The Future Yesterday's Airlines Hangar

As many of you are probably aware the Stretton family is on the move, but of course such a move would never be sanctioned without there being a suitable space for the model aircraft collection! Our move date is March 31 so there's still a few weeks to go, but here's a preview of the future space that will be the base of Yesterday's Airlines. It'll be sad to leave my existing hobby room but the new space gives opportunity for a much improved layout.

The current model room has served me well and somehow as the collection has expanded I have been able to expand into the entirety of the room at my current house. If you're not familiar with the current setup check-out the video here. Being able to takeover the current space is partly because it is so odd - being accessed via trapdoor (or external door), with very low ceilings, a wonky floor and part of the room split into 3 large niches. It has facilitated plenty of shelf space but at the same time it is dark and quite damp. The latter isn't really surprising as I live in Titirangi, West Auckland and my section is basically a forest on a South facing slope (so not much direct sun).

The recently added new Russian and Oceania shelves

Recent expansions have included the addition of new shelving for the Oceania and Russian collections plus an expansion for the US 90s area for United and Delta but realistically it was getting a bit crowded down there, especially for the ever expanding Chinese collection.

The updated United 1990s section

We're not moving because of any of this to be fair, however the new house is a massive improvement over our existing one and comes with a spectacular new space for the collection. Being in Auckland it never freezes so unlike many of my American and European friends there is no need to keep the car in the garage. The new house comes with a 3 car garage (with built in cupboard space, great lighting and internal house access), which is never likely to see a car in it.

I have made a deal with my wife that the garage space is mine and as you can see from this floor plan of the ground floor of the house it is a substantial area:

Along the angled wall there is a handy built in workbench with cupboards beneath. My plan is to have a wall of shelving here split into 5 sets of 4 shelves each. They will be open, which isn't perhaps ideal, however dust hasn't been a major problem up till now so I can probably live with that. Most of the model boxes should fit inside the cupboard space. Here's how the space looks now:

To the right where the ladder is in this shot will probably go my 8 cube US Trunk cabinet and in front of the workbench will be a table and the model room sofa. Elsewhere in the garage (see below right shot) there'll be tables which can have my various airport dioramas set up on permanently, giving me the all round access I currently don't have. As you can see the garage lighting is excellent. The below left photo is looking towards the back of the garage. I expect I'll partially close off the rear garage door in this shot with furniture and the sofa is planned to go in this floor space. With a rug or carpet down hopefully it'll feel like a proper room.

There's a lot of work to be done before this space is ready but at least I have packed up the over 1100 1/400s that somehow make up the collection nowadays. New additions when they arrive are only exiting their boxes for photographs and most of the existing hobby space is sadly packed up. If I am ever heard to complain that I don't have room for my collection in the future then I surely must be letting it get completely out of hand. Anyway that's the plan and hopefully in early April it will begin to come to fruition. We've sold our current house and done the deal on the new one so it is just a matter of time until the big move. I'm really looking forward to it. It promises to be a huge change for my family (the rest of the house is larger and on a great section) and for Yesterday's Airlines too.