Fixietube - Fake Nixie Tube displays

So finally my boards got through customs (I think they wondered what it is about that many purple envelopes sent to me). On there I soldered a transistor, a 74hc595 shift register, 8 blue LEDs and some resistors. I mixed up Latch and Clock the first time testing and got scared, checked the circuit again and found my easy to fix bug - and it worked! 

I hope it is noticeable; I got some wire mesh for the looks as well :) The orange lost some red tones again in the picture, but I guess nixies do to... now I only need to solder 3 more, work out the ds1307 and some software and power things and I build myself a fancy clock :)

I soldered 15 LEDs today, and I soldered them backwards. I wonder how and why this is always happening to me, but I guess that is due to my laziness to check my own sketches... nevermind, some arduino code later I had this little mockup prepared. You can still see the board behind it, but as soon as the base plates arrive, it will be a lot darker in the background and the blue LEDs for the boarder will distract you from the background even more, I'm quite pleased with the outcome so far. The LEDs are actually glowing more orange than on this picture. 

The LEDs I ordered as seen in the picture are orange but I may use amber colored LEDs I still have laying around. I previously ordered new LEDs because I had not enough for 6 displays but looking at the orange I'm not sure I'm satisfied. To be sure I should build a second one with the amber LEDs and compare them directly.

I'm still waiting for the control boards and the blue LEDs. After that I have to design and print the jar sockets 

So I forgot how I wanted to control the arrays with the 74hc595 but I guess it doesn't matter too much since I wanted to light max 3 leds at a time. I may turn the boards upside down because of the silkscreen.

I remembered that IKEA has those metal boxes named SNIKA which would be a really cool casing for a bigger project. With that in mind I found FINTORP while looking for green storage parts, because I could not remember the name before. Green is also a repeating color in my room and the military touch for this project is fine too. I plan on using the open side as the clock display side. 3D printed sockets for the tubes and a guide to slide in the main pcb will assist the faceplate to interlock with the case. 

UPDATE 17.07.2014

So today I was at IKEA and the GRUNDTAL was the final candidate when I noticed that the FINTORP was way too big for my desk and in relation to my fixie tubes.