then yes thats true but... lol, my dad says, they do that, because changing the documents by the compagnie cost them more than they earn from me :-) I mostly used the cheapest form of insurance and also had a discount because of my dad working there hahah.

anyhow, thats my story, the good old days, I wanted to try a lot cars, but also remember, cars those days were not always the best, think of rust and co, so also keeping a car longer means cost...
and special cars you could also get profits when you sold them, to keep your hobby payable, that way you could buy better or more expensive cars later on.

edit: now I see on your profile, you got a good list as well, I guess maybe more the cars not mentioned there.
Good job :-)

Edited by GTRene on Friday 14th July 23:06

[marine boy]

Great idea, will make a very unique collection, personal only to you

Done the same but for cars I've worked on

1 18 collection takes up a lot of space, even a small collection

Another reason to go to 1 43 is the range of cars is vast, many times more choice of makes and models than 1 18

I switched to 1 43 a few years ago, was a good decision as I'm up to around 150 cars and my collection is too large to display in the house so it will go on my garage wall