Thank you to all the collectors who entered our May competition. The collections are fantastic. It made our job judging them to get 10 winners so difficult. So here after much deliberation are our winners. There will more competitions like this so keep your eyes peeled!
Click on the thumbnails below to view the full gallery of images.
Winners
Christopher - Obsessed with buses!
"I collect a range of die-cast transport models but mainly buses.
I have been collecting for around 6 years (when I was 6) and I started my collection by having a continuing obsession of transport from around the age of 2, having lived next to a main railway line and always travelled on public transport. I also have a large collection of Hornby train sets including the digital range. I have a train set layout made by my Dad for me and I have hours of fun with it."
Daniel – A dedicated collector already!
"I have two different model collections; I have a world war two collection with lots of different vehicles, planes and soldiers from different armies and then I have my modern collection. This modern collection only consists of vehicles etc used by the British Army, RAF and Royal Navy. Everything I own in both collections is either 1/72 or 1/76(the only exception to this is a supermarine spitfire and a hawker hurricane which are both 1/48).
Me, My brother and my best mate all collect a modern army which we use to war game. We have created our own rules for every model we own. We have based a lot of it on the real life capabilities of the different models. A lot of it is based on a dice roll. We have turns where we move and shoot at each other. We also make our own scenery for it. We have organised our armies to have different units based on real regiments and units of our various armies. It’s really good fun and we all enjoy it.
I personally started to collect models when I was just five years old. My Dad got me into it by buying a couple of models(the 1/48 supermarine spitfire and the hawker hurricane) and then getting me to help make them and paint them, a bit like how his dad got him to help. Ever since that day I have been interested in models. However my interest in collecting Modern models all started when I joined the Army cadets at the age of 13. I was very interested in the British army so I started to collect models to do with it. A year later me and my mate (who also has been collecting for a long time) decided to start using them as armies.
It’s hard to say exactly how many models I have in my modern collection. I know I have at least 200 men and lots of vehicles. I'm 16 and I don’t come from a rich family so each model I have to save for but I think it makes it more worthwhile and more of a challenge."
Steve – “It all started with Biggles”
"Models of WWII aircraft, ships and armour representative of as many different nations as I can - 1:72 scale models of WWII aircraft, 1:72/1:76 scale models of WWII AFVs, 1:700 scale models of WWII ships. How long I have been collecting? Hard to say, probably about 28 years.
What got me started? Initially “Biggles in Borneo”. I had never heard of a Liberator at age 11, and had only seen one small photo of a Beaufighter: I wanted to know what they looked like and found a model of them. I later found a model of a Buffalo with the option of Dutch East Indies Air Force markings and started to realise that WWII was far more complex than I had thought."
Paul – In memory of my Granddad
"I collect trains. I only started collecting and modelling my model railway last year in November. At the moment I have one class 08 shunter a steam train (don’t know what class though it British rail though) Arriva trains Wales class 153 a virgin pendilino and a eurostar.I like lots of new stuff like scenery, ballast and buildings for my model railway because it’s fun to find different places to put the buildings and I light up the buildings so I like to listen to a bit of music while painting the insides of the buildings black and then white with acrylic paint. My model railway is up my Nan’s attic. I have a big table self made out of ply wood which my industrial area or site is and the outskirts where the track goes right round the arric is my country side. Also I would like to win these vouchers because I would like to do more on the model railway. I also would like to say that the model railway was built for a purpose in memory of my granddad Robert Evans who sadly passed away in November. My Granddad Robert worked in the railway industry (British Rail) and when he retired he started taking me on trips on the train and that was when I fell in love with trains."
Keith – More motorsport models than you can imagine!
"I mainly collect cars from various types of motor-sport, but I do have odd assortments of things. I have been collecting for a few years now, not quite sure when I started. I got hooked on models from my love of all types of Motor-sport. I have on display about 350, and around the same figure up in the loft."
Stephen – a WWII enthusiast with over 320 models
"I collect various scale WW2 and Vietnam era prepainted fighting vehicles. My main collection scales are 1/50 and 1/72. I collect from various manufacturers for 1/72 I use Hobbymaster- Forces of valor Dragon armour -Easy models and IXO. For my 1/50 collection (and my 1/48) I collect Corgi die-casts and Hobbymaster pre-paints. For my 1/144 range I use Cando prepainted.
I have been collecting these WW2 vehicles for about 5 years so far (prior to that I was a Warhammer 40k fan and most my hobby funds went into that) I guess I started collecting WW2 vehicles when I was about 10 I had a large airfix 'poly' tank collection ( which my mother gave to a jumble sale!!!).
My dad painted WW2 aircraft for my ceiling when I was very young and I progressed to buying an painting model tanks especially the matchbox multicolour range which all came with cool diorama bases I created platoons with the old airfix 'poly' tanks ( these were a bendy coloured preassembled plastic like the airfix 1/72 figures).
At my last count I had 200+ 1/72 prepainted WW2 and about 120 1/50 scale WW2/Vietnam.I also collect 1/144 die cast aircraft (primarily WW2) and 1/700 WW2 Battleships from the Atlas die cast range. I also collect Flames of war wargaming armies."
Mike – Not just a keen collector but builds dioramas for his collections
"I collect buses and commercials and have now been collecting for about 8 years and mainly concentrate on Provincial Southdown, Portsmouth Corporation, GWR, SR and British Railways. I started with an EFE gift set of two Provincial vehicles – as I once was a driver with them for some while after retiring from the Royal Navy, until they were taken over by First Bus, and my collection grew from there. I now have over 300 various including a 1.24 scale Southdown Bedford OB coach. My collection is part displayed but I have also built three different dioramas , one a transport depot with bus depot next to it – somewhere in the South of England, a Southdown bus terminus and finally a brewery with rail connection. My collection will go to my grandchildren when I pass on."
Andy – A long lasting passion for rally cars and a den to die for!
"Rally cars mainly in 1/43 scale, but also built kits in 1/24 and also 1/18 too..... Since 1987, nearly 25 years.
I have been watching rallying as a spectator since I was 5 years old (With my dad), Competing since I was 17 as a driver, then a navigator, and also an organiser too.
I have circa 1800 1/43, About 50 1/24 built kits (by myself-not all are displayed), and 10 1/18.
When our second child was born, I converted the garage into a workshop (2 metres in depth) entered from outside and a study / motel room (5 metres in depth) entered via the kitchen. As I had to raise the floor, I could display models "in the floor" (Idea via MTV Cribs) Thus 1/18 and 1/24 are displayed under 32mm thick plate glass. The remaining are on the wall in cases from Picture Pride Displays. Model Room also features, Sky, Home Cinema system with 6 speakers, and of course heating and the computer!! There are no windows (keeps the collection from the sun’s rays, better for security, and more space to display them!)"
Mark – All things Volkswagen.
"I collect all things Volkswagen, predominantly Air-cooled VW, related toys, models (made and un-made) die-cast cars, parts, books, literature, magazines, wartime VW Model’s and parts, I have also got a few full size VW’s in my garage as well. Basically I have all sorts really. You name it, I probably have one, or something similar somewhere.
I have been collecting since I was born really, although I can’t remember back that far, I am now 36. Apparently my first toy car ever was a VW Beetle, which I still have. As I was growing up I also added various die-cast toys of Beetles and Camper vans to my collection. Things took a big jump upwards when I bought my first car at the age of 15. This was a Clementine Orange 1971, 1302s VW Beetle which, again, I still own.
My daughter, now 8, also has her first ride-in car that we could pull along as a VW Beetle. This was something that I made for her from a fiberglass Convertible VW Beetle body that I bought at a car show, and a child’s pedal-along go-kart that I totally re-worked so she should sit in it and we could pull her along.
I am unsure what really got me started in collecting all things VW. It could have been the shape? It could have been the advertising that would have been on the TV as I was growing up? Peter Duncan of Blue Peter fame trying to sail (drive) one from England to Ireland? It could have been one of the Herbie films that caught my attention? Who knows? All I know is I certainly have the “bug”!
Ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, my collection includes micro sized Radio Controlled New Beetles, to full size, restored original Beetles, original Wartime VW engine parts (from the late 1930’s) through to 1/16th scale Radio Controlled VW’s that these parts would originally have been installed in. I have various items of Herbie memorabilia. "
Stefan – A man with thousands of soldiers at his beck and call.
"I collect King & Country 1/30 miniature soldiers/tanks/buildings. There is none better. I also collect 1/32 Forces of Valor 1/32 tanks/vehicles/soldiers, 1/350 WW2 Ships (Trumpeter, Revell, Hasegawa, Fujimi etc) and 1/32 WW2 aircraft.
I’ve been collecting ever since I was a child starting with Airfix 1/32. My local priest got my brothers and I started when we were altar servers as children. He supplied a model and a board game (France 1940 by AH) and we have never looked back since... much to our mother’s annoyance.
I have hundreds and hundreds of items if not 2-3 thousand. My storeroom looks like a mini shop!"
Dave – A Monster collection!
"I guess you could say that my collection of model kits began when I was about 5 years old, my very first kit was the Revenge by Airfix, my dad bought it for me for helping him in the garden over the weekend, I recall not being able to understand all of the instructions, and after I'd finished realised that it was a complete glue bomb, however that was a start of a relationship that I still enjoy even to this very day.
Fast forward to around 1968, a new T.V. programme aired called Star Trek, coupled with the Apollo missions......... every school kid my age wanted to be an Astronaut, a couple of years later I had my first model kit of the starship Enterprise.
Not long after that a school project had myself and my dad looking in shop windows for a model skeleton, Airfix did one, however none of the shops had it in stock, however there was an alternative skeleton kit available, it was made by an American company called Aurora, this particular kit was called the Forgotten Prisoner of Castle Mare. This was the beginning of a relationship, that again, continues to this day, even now, I can still remember the smell from the inside of the box, the beautiful artwork of the hapless prisoner on the front of the box, it was just so awesome, that I had to have more, Aurora did more kits, more monsters, Friday nights at 10.30 the horror films would be on I'd sit with my dad and watch these classic movies, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney appeared as vampires , mummy's and born again after death monsters, some had wives and hapless victims, it filled the mind of my youth. 1972 arrived, I was 10 years old, on Christmas day I eagerly opened box after box there was the Mummy, Dr Jeykll as Mr Hyde, Dracula, and the Phantom of the Opera I wasn’t seen for days, as I set about creating my glow in the dark monsters.
More T.V. programmes began to appear, Land of the Giants, Voyage to the bottom of the Sea, The invaders, U.F.O. And Aurora started to produce kits from these shows, the Seaview, the Flying Sub, The Invaders U.F.O, the Spindrift from Land of the Giants it seemed like a young boys heaven more figure kits appeared, there were kits of pirates, of Knights, kits of Gladiators, comic book kits Spiderman, Batman, the Hulk it went on and on, I kept saving my Newspaper round money and believe it or not my dinner money, and a little pocket money to fund my addiction my Mam could never understand why I was so ravenous after school .
By the time 72 marched on to 73 I was totally hooked with this collecting of models, I had ships, aircraft, monsters, knights, comic book hero's , I thought I had just about everything, until I walked into J.T.Parrishes on a street called Shields Road, in a place in Newcastle called Byker, there down 2 flights of stairs we walked to the kids toy department, to see what new goodies were being put on the market for parents to buy their kids for Birthday's and Christmas presents and there on the back wall was a sight I will never forget, rows and rows of Dinosaurs, early mankind, pre-historic mammals, giant birds, I walked over and looked at the boxes, Aurora had done it again, they'd created the range of Prehistoric Scenes, snap together, bases interlocking..... It was in a word ............fantastic even the box artwork was just awesome, one kit in particular caught my eye, it was the Tyrantosaurus Rex, the artwork was stunningly beautiful, (painted by Dave Cockram) it was a bright red monster and to this day is the largest styrene kit of a Dinosaur ever made. I stared long and hard at the price, it was just less than 8 pounds I would never be able to afford it, I felt broken staring up at the top shelf at this amazing wonder calling my name.
Unfortunately the dream of owning this monster of monsters would wait for a few months, until Christmas, until then the smaller kits that I could afford I bought, soon my collection began overtaking the amount of room that we actually had as a bedroom, I had to share my room with my older brother he often complained about the models, and tried flying my aircraft from upstairs windows, sometimes even setting them on fire I still have nightmares thinking of that!. Christmas came boxes were put out and getting up that day , I knew what I wanted..........would it be there that huge red monster,.......... it was and I remember opening it and looking carefully at the parts, his teeth, eyes and claws glowed in the dark !!!!
I was totally transfixed and spent all of Christmas with that kit set up against the cave, the woolly mammoth, cro - magnon man, and lots more in the series living in my own model induced world.
Time moved on, new movies came and went, at this time there were more movie and serial monsters on the market than at any other given time, Aurora had two sets of the monster line on the market, longbox originals, and square box glow in the dark, they then released 1/12 scale kits, under the banner of monster of the movies, this line had all the same characters but were smaller and posed differently than there 1/8th cousins. Amt had a line of kits out, strange change monsters in their coffins, you turned a key and the human remains would turn into skeletons, Walt Disney released the pirates of the Caribbean, with zap action movement, these were also coupled with the range of Haunted Mansion scenes, again with zap action movement it was in a word a great time for a young model collector.
One day I left for school. I was around 14 , when I returned home later that day, my room had been cleared, there was nothing there, my Mum had given all my models away to the family across the street, I was to say the least devastated, my mother thought I was too old to be playing with model toys, and reminded me that I wasn’t going to stay a boy forever, to be honest I could understand, but it would take a long time for me to ever forgive her, little did she know that these kits would rocket in price years later .
Time marched on, I had served an apprenticeship with a local bus company, I still visited model shops when I was given the chance, but kits on the shelves that I used to love seeing were slowly disappearing, The model company I learnt later Aurora had gone bankrupt in 1974, and no longer produced kits, and other companies also began to halt production on monster and science fiction kits, most kits produced in the late 70's and early 80's tended to be cars, trucks, planes and boats, in fact I even recall looking for models from star trek, and finding those extremely rare to buy too.
New movies came and went, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc, then came Alien, these movies were great, but for me one stood out above them all, on fairly cheap budget, the terminator was born, this was a classic film, and I knew that at some point there would be a 2nd film, Cameron eventually did Aliens, another great take on the original film Alien, .A new model company arrived on the styrene scene, Halcyon, from their first kit I was hooked again, an Alien with egg, the Nostromo, the Alien Queen, then one day I was looking through a model magazine, and there was an advert for Aurora kits being sold, I rang the number, and somehow found the money, a few days later, an unopened Phantom of the Opera arrived, apparently there had been a huge warehouse find in Canada, with four of these kits stacked from floor to ceiling I rang the number again, to say thanks to the guy for prompt postage, he also said some of these older kits had also been released in a glow format under the name of Illuminators, I bought four more, they were Dracula, Frankenstien, the Mummy, and the Wolfman, my collection began to grow once more, this time though I spent hours, painting, highlighting and dry brushing, I never realised how accurate these kits actually were as a kid, until I began to paint them with good quality paints and brushes. Eventually I had filled a bookcase, then I put up more shelving, they too became full, now I have the spare bedroom, filled with cases and models, my collection over the last 20 odd years spans movies, comics and books, some remain unmade, as some are very valuable, for example I have 1 of only 12 ever produced in the world, from the original Aurora mould of the Metaluna Mutant from the 1950's movie this Island Earth, this kit was about to be produced in the early 70's however it got pulled from production just before the Aurora company went bankrupt, and was never made.
Other kits I have, are from the mid 1950's and 60's Spartacus, The gladiator with Trident and net, Blackbeard, and Captain Kidd, then I have the Viking, the Black Knight, The Red Knight, The Silver Knight of Ausberg, King Arthur on horseback, the Viking longship, the Roman Bireme, The Black Falcon pirate ship, my collection is still ongoing, I have received recently for restoration, a first edition, Tarzan, a 1st edition Wonder Woman, a 1st edition longbox Dr Jeykll as Mr Hyde, some of these kits are original pieces and generally arrive like glue bombs, built by young kids in the early 60's, hours is spent trying to remove paint, freezing parts so they can gently separated apart, sanding, filling and eventually regluing, and painting.
Terminator 2 was released, shelves in model shops began to stock a new kind of kit, Vinyl, there were figures from Batman, the Terminator, and from the Alien franchise, more kits appeared, some in vinyl and styrene, another company arrived on the scene, Polar Lights, they began to recreate the kits I loved as a kid, more kits began filling shelves in shops, my collection of original and new kits was increasing, I began doing scenes from movies, recreating a favourite movie scene, this included building a 1/6 th scale Tamiya Harley Davidson to couple up with a 1/6 th Arnie Terminator, it took months to do, but I'm very happy with the results, another kit was the Horizon hunter killer from the terminator, I coupled this up with 1/9 th scale skulls and 1/9 th scale terminators made by Halcyon, I also included a 1-12 th scale Tksuda Arnie modified with arms from the 1/9 th endo kits, it fits well into the scene.
A couple of years ago, I spoke to the Neighbours’ daughter, that lived in the house across the road, after her Mam died, she moved back to the house with her husband and family, and she'd said that on cleaning out the loft, she'd found a few of the models that my Mam had given to her brothers, I offered to buy them from her at the going rate, and she said she would consider it. A couple of days later my sister rang me to tell me that she had changed her mind and that the models were no longer for sale, why or for whatever reason I guess I'll never know.
Collecting these kits has taken time, and in some cases more money than I care to mention. Unfortunately, my children don’t seem to see what I see in these plastic kits, today, kids enjoy their computer games, and DVD'S I seldom see my young son as he and his friends spend most of their time in their rooms, and on reflection what I learnt as a child helped me a great deal as I became older, I learnt how to assemble from a very early age, I learnt how to read and understand instructions, and best of all I learnt how to be patient and take my time, this I can put down to these very kits, nowadays young people have lost that, they on the most part can’t even hang a shelf or paint a wall the only life skills they have is answering a phone or sending an e-mail."
As with all 
