Brainstorming mounting things (mostly LEGO spaceships) to a wall

So over the last few years I have been collecting & building a good number of LEGO set, a modest number of which have been space/starships from my childhood. Per The Dancer, with a few exceptions (primarily the Botanical series of sets, with exceptions for other very artistic or cute sets) my LEGO collection is confined to being displayed in my Office. Admittedly, it's one of the largest rooms in the house (it was intended as the Primary bedroom, but we liked a different bedroom better), but it doesn't just hold my LEGO it also has my home office work desk, (at the moment) both fairly large 3D printers, and... well, most everything of mine hobby-wise that is not car-related. So space (no pun intended) is at a premium.

I've been wanting for a while to mount all of the ships to one of the walls, and since 3D printers I can print out custom mounts to hold them nicely. But- the problem is that there are a good number of them securely mounting them to the wall will almost certainly require the use of fasteners, and I don't really want to swiss-cheese a large amount of drywall to mount them. Also, it would be nice to be able to re-arrange things easily as I (likely) get more sets down the line.

I've tried using Command strips or 'Alien' tape for things like this before and while they work well for things like hanging pictures that load them pretty much entirely in shear I've found that using them to mount things that will try and pry them away from the wall (like something on a mount that sticks out a few inches from the wall) results in them falling down. 

So I'm looking for inexpensive ideas on how to handle this. Below is a picture of the wall in question- the pictures currently there will be moved elsewhere, and I'm planning on using all of the wall above and to the right of the bookshelf. 

Things I've entertained:

• Building a 'false' wall using drywall and wood so I would be putting drywall mounts into that and not the actual wall (beyond needing to anchor the false wall to the real one). Moderately simple, but would be messy to try and rearrange things since I'd have to drill and install new anchors.
• Some form of pegboard. Again, relatively simple- but would not look very clean since it would be pegboard
• Metal sheeting such that I could use magnetic mounts for everything. SUPER simple to rearrange things, but would likely be one of the more expensive (I've been wanting to get a 16" square piece of metal sheet to use for a built surface for the larger printer and it would be like $50- so like 8' x 4' or so would be like $600 for just the metal). Also, heavy.

Anyone have any ideas that I've not thought of, or improvements on the above ideas? Thanks!

If you can find a way to hang stuff from something like monofilament, then you could poke only a small number of holes to put a picture rail across the top of that wall.

You could even make a free-standing rack that stands over that area, though i suspect it might be difficult to make that clean and tidy.

You might shop around more for metal; that sounds high to me. Also, 1/16" sounds thick for the application? Onlinemetals has 22ga 4'x10' sheets down for $176, and will do you a 16 ga 16"x16" for $7.61... that's cold rolled A1008; I don't know what you need for a printer.

Jesse Ransom said:

If you can find a way to hang stuff from something like monofilament, then you could poke only a small number of holes to put a picture rail across the top of that wall.

You could even make a free-standing rack that stands over that area, though i suspect it might be difficult to make that clean and tidy.

You might shop around more for metal; that sounds high to me. Also, 1/16" sounds thick for the application? Onlinemetals has 22ga 4'x10' sheets down for $176, and will do you a 16 ga 16"x16" for $7.61... that's cold rolled A1008; I don't know what you need for a printer.

I had thought of trying to hang everything- but some things (most notably the massive MOC of the Rocinante on the top shelf behind the Saturn V) are pretty heavy and moderately fragile I would worry about having hanging from monofilament. Though there's a decent chance that I'll just keep the Roci sitting on that shelf- while I have mounts that will work for it, the less I have to pick it up and move it around the better.

The spring steel sheets they coat in PEI (or other things) for printers are usually about .4mm, or 26/28ga. That thickness would likely work for this as well- it just has to be strong enough to not tear from the magnet being pulled away. I'll have to look into that more- I had just been looking at the sheets at Lowes/HD. I've been meaning to get to the local Metals Supermarket to get pricing there but haven't been able to get there when they've been open.

I used magnetic paint once for the kids to have a place to stick their magnetic letters.    It's pretty widely available, just paint on the wall and install enough super strong magnets in your printed brackets to hold things up.

While I have no experience assembling LEGO sets, I do have some experience building shelves to house them.  I say, to heck with wallboard--poke it full of holes.  My son has a sizable collection, and finding the space to store/display them is not easily accomplished.  A series of floor-to-ceiling bookcases is probably the best/most efficient.

This little project was by design a tad on the industrial side.  Rectangular extruded aluminum tube and Lexan sheet.  Not as polished as I'd like, but it was done in a hurry.

In reply to johnjohn :

What about Lego watercraft, such as canoes?

No Benny?  I know this is no help but it's needed here.

I would say your star ships need to be hung from the ceiling in a space battle display. Everything else on 4x8 floor to ceiling painted 1/4" thick peg board framed with 1x4 knotty pine (Strong enough to hold up shelving). Only need two screws at the top of each panel to hold them up. 

Ikea Skadis "pegboard" plus a 3d printer is a decent solution.  If you search for Skadis on any 3d printing site, there are a million designs already, and its also easy to make your own.

 

Personally I dont think the Ikea board is ideal, I'd like to do my own version of it out of 1/2" birch plywood, but it hasn't been high on my priority list.  I bought 4 of them for my apt and I'm using them for an assortment of things.  They are easy to work with and a known quantitiy.

I have a number of vintage Star Wars ships hanging from my ceiling.  I used a planter hook and fishing line, made a cradle of 4 loops around wherever was convenient, and tied at the top, put that over the hook.  I could reposition the ship a bit to get it centered, been there for years no issues.

Building a false wall (and later removing it) is a LOT more work than patching a few holes in the wall.

Do a test with Monkey Hooks

They do poke holes in the wall, but they are very small and unobtrusive. 
 

I'm current doing a renovation on a 40,000 SF furniture store, and they use those things all over the place. It's surprising how much weight they hold, and how small a hole they make. 

For your hanging space battle scene, you could string yarn (painted with black light red after you buy a black light). from your Enterprise to the Star Wars Battle Cruiser which could be returning fire from mono filament fish line with black light painted beads stung over the wire to simulate blaster shots or photon torpedoes.