So I always envisioned making acrylic standoffs that plug into a double thick 1/8" backing. I did some standoffs like this in some of my sword projects:
This image kind of gives you the idea:
Similarly:
It wouldn’t be hard to adapt that idea to make small subtle holders for neon strips and suspend it above the backing, just like a real neon sign.
Real neon standoffs look like this:
The cool thing about using acrylic with tabs that slot into a backing is that they can be rotated so that they’re always facing the correct direction, and you can make a very custom track using the inkscape “pattern along path” extension, or in simpler cases, manual alignment. Something like this:
The red path is the basic neon shape you’re going for, the black rectangles are slot cutouts, and the blue circle is the outline cut for your backer. All you’d need is to design some standoffs and slot them in (in theory).
Anyway, it’s an idea that I’ve had for ages and never gotten to, and now I’ve put it into the universe 