makeshift display cabinet

[italwars]

Dear all
as title said i'm in the process of transforming part of my Ikea bookshelves into a cabinet for displaying my minis. by substituying wood shelves with glass ones....the electrician that proposed me to put led light strips from above and at the two sides asked me to decide at once where to place my shelves and at which interval...so i ask you please, from your experience, which distance you provided, in your display cabinet or library, between each shelf...my armies are mainly 19c. including mounted units  (even camels)
thanks in advance for your appreciated advice

[Blackwolf]

Ital ,I think your file is too big.

[italwars]

sorry Blackwolf..now i've fixed the uploading...
nobody can share his very welcomed and precious experience? .
i understand my solution it s certainly not the smartest one but i have to do with it and decide to buy or not the glass doors
thanks

[robh]

Too close together and you won't be able to get the models out from the rear easily and you won't be able to see them to their benefit.

I would suggest a minimum of twice the tallest figure height plus the space needed for you get your hand into the back of a lower shelf and lift out a single figure cleanly.
As for doors, glass panels in wooden frame is probably best idea. I have several of the IKEA, all glass, tower display units and the gaps between the glass doors and sides let in so much dust they may as well not be there.

Be careful of the shelf loading if you are only supporting at the ends and how much heat the lights are going to create.

[modelwarrior]

I did a similar conversion recently for my son with a bargain £10 display cabinet off facebook marketplace and I reinforced every shelf with a wooden batten at the rear. I also bought some cheap string lights off fleabay to illuminate the cabinet. I also made sure the cabinet was secured to the wall incase it tips over with the doors open.
 About a foot between in each shelf but its for 1/35 models.

[italwars]

As for doors, glass panels in wooden frame is probably best idea. I have several of the IKEA, all glass, tower display units and the gaps between the glass doors and sides let in so much dust they may as well not be there.

thanks that's the kind of practical suggestion that i was looking for...it's a pity cause the Ikea / Morliden all glass door was my first choice and i had planned to go pick up them during next weekend (including the pain to be submerged by unelegant, bad looking, sweating and noisy roman  families in flip flops with their horrible dogs and bands of relatives even if they have to buy just one single screw...i use to refer, when my girlfriend ask me the big  sacrifice  to go together to the terrible IKEA...should we really go to that sort  of Via Crucis?  )...but i'll think about twice before buying it if you experimented with that dust issue...the glass and wood version  it's not that beauty anyway...

[DS615]

It's up to you and your hands. 
I've done similar with a curio cabinet, and I didn't really take myself into account.
Everything looks really nice, you can see them, but I have an heck of a time reaching anything that isn't right near the door.

[italwars]

I did a similar conversion recently for my son with a bargain £10 display cabinet off facebook marketplace and I reinforced every shelf with a wooden batten at the rear. I also bought some cheap string lights off fleabay to illuminate the cabinet. I also made sure the cabinet was secured to the wall incase it tips over with the doors open.
 About a foot between in each shelf but its for 1/35 models.

Thanks Modelwarrior..other good and appreciated suggestions..may i also ask you if you put lights (leds should not warm up too much) not only in the top but also on the two sides like my electrician suggested me?

[Daeothar]

A lot depends on the depth of the shelves, obviously, plus the size of the miniatures.

Earlier this year I splurged on a row of display cabinets, and they are only 15cm deep. The height between two shelves is roughly the same, and this works out pretty well. But I reckon, if they were 30cm deep, the 15cm height would not suffice.

Also, I have several larger miniatures/models that are over 15cm tall, so I had to leave the bottom shelf off in each one, to accomodate those. So; if your collection is mainly infantry and mounted miniatures, I'd say 20cm would be workable, but ideally, you'd work with 30cm; as high as they are deep.

But obviously this severely limits the amount of shelf space you'll have available, so the 20cm compromise would be your best bet then...

Oh, and I had wanted to put in LED strips under the front of each shelf, at an angle, to light the shelf below. But because of costs, I had to postpone those. However, now that the cabinets have been in use for nearly half a year, I'm in doubt whether or not I actually should put in lighting at all.

The lighting in the room is pretty sufficient already, and all miniatures are perfectly visible as is.

Now, of course I'm working with 15cm deep shelves, so I have little to no issues with the back rows not being visible, something that 30cm shelves (or deeper) obviously would struggle with.

If you decide to light up the thing, be sure to either do strips on each side, just inside of the doors, or under each shelf. because my previous setup had just the one light in the top, and that was woefully inadequate for the job of lighting anything displayed deeper than 3 shelves down from it. (also, it was halogen and got extremely hot. So, fearing for the integrity of my miniatures and paint jobs, I very, very rarely switched it on, and even then only for a few minutes).

The solution I was thinking of for the new cabinets involved clear poster rails, that could be slided onto the front of the glass shelves. Those have one angled side to them, which would be on the bottom. On that angled side, I would then stick the LED strips. I was planning to string them from the side, with one power wire/cable running top to bottom in one front corner.

I had given no thought to the switching though (which would have been another interesting thing, considering I wanted to switch them all on and off with the room's light switch).

I though the poster rail was rather clever myself, so hopefully it's of help to you...

[dberna67]

Hello,
I recently did the same thing with 2 Billy and I suggest you also take some strips to put on the doors to protect the miniatures from dust

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B082PV2GJY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1