Top 10 Aircraft Types In My Collection

There is a literal avalanche of new Waffle Collection sale items on their way but before they arrive I thought it was an opportune moment to take a look at what types of airliner rank highest in my collection to date. As of June 29, 2015 my 1:400 model collection stands at 948 aircraft (some 748 above what I originally planned on collecting)! Here's the top 10 aircraft in the fleet:

Below is the list of the top 10 aircraft familes that make up my fleet. Altogether these 10 make up 544 models (or nearly 58% of the collection). That pleases me as it shows the collection is diverse and indeed in the list there are 46 other aircraft families represented which is quite a lot considering I'm lumping together groupings like A320s and 737s.

My original collection criteria when I started out about 6 years ago was US classics so its not surprising that the Boeing 727 stands out as the most collected model with 92 aircraft (almost 1/10 of the collection). The breakdown is 52 series 100s, 24 series 200s and 16 200 Advs. The bulk of the 727-100s are Aeroclassics and the 727-200s are a pretty even spread of Aeroclassics and Geminis plus a few Witty and Dragon examples.

In second place is the Boeing 737. The 737 didn't sell well during the 60s and 70s but my recent foray into modern Chinese aircraft means that it is increasingly well represented and will probably surpass the 727 in the coming months. At present I have all marks except the series 600. The breakdown is as follows:

Classic types make up positions 3-5 with the DC-9 series splitting the 707 and DC-8s. For all of these the clear favourite in terms of numbers is Aeroclassics, as any sane person's collection surely would be!

The 747 is interesting in my collection because for a long time I avoided the type party due to space constraints (the advent of my room removed that issue temporarily). Still despite the rarity of good 747 moulds my Jumbo fleet has boomed to 44 aircraft.

At #6 the DC-10 wins the widebody trijet battle - partly because the Tristar moulds are so ordinary (though I still have 18 L-1011s). I obviously prefer the Aeroclassics DC-10 but have a few Gemini and Dragon/Jet-X birds too. All very nice.

Winning the prop battle at #7 is the mighty lineage of DC-4 through DC-7C beating out the Connies by 5 models. In between them is the sole non-US representative - the BAC One-Eleven. The firecracker is perhaps the aircraft closest to my heart having grown up at Gatwick with lots of BCal, BA, Dan Air, BIA and other examples. If only Gemini would polish off their series 500 the type might get higher.

So what does the future hold. Well my foray into modern Chinese aircraft means there is an increasing place for Airbus A320 and A330 series aircraft. The A320 has lept up the rankings in recent months and now sits just outside the top 10 on 29 aircraft. Then again its not all modern and positions 12, 13, 14 are taken up by the Viscount, Electra and Convair 880/990.

Modern types are definitely infiltrating the collection, but only for Russia and China. I still however have more DC-3s than A330/340s (18:16) and Tridents than 777s (14:8).

At present I plan on levelling off the collection at about 1100 aircraft which is the carrying capacity of my room. But then again there were supposed to be only 200 aircraft when Istarted out!

What makes up the bulk of your own model fleet??