The Little World

I’m a sucker for boxed displays – I spend more time over them at a museum than the open equipment.

Call this a peculiarity of the scale modelling mind, if you will, but I think it is because the box-builder has more control of the subject.

Lighting is the key for a lot of things; photographing glamour girls or locating bombers on a dark night come immediately to mind. Also showcasing a diorama.

The secret is to light it for the eye that sees it…and that is not just a fatuous statement. The eyes that see anything in real life do it from your head and in relation to the sun or other illumination. Your head is in a deliberate position in relation to the model diorama. The maker needs to decide not only what you’ll see but how it will show up.

This is where lighting…errr…shines…figure out where a real person would see the scene from and what the lighting would be in real life. Restrict the eye to that one viewpoint by cutting it off with model elements or a deliberate casing, and then supply the illumination that a real person would expect.

This is a lot easier these days with LED lights, either singly or in panels. Colour temperatures and size of source is variable and there are lots of components and power sources at Altronics and Jaycar. And enthusiastic sales people there who will draw you circuit diagrams and pick out parts if you explain what you are doing. They are geeks the same as you.

Spare a thought for the box construction as well. Professional cases are expensive, but sometimes they are far more sensible than you trying to cobble up something that looks like a cigar box. If your model is expensive or complex or unique or precious, don’t stint it in the display.

Let us hope that whatever competition you enter a model in will be held in a place that will provide good illumination.