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My wife and I recently started to re-enjoy Lego and had a lot of fun building the Grand Emporium and a few other pieces but now they're collecting dust and we're lucky enough to have a few spare rooms about the place to keep them in.

What sort of thing do you guys use to cover your built models?

I've found one company that's local that'll make custom clear-plastic covers (well five-sided boxes really) but they're a little expensive, just thought I'd ask the experts!

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3 Answers 3

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This may sound odd, have you considered using an upside-down fish tank? I've actually seen this used in the past after the former occupant died. It was only a smaller model on a baseplate, but the width of the glass for the tank managed to fit inbetween the studs on the baseplate and worked quite well. Granted, stacking them could produce an issue, and you might want to try plastic tanks instead of glass ones but depending on the size they might start quite cheap.

Something like this (but upside-down, and not containing fish): enter image description here Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelguy/4208026780/in/pool-lego/

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    I love that, can't believe I've never seen something like it before.
    – Chopper3
    Commented Jan 6, 2012 at 9:36
  • @Chopper3 - Something similar came up in this question: bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/568/…
    – Zhaph - Ben Duguid ♦
    Commented Jan 6, 2012 at 16:30
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    You can pick up used ones a lot cheaper on Craigslist than you would pay for custom made display cases. While not suitable for every model, they do provide a dust free enviroment when placed on a flat surface.
    – Major Stackings
    Commented Jan 6, 2012 at 20:00
  • Isn't that, like, overkill-level heavy?
    – Joubarc
    Commented May 14, 2014 at 13:09
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I don't keep my Lego under glass, but the IKEA DETOLF glass cabinet is the go-to shelf for 1/6 scale figurine collectors and I can't imagine it'd be any different for Lego.

IKEA DETOLF glass cabinet with generic trinkets on the shelves

They are 43x37cm, 1.6 meters high (16"x14" and just over 5 feet). All four sides are enclosed with glass (though there are small gaps at the corners), and they give a 360° view of the contents. At ~$65 they are one of the cheapest ways to get that much tempered glass, and since it's IKEA it's easy to get as many as you need, and easy to get more matching ones later.

LEGO's official dimensions for the Emporium are 25x25cm, so it should easily fit.

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  • Thanks for that, very interesting - though in this case I want to keep a bunch of 'town' models connected as a street, but thanks anyway.
    – Chopper3
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 12:34
  • I have the same model from IKEA for displaying models and the small gaps allow a lot of dust to get into the models. The advantages having this particular display cabinet is that it can clearly display models and it's relatively cheap.
    – Ambo100 ♦
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 12:35
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    @Ambo: There's a lot of guides on the Internet for putting in rubber stoppers or otherwise blocking the corners of detolf cases.
    – user23
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 12:39
  • @JoeWreschnig: Thanks, I'll have a look into that. I've found one example here.
    – Ambo100 ♦
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 12:42
  • @Chopper3: If you need something wide you could take a look at IKEA's KLINGSBO line, but the price goes up quickly and personally I don't like the style as much. I think you also may need to take out the middle shelf to have the Emporium fit. Hopefully someone else has a better suggestion.
    – user23
    Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 12:48
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Whatever you do, keep in consideration light will discolor your bricks put in display. I had a little A-Wing model standing on a computer for a couple year and surfaces exposed to sun light discolored. The exposure doesn't need to be direct.

see this article about the topic

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  • I think some fishtanks may be UV-protected or have treated glass...which might be a added bonus of the fishtank idea. Not massively effective, but better than nothing.
    – tombull89
    Commented Jan 9, 2012 at 16:18

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