Lighting an office

Adding light to a building demands a higher level of attention to the building. On the layout, the building will attract attention, especially if onlookers can see into the building. For this added detail, however, a certain price must be paid.

Light leaks through anywhere it can. The plastics used in many model kits tends to be translucent, especially if a light source is located near to the material. Gaps between corners and materials need to be sealed with a sufficiently light-proof coating to prevent light from getting out.

One method used to address the translucence issue was simply to paint the building, both inside and out. Several coats of paint will eventually build up and prevent light from passing through. A method I have not tried would be to line the building with an adhesive metal tape. If only doing one room, this might be an ideal solution.

Sealing gaps tended to be relatively easy because they were small. The building was intended to be lit from the beginning, so careful attention was paid to gaps to ensure they were as small as possible. In the case of this building, one gap was sealed by gluing a piece of styrene between the adjacent wall panels, while others were closed by using a gap-filling CA.

For the most recent building, only a small office in the much larger warehouse was being lit. The whole building was prepared to be lit, in case the office light leaked. It did. The office was lit with two small white LEDs through the ceiling.

When an LED lights, the entire thing glows and can put off considerable light. It may be necessary to mask the back and sides of the LED to reduce the amount of light escaping. One corner of the building leaked, but masking the LED reduced the excess light enough that no further work was necessary.

Now that the office has lights, it's quite easy to see that there's nothing in there. An interior seems to be a necessary next step....