LIGHTING A LAYOUT
I have always tried to get at least some light-source forward of the base-board, for all the reasons given. I have run into the same difficulties and questions as everyone else – how to actually rig a light there? Getting power to one? What sort of light? Transport? Storage? The one thing I’m sure of is that there is no single easy solution! However, I’ve always been pleased that I came up with some sort of solution.
I first started looking at the small stuff we would use in theatres – in particular what we called ‘birdies’ – Par 16, or the GU10 lamps. These can be very useful, and one can get them in 12v as well as 240v. However, even the wide angle (beam angle) versions (the widest being 60°) didn’t quite do what I needed, as I wanted a proper even coverage across the scene, without dark spots. Also, the colouration of the LED versions was pretty awful, so one would be reliant on the old tungsten variety. I also looked at Par 38 floods, which are commonly found in shop windows, but I couldn’t find any suitable lanterns for them, and also, they tended to be about 120W each, and still rather narrow in beam angle for what I wanted.
For ‘The End of The Line’, I used a S.A.D. lamp, which had two fluorescent lamps in, with a decent colour rendering – probably around 4000K, which I mounted on a steel gallows that over-sailed the layout to get it slightly in front. This worked, but wasn’t ideal.
For ‘Denton Brook’ I finally plumped for four photography lamps (compact fluorescents), each at 40W, but with a colour rendering of 5,500K. One should not confuse these with the ‘daylight’ bulbs so commonly sold in B&Q and similar places – most of which are 6,800K, and far too blue to be of much use.
The lamps were fitted into dome reflectors (£10 each from E-bay). These in turn were then mounted onto a 3m long truss that was sold for ‘disco lighting’ together with reasonably decent stands, and a slightly modified version of this became my lighting rig. It achieves something close to the 45-45° angles to the lighting, but can’t really be described as subtle. It does illuminate the layout well, the fittings don’t dazzle the audience, and it means people don’t struggle to see what is going on. The lighting rig also creates an incidental arch to frame the layout without intrusion, but that is entirely a bonus.
I should have liked two things; variable control over these lights, and the opportunity for some back light and side light to add finesse and character – but without building a full grid over the layout that was not going to happen.
It looks like an enormous amount of kit to do the job – but actually the layout, all its equipment, lighting rig, stools, back-cloth, stands and a little luggage for ourselves will (just) fit in and on our old Jeep Grand Cherokee.
If I were lighting a large layout, I should probably use vertical posts (or booms in Theatre vernacular) every 3 metres, mounted in tank-traps, or bases such as I use, with truss or cross bars between for rigging. If the booms were just in front of the barrier line (as opposed to up against the layout) they would not overly intrude on the viewing of the layout, as the audience would be much closer to them.
I mentioned LED lighting in this context. People have been using strips of LED lights for some years now, and they’re getting better and better. Great success is being had with people using a subtle mix of whites in order to achieve a realistic daylight (Gordon’s Arun Quay springs to mind). Good positioning of these LED lights is every bit as important as the colour render in order to attain a realistic effect. Note that you only get defined shadows on a day with bright directional sunshine. The majority of our days are over-cast, and the light is so diffused by the cloud layer that it comes from all directions, giving a much more even spread of light, meaning that the only shadows you get are soft shadows underneath things.
It is now possible to get LED panels – anything from 1ft square up to about 4ft x 2ft, in a variety of colour renders. We have recently had some building work done and I bought four 2ft square LED panels of 4,800K (dimmable) to light the kitchen – and they are just brilliant! I promptly fitted two more in the study (where the layout lives!) to replace the existing fittings. These give a fully diffused light of a good render, and are easily mounted. They come supplied with a transformer and may well lend themselves to layout lighting. Various K values are available if you shop around. The units themselves are 10 – 15mm thick and of course low-voltage.
