Some questions for the lighting gurus

[DutyCat]

I am trying to do a rather large build that I am going to place on a mirror and light from below. The way I have it figured, I am going to need about 50 small 1.5 volt, 30mA lights. However, I need to know some basics, like the practical differences between serial and parallel wiring, what type of battery (I am thinking D cells), and any other essentials like resisters or whatever else that I might need, voltage calculations if necessary, etc. One or more of the lights may be in direct contact with the plastic, so is a 1.5 volt bulb going to generate too much heat? Do I need to use an LED for this, and if so, can I wire in an LED to the incandescent string? If so, are there any complications involved in doing this?

Holes are to be drilled in the mirror, and the lights placed in the holes, so that they stick up and give omni directional light, kind of like runway edge lights or taxi-way lights. The wiring will connect to a battery pack in a hollow base below. Or alternatively, it has been suggested that I use a "one way" type mirror and apply LED to the bottom of the mirror and have them shining up onto the model. That might work nicely.

Any expertise and advice from folks who have some experience in miniature lighting will be greatly appreciated.