Display cabinets and model rooms, ideas please

I'm converting a room to a model room/man cave, any pictures where you have done your own or pictures that you dream of to have in your house very welcome. Also any direction on where to get reasonably priced(or downright cheap..) large glass fronted and shelved display cases would be great

get Mark (Cowfeeder) to post up a few general pics of his room....it was mega a few years ago when I was there, he had some stuff in shop counter type displays

Morning Guys

When i built my model room back in 2010, I was originally after the free standing glass tower cabinets that you see in Jewellery shops, I soon realised the cost of these and they were ruled out , I wanted to have matching cabinets rather than having a mixture of several different styles.

As the room has no through traffic and is basically a sealed room, dust is not a problem. An added bonus is once the lights are off, it is in complete darkness no natural sunlight to degrade the decals etc.

I settled on 3 types of cabinets from Ikea, 2 types off tower cabinets and 1 type of base cabinet

the tower cabinets have glass on all 4 sides, the main style is "beech wood" with a few black steel ones (these have more shelves in than the "wood" ones)

I also have some very simple wall mounted MDF/ perspex cabinets, these are great, the only problem the people that made them have disappeared. They were dirt cheap and picked them up at a model fair years ago at Leeds. Should have got a few more at the time.

A will post a few pics up for you to have a look at David.

Mark

Thanks for the replies guys, and the pictures Mark, your room looks great, I love the pictures on the wall too. Do you remember what Ikea base units you used?

My room is a bit tricky, it also has no through traffic, in fact I'm planning to replace the door with a book shelf and try for a hidden room, I have 10m2 of floor space, but the room is L shaped and only 2m wide on the wider leg. I do have 3m of height and am planning to suspend shelving from the ceiling for kit and box storage. I'd love to be able to display a couple of pictures too, I'm looking at perhaps doing narrow shelving behind plain doors on a wall to allow lots of model storage and prints to be hung on the doors. I guess I have lots of ideas but am limited by money and space, so not dissimilar to model collecting itself really

Hi David

the tower units were Detolf and Klingsbo, not sure on the cabinet with all the evos in.

Mark

Room looks great Mark, extremely jealous

Slight tangent here, but has anyone done Fishers striped Legacy yet? And if not why not?

I got a Fisher striped Legacy done for the West Cork display a few years back as a once off. KMD has a sort of hold on the Fisher models insofar as he makes a contribution to the Fisher Foundation from the sales proceeds so people are reluctant to get involved.

Looking at the display cases has anyone added extra glass shelves to the Ikea cases ? We tried but with mixed results . What is the safest/best solution to welding/securing the bars for the extra shelves ?

Cheers James, hopefully KMD does it some time.

Any pictures or recommendations for wall mounted display cases?

Got two of these and put extra (glass) shelves into them.
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Collectors-Wall-Mounted-Glass-Display-Cabinet-Organizer-Rack-Modern-Design-NEW-/302297174843?

Thanks James, they look promising!

david, i used a combination of wall mounted Bertby cabinets from ikea, which are unfortunately discontinued... each one holds 12 1:18 or maybe 24 1:24...

plus the old faithful Detolf all glass free standing unit from Ikea...comes with four shelves, inc the bottom base unit, and each shelve holds 3 1:18....
using these wire rope clamps
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111790540406?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

you can add four more glass shelves, one clamp in each corner and the threaded legs support the corners of the shelves..i also picked up one where the guy had bought and fitted extra grey bars which he fitted between the clamps, for extra a support but ive never had a probem as long as the clamp nuts are tightened..this gives capacity of each unit 24 1:18 models or perhaps 32 1:24 ones.... the Detolfs are still available from ikea, come in black/brown, beech or white iirc, and priced around £40...
hope this helps m8

Cheers Billy,I remember your Bertby cases now, its a shame they discontinued them as they looked great, you had a few IIRC?
Do Ikea sell extra shelves for Detolf? Any pictures of yours with the extra shelves?

Ah display cases, the second biggest problem we face with models after trying to print white.

Sadly i dont have the space to display anything in my house. They all go into the attic until the next show or the next time i need a base model.

Hopefully will build a garage and convert the roof space or buy a bigger house some time down the line

david, no ikea dont do spare shelves unfortunately...
i have/had 7 bertbys, they were perfect for 1:18s and came in black/brown, or beech, like the detolfs...i made two of them myself when they were discontinued....bought some sheets of the black/brown veneered chipboard, from the bargain basement in belfast ikea, then got local kitchen cabinet maker to router out the door, a glazier supplied the glass for door which i siliconed in, then bored the holes for the pegs, bought off ebay, and finally the shelves were bought from the glazier again, who also supplied my spare shelves for the detolfs...
i had some pix posted a while back, let me have a gander and see...

my main collection in 7 bertbys.....rally/wrc 1970-2008...

my detolfs with added shelves...

some of my irish 1:18s in detolf with added shelves..

Great collections and displays, gents!...

Billy - I know we have spoken about it in the past, but did your Detolf dustproofing techniques actually prove to have been successful in the end?

James - That looks quite a sweet little cabinet. Have you already got yours filled, and if so, how many 1/43rds fit within it comfortably? It looks like the models shown on Pic 2 of the eBay listing are Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars...

Done and myself converted the wall mounted cabinets to fRee standingift cabinets by buildingoing an extension onto the rear of them - doubling the depth and putting in glass shelving between the existing solid shelves .  1/43 models will fit comfortably in the standard cabinet . Pictures of our efforts are on the Circuit Deja Vu thread  They are not dustproof  as the front glass panels slide .

hi david, to be honest m8 i decided to give up on the dustproofing...my floor is laminate so the dust is minimal and its proven not to be such a problem over the years...both the bertbys and the detolfs seem free from dust....i know some others with carpetted rooms had a dust problem and were trying the strips of door draught-blocker, but i'm not sure how it worked for them, luckily i seem to have gotten away without anything....

This the one you're referring to, James?...

Thanks, Billy - appreciate the advice. So laminate flooring it is....

Cowley wrote:This the one you're referring to, James?...

Thats the one. You can see that we did not use its own white solid shelf in the lower sections of the case but just at the top of the photo you will see the Chevette on the solid shelves. To use it in its standard form you would have to take the models off their bases and it would not be wide enough for a 1/43 truck.

So the shelves are deep enough if the models are removed from their bases? I guess the unmounted models would also fit (height wise) if additional shelves were fitted in-between each white shelf as well, James?