About Me

My name is Wouter and I live in the Netherlands. I have been collecting 1:48 and 1:50-scale Caterpillar models for more than 40 years.

After graduating as a civil engineering, I started as a trainee at Jac Rijk, a Dutch earthmoving contractor. As well as various projects in Belgium, I also worked on the construction of the “Neeltje Jans” artificial island part of the Oosterschelde storm protection barrier in The Netherlands. It was here where I first encountered the company’s impressive fleet of full-size 1:1 Caterpillar earthmovers.

From July 1st, I will be a Project Management Advisor at Stormvloed based in Amsterdam and stationed at grid operator Stedin (active in most of South Holland, Utrecht and Zeeland) within The Netherlands. These days, I spend most of the time sitting behind a computer, and the only sand I see is on the outside of my office window.

My father was an avid collector of model cars and I remember accompanying him as a boy to a number of collector's fairs, including NAMAC. It was here that I discovered that 1:50-scale models were available of many of the classic machines I saw at Jac Rijk, including a Caterpillar 245 Excavator and 988 Wheel Loader.

Looking back, this was the starting point for a large collection of Caterpillar scale models, which is still growing today.

Wouter