How do you display your Militaria collection

John good on ya.

right now with my Fathers estate in limbo we have too much of his paperwork lying about with the militaria primarily the Kriegsmarine. am quite hopeful by January 2010 that this will be remidied completely........har har. I have two displays once I put them up of several Km personell, in fact will include the docs of one shortly when received from Germany. at present 9/10ths of the items are stored safely away in dark corners of the earth, only thing really noticeable are the book shelves. in fact had to turn over the book shelves in the east quarter which was quite the job.

my main office is a clutter of paperwork for one of my books, and cannot step without well............hmmmmmmmmm careful there sir. Frustrating to say the least.

in time John

 

Hi John, nice way to display your stuff ;-)) I'd think of doing the same here-if it were not for the extremely high humidity. My stuff would rust off the wall.

 

Bump....

I thought I'd give this thread a bump up, to give some of our more recent members a chance to have a look at what's been previously posted

 

My collection is all in my 3000 pound safe . I got a lot of friends coming in my room, and people wanna touch everything, so I gotta put it away.

 

my collection is not so big and is displayed in a self made cabinet that I painted black , I used green ( english)cloth from a pool table as back ground ,the same with my other collection of guns ,green cloth as background ,the M1carbine and mauser standing in each corner of the cabinet,the buckle is not in my collection any more since it was a fake ,in time it will be replaced by an original buckle (I hope)
Cheers
P.

 

nice looking display Pierre, every item has plenty of space, very clean looking - I like!

 

thanks very much Andy,I like it spacy (dont' get me wrong here) it is my intend to expand my WW2 collection since I have enough colt revolvers but instead of filling this one up ,I think I will just make another one
Cheers
P

 

Very nice display Pierre...How many Colt SAA do you have?

The TR items are outstanding and your Colt's look to be awesome!

Best Regards, fischer

 

I think that would be a good idea

 

Hi Pierre, you might not have ahuge collection but-its a very impressive one and tastefully displayed.

Update on mine: Nothing is displayed because I plan on moving house again but sometime in the future and hope that time, that ill be back in Corpus Christi.

 

Andy,Carl ,Fisher ,thank you guy's for the nice comment Fisher here is a pic of the total collection , some rare and scarce colts ,like a long flute engraved colt with ivory grips, and an unfired first generation colt in his original box estimated value on this one is $12.000-$15.000 ,this one is one of the last 27 sold (see the colt encyclopedia )most all these colts where owned by some famous guys like Audi Murphy, Dean Martin,Sammy Davis Jr , .......all having original old ivory grips, I am always glad to share some pics of the colts,I know these are not WW2 related,but always can use the excuse that these guns where the favourit sidearm of General Patton

 

Geezus, this collection would make even Duke sweat to be near ;-))
Ive always wanted a Colt Single Action Army. The exact Colt I want is a 1906 SSA w/ Sandstone grips. Last time I looked at prices for these, this model was going for about $1,200. I shudder to think what it goes for now?

 

Hi Carl a fair condition colt will go between 1200$ and 2500$ if you want pristine condition the more you will pay as with any other gun and that can go as far up as you want some will pay up to $850.000 for owning the saa colt serial nr1,or $1000.000 for an orignal walker colt (prices payed at the san diego gun auction)but some people make abuse of these prices and offer a gun on sale for $5000 while the actual value maybe $1000
this collection is the result of collecting for more than thirty years
gun collecting started when I was 16 and my first purchase beeing a S.P.A.S 12 with some boxes of brenneke ammo, but why the 1906 colt Carl ? isn't 1907 a better year
Carl be aware when buying a colt much good fakes going around
look at the pic one is an italian 45colt price $350 the large one is an original 45 and is $5500.Time to expand my militaria collection now,I have my eye on a nice and original pinhelm and an erfurt 1918 luger

 

Hi Pierre, thank yopu for the updated price range and advice. If I can ever get one? and hopefully in the not too far future? I hope I can use your expertise on what to look for ;-))

 

Wow, some serious detailing on those guns, great looking examples and nicely photographed too.

 

thanks Andy

 

Hello Gents,

Considering I started this thread a good two years ago, I figured it needed a 'Bump-up' or 'up-date'.


.....a little someting I've been working at.....comments welcome gents - both positive and constructive

As of yet, my little (yet growing) collection has not been on display due to lack of space. However my future goal is to properly display all items.

At some point, I would like to get myself into a position, whereby I would be able to display some of my militaria for educational purposes, example being school displays, rememberance days etc. .....in order to both educate as well as peak interest in our addictive yet very satisifying hobby.

So, to start with, I've nearly completed my first 'prototype' display case (my Mk I display case ), the idea being that it would be suitable, to 'bring with me' to a school setting, or other mobile display etc.

A few requirements being:

Lightweight construction - easy to move about by one person (that being me ) ....and it would easly fit in my car for transportation.

Functional - it had to be fairly small, yet still be able to hold a sizable amount of items to form a nice display ...or pehaps 'story' of items.

Protection - it would have to be designed in such away that the items on display are reasonable protected from "sticky fingers", "drooling mouths" and the likes.....yet still be visible and easy to study.

Aesthetically pleasing - I wanted it to enhance the display, by providing a suitable setting/background for the items.

Cost effective - well considering Im just out of college, it had to be built on a budget so I built the case with materials I had at hand!


Here's a few pics, ...let me know what you think, any comments on possible improvements would be very welcome Gents.

A simple pic showing its plywood construction, the 'front' being lower than the 'back', so people can easily look into the case. I then made the lid (hinged at the back), it will have a Perspex as opposed to glass insert (less chance of it breaking during transport, and cheaper too). I spiced the plywood up with a Teak stain, and inserted the fabric backing.



Pic showing the almost finished display case (have yet to insert the Perspex). I chose a nice 'royal-blue' fabric backing for this one, think I'll use a nice 'red' for a similar case containing Imperial German items, then a 'green' backing for British and Commonwealth, and so on. Note, the current display was just thrown together to show some items in the case....be boring pics otherwise!



Another pic, which better shows how the 'back' of the case is taller, allowing you to look in to the display easier.



This is just a 'prototype'.......I do plan to build more sturdy and permenant display cases to house my WW1 and WW2 militaria, but I need some more space first!

Anyway its a start!.....now to start work on the Mk II case....

Andy

 

Nice prototype , it makes your collection look even better. Great 1914 relics too!

 

Thanks Mike/Skipper.......ya I'm thinking of making a display case specifically for 'rusty relics' too.

 

Excellent effort Andy and top marks for your collection.

I display my medal collections in deep set picture frames I bought from a local store. I then lined the back board with black felt and mounted the medals on to it.