Friday, June 30, 2017

Light & Structure



Yesterday, after few experimentation, I built the lighting rig for the layout. I came to the conclusion I needed two LED strips to get a decent amount of lighting and to avoid unwanted shadows on cars displayed on the main line.


The rig is made of a piece of wood with a beveled side. Another small slightly angled piece is added for the second LED strips. To help dissipate heat and often a better surface for gluing the strips, I applied an aluminium duct tape on both piece after gluing them. I don't have confidence on the strip adhesive thus I added CA glue to make sure the bond was good.


In case of failure, I made sure the lighting is only screwed on the fascia and can be removed easily for maintenance of replacement. So far, I only one strip is alimented but I already have a nice level of light. I'm also quite happy the warm white LEDs really provide an excellent color render.


I also started to build the feed mill cardboard core. As I previously said, the LEGO bricks building help to determine a few things and now I can proceed with the real structure. But I must admit my fear became reality: the feed mill is quite high and when I take picture, I easily see where the sky ends. I suspect I'll have to make the backdrop at least 4 inches higher to make things looks good. It means the shadow box will have to be expanded accordingly. I'm not sure how I will do it, but I suspect I'll regret not making the backdrop higher. On the other hand, I'm quite happy with the proscenium opening, thus it's really the back drop height that is the problem. I've also thought about adding a blue sky ceiling as another less intrusive option but I'm not sure it will be visually very interesting.


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