A friend (several) own the game. I want to buy my own fleet (just models) so that I can paint up a nice looking faction to bring to games.

How do I get one?

One way would be to get together with five other likeminded and buy a used copy of TI3 and split the models six ways. Or find a copy of the TI3 expansion that had models for a 7th and 8th player (Shards of the Throne?) anf paint up two sets. Finding just a set of models would probably be difficult to say the least.