Ideas for Lighting a Model on Display?

The real answer will come from Mrs Dave,  not one of us.

A recessed 'eyeball" spot will look better and can have a good LED or incandesent spot bulb installed which will light the case well.    Getting the power run to the location is the big trick.    It may require a  sheetrock patch job.   Stick-on l light pucks may look a bit tacky in a public location and Mrs Dave may not approve. 

An approach which I saw recently would be to put LED tape strip in the vertical corner of the case.   They can provide a good light source.   LEDs may not always require a AC power source, rather use a battery pack.   Downside is the battery life.   Check with a local lighting shop.

Since you mention it, Ed, with LED lights inside the display case, is there any cause for concern about heat on the models?

Years ago, I had some models in a west-facing window in a hobby shop (in mild-weathered Seattle) and there was some pretty serious melting and warping damage just from the sunshine.  I've been pretty skittish about heat sources since then.

Thanks,
Rick

How about a short "track light" with a couple of small spots?  That could be done with an unobtrusive cord on the ceiling/wall to an existing outlet.

If you want lights inside the case, This link has miniture LED's ( http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ledlights1.html ) No heat, can be wired to battery or AC/DC adapter and you can put one in each corner and aimed towards the model. Small but very bright.

I used one of those pucks, the flickering candle thing, to light my Parthenon model until I later did a regular LED circuit.  Had to leave a section of the roof unglued so I could replace it later, but it sure was a quick and dirty fix for a show.

Try asking in the SciFi forum- the guys that build that genre seem to be the most likely to add LED lights to the interior of their models.

The peel-n-stick LED strip lighting is pretty slick.
It's turning into a pretty mature lighting system, too.

If your case has wooden columns at the corners and a wood framed top, then you probably have room for the 18mm or 20mm wide strip lighting can me tucked in.

The light intensity is enough that you probably want a dimmer. 

They make 'experiment "kits" which are near ridiculuous cheap--like $30 for 30m (circa 100').  Use casution with those, they have some "play around" controls that will cycle the light through primary colors.  Which means the "white" light is not a 500 kelvin CPI 82 "natural" white light.

But, if you find a good light kit (you probably only need a couple meters, tops) with AC adapter and such, the actual wire cable to the light strip is pretty skinny.  So,  it would tuck into a corner relatively unobtrusively.

Best place for the light is at the top edge on the viewer's side of the case. 

Now, I'm a lighting nerd (more so than most architects), so I'd likely have a daylight and motion detector on the lighting circuit.

That's my lighting deisgner 2¢; for coffee you'll need about $3 of your own.

Lots of good ideas, thanks!

I've decided to go ahead and install a 3-bulb tracklight bar in the ceiling above the SR display case....mght be a week or so before I get it installed, but I think it will add the most effective aesthetic...once I get some decent lighting, I'll post a few pics of the finished product.  Fopr anyone who was following my SR WIP thread, I took a few pics of it in the case, but the lighting is so bad that the pics look terrible, and the detail of the model can't be seen. 

Thanks again!

Dave

I've just posted this picture on the thread for my Soleil Royal model project, but since this is related, I may as well add it here, as well.

With some added overhead lighting, the SR display is complete...voila!

Only one word for the whole thing.......Fan-fricking-tastic.