Gavvers NST Build

[Gavvers]

Hi, I've seen some fanatastic builds on this site and having looked at some of the really great one's, I thought, I can do that!! Basically, my four year old son is mad into Doctor Who, which pretty much makes all of us into it here, and I had always wanted to build a playhouse for him, I thought why not combine the two? I started back in June and although I have only just finished it, I blame most of the time delay down to the Terrible weather we've had over the summer, and as my build was always intended to be outside.

I didn't have any plans, nor did I actually "plan" as such, I picked up his toy TARDIS and took some measurements, which I multiplied by 10.89 (to fit in with largest piece of marine ply I could get my hands on. The result of which is, I believe, it is mostly to scale and almost exactly 8 feet tall from base to the the top of the light. Here are the early photos.....

[rizla]

Hi Gavvers, Thanks for the kind words. For me at the moment, my TARDIS is not top priority either as we are adopting a little girl in a weeks time and I am busy building a wardrobe, I guess that is TARDIS like. LOL!.

I got a flasher unit (but haven't installed it yet) from Maplin, it doesn't take a lot of time to make and you can adjust the flash and the "off" period. It costs about £6 and you can attach a car headlamp bulb and holder into it as it is 12v DC. There is a thread about it. But it is fairly straight forward I bought a plastic box to house it in too.

[apprentice]

We have ourselves another box ! & have your 1st karma point for giving your sons the best of presents,something his dad made

[Gavvers]

The base is made from 1 1/2" ply with four inch fence posts in each corner. I then created frames for the four light boxes, and temporarily reinforced the uprights until such time that the sides were in place. I then fitted a flat marine ply roof, which I'll come back to later. I then cladded the corner posts as per the NST. Using 2" x 1" I created the steps bars above the doors and the door jambs. Once I attached the sides, the structure was rigid enough to remove the angled reinforced crossbeams holding it at 90 degrees. At this point I tipped it on it's side and added extra timber underneath the base to increase it's depth.

The Windows are perspex with white adhesive privacy film on the inside. I couldn't find mottled glass for the bottom corner windows, so I bought some adhesive mottled Fablon, attached on the inside which looks great!

The Police box signs were made by a local sign writer, I simply gave him my measurements and an internet link showing the sign on the Tv prop and he did the rest.  The font is Gil Sans, which has been slightly stretched. It's printed on black vinyl onto opal perspex so the light shines through the lettering.

The "Pull to open" sign was created using photoshop, and then printed onto high-quality photopaper at a local printers, then laminated and mounted behind perspex and then sealed in using silicone.

I couldn't find the right "Bow" handles, so I bought one black one from Wilkinsons and one small green one from B&Q, both were then hammerited silver.

The box was primed and undercoated and then pained with three coats of Dulux "Venetian Crystal 1" (weathershield), all joints were sealed with gripfill, of all things! I was given this advice by a friend and so far she hasn't leaked!

Finally, I made the roof as a stand-alone item. I wanted to place it directly onto the flat roof I had made for two reasons; (1) to prevent leakage into the box as much as possible; and (2) because we are due to move house soon and I didn't think it would go into a removal van!

The roof unit is not attached, and is unlikely to move around. I have attached some rubber draught excluding strip around the base of the roof which, when squashed down with the weight of the roof prevents water seeping in, so far it's done a great job.

The light is a gardman parisien lantern (thanks Rizla!), I removed the glass and top-mid section and gripfilled it back together. I took an opaque plastic tube from a cheap security light I bought from Value House, cut it to size and put inside the lantern. I have ordered some multi function flashing/static blue LED Ice-cube xmas lights, which I'll glue together into a small tower to go inside the lantern, hopefully this weekend.

Lastly, I "dirtied" it up with some black gloss paint on a sponge, rubbing it into the box, so much so that it doesn't appear glossy.

Then we took lots of photo's and I have a very, very happy little boy!!

I'd love to know what you think? here ar some more pictures -













Thanks for any comments

Gavvers

[Gavvers]

Thanks apprentice, my work mates jibe me "it's not really for your son is it?!"..I can't stop talking about it, it's been great fun to build!

[geminitimelord]

Awesome Build indeed! I see you managed to get a good ladder in the shot.

I love the paint and everything on this.

[Gavvers]

The next stage is to do the interior. I intend to make a small half, console against the rear wall. I have some bassy PC speakers and a cheap MP3 player with the clips on, so hopefully my son will be able to press buttons to make the sound, as well as control the roof light. The inside walls will be painted with gold gloss this weekend and our signwriter friend is making the "roundels" as adhesive stickers to mount on the walls. Hopefuly I'll have some more pics soon!!

[dalethetimelord]

Looks AMAZING!  Love it.  Welcome along and a very nice TARDIS!  Have a whole raft of karma points for a GORGEOUS box!

[Gavvers]

Thanks Gemini for your nice comment, I'm really grateful. It's so cool having a TARDIS in your garden!

[apprentice]

I get ribbed by EVERYONE my build is supposed to be for my daughter

[Gavvers]

Ah, what do they know!! Thanks everyone for you're kind comments! I am pleased with myself as I did sort of make it up as I went along!

[apprentice]

I`m doubly jealous of immense Karma haul already but justifiable. Great box & so quickly completed I will just have to re double efforts & start working overtime   

[Scarfwearer]

Definitely a splendid build! The strangest thing about the new series is seeing all these kids around wearing sharp suits and smiling! 

Crispin

[avadh]

This is a fantastic new series tardis build. Looks a thousand times better than the television versions. The perfect present for your son.

[DoctorWho8]

Nice job on blowing this up from the TARDIS toy.  Now it's  really BIG toy.
Bill Rudloff