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Found - Two Mark 5 Police Boxes

Started by starcross, Feb 26, 2010, 07:09 pm

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chunkymuscles

police box original signs.jpg

Here are the photos I promised earlier - they're really heavy and thick, made of some sort of toughened glass. 

whitestar2010

Hey GREAT catch you have there - very nice indeedy  :)  Lovely that those signs have been saved by somebody. You look after them now. I have just the one that I brought years ago now, just the same as yours toughened glass and screen printed - one day I must get around to making a decent frame for it. Yours will look great if you plan to light them up somehow.

starcross

Jul 02, 2010, 04:58 pm #62 Last Edit: Jul 04, 2010, 04:37 am by starcross
Quote from: chunkymuscles on Jul 01, 2010, 08:22 pm
Here are the photos I promised earlier - they're really heavy and thick, made of some sort of toughened glass.  


Excellent timing actually. I bought the fifth and presumably last sign Bygones had from the Mark 3 boxes.
(Correction: I did some checking, there are seven signs showing in the initial photos of the boxes before restoration work.)

It just arrived earlier in the week, I had the chance to scan them at 600dpi front and back. There is a ruler in the scan itself for scaling purposes. Sadly I don't have a strong enough graphics editing software to stitch the two halves of the 600dpi images together. Perhaps someone here will have the capability.

Keep in mind that the front side was about a 1/4" from the glass face of the scanner, and itself has about a 1/4" of glass before the actual sign. Therefore this image is dark because of that limitation. Some Color manipulation may be necessary, I'm not sure I haven't done a printer test to compare with the original to adjust.

Links to my flickr site for the original images, they are far too big to consider directly posting here.
Feel free to use the scans as you like, just let me know what nifty stuff you do with them!

Front Police - Front Box
4754926336_a92f3d9d6b.jpg - 4754281885_ba1b044865.jpg

Rear Police - Rear Box
4754287169_537493b8fd.jpg - 4754286111_84a1179ed3.jpg

mordrogyn

Jul 02, 2010, 07:45 pm #63 Last Edit: Jul 02, 2010, 07:51 pm by mordrogyn
14u2qc.jpg

2qd7pjt.jpg
(http://i50.tinypic.com/20kan9v.jpg)

DoctorWho8

Tiem to do some Illustrator work, don't you?  Then we'd have MK 3 signage.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

ironageman

Nice signs, and probably a better buy than the over-refurbished box.

At risk of being a lock-bore, maybe the use of two different manufacturers is something to do with the specific type of opening-outwards latch needed for a police box. Although, on the other hand, from the pictures it looks as if the later Met boxes were sometimes a mishmash (top signs reading 'police' or 'police public call box' apparently at random, sometimes a blue front sign, and I think I remember seeing a picture showing a 'Mk3' back on a Mk2) so the two different types of lock seem consistent with this whatever-comes-to-hand approach.
leonard cohen  1934-2016  standing by the window where the light is strong

chunkymuscles

Quote from: DoctorWho8 on Jul 03, 2010, 04:50 am
Tiem to do some Illustrator work, don't you?  Then we'd have MK 3 signage.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff


The font style, etc. seems to be pretty much the same as the other boxes though, from all the photos I've seen, unless there's a difference in the size of the actual sign, which is a possibility.  I'm waiting to decide what to do with them though, thinking a possible indoor Met box build out of wood, but as I'm about to move house, I need to find out how high the ceilings are first!  I've certainly gathered enough bits and bobs, not just the signs but also a manual instructing policemen in the use of police boxes and also a very nice pyramid phone. 

deck5

Quote from: chunkymuscles on Jul 06, 2010, 09:45 pm
Quote from: DoctorWho8 on Jul 03, 2010, 04:50 am
Tiem to do some Illustrator work, don't you?  Then we'd have MK 3 signage.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff


The font style, etc. seems to be pretty much the same as the other boxes though, from all the photos I've seen, unless there's a difference in the size of the actual sign, which is a possibility.  I'm waiting to decide what to do with them though, thinking a possible indoor Met box build out of wood, but as I'm about to move house, I need to find out how high the ceilings are first!  I've certainly gathered enough bits and bobs, not just the signs but also a manual instructing policemen in the use of police boxes and also a very nice pyramid phone. 


Any chance you might share some scans of that manual?  I'd be very interested to see it! :)

deck5

Quote from: starcross on Jul 02, 2010, 04:58 pm
Feel free to use the scans as you like, just let me know what nifty stuff you do with them!


Thank you for these!  I've made a Brachaki sign based on them -- posted in the reference forum, but here's the link in case:

http://quartus.net/nbridges/images/tardis/brachaki.pdf

This began life as your combined sign scans, which I then modified as little as possible to make it conform to Brachaki's original sign.

Rassilons Rod

Wasn't the Brachacki Sign actually a REALLY dark blue rather than black?

Makes an excellent template though :)
In the cities in the streets there's a tension you can feel,
The breaking strain is fast approaching, guns and riots.
Politicians gamble and lie to save their skins,
And the press get fed the scapegoats,
Public Enema Number One.

deck5

Quote from: rassilonsrod on Jul 12, 2010, 12:38 pm
Wasn't the Brachacki Sign actually a REALLY dark blue rather than black?

Makes an excellent template though :)


It could be; I don't believe I've ever seen a colour shot of the sign.   Easily tweaked at any rate.

DoctorWho8

Remember our long discussions on how the signs were actually clear and the letters were in white when the signs were backlit?
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

starcross

Jul 12, 2010, 10:04 pm #72 Last Edit: Jul 12, 2010, 10:10 pm by starcross
Deck 5, Excellent use of the scans!
I took a look at the linked thread and it is really close match. Its good to see they are getting some mileage in the community.
I wondered if perhaps it wasnt an original police sign that wasn't just black washed to make it dirty?


Now for my next trick, available in 22 hours only!
How would someone that lives in the UK like to own a close match to the Mark 3 Police Box ETAS Lock?

I found this lurking on EBAY, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful in persuading the owner to sell it to me.
They insist on selling only to the UK, which is bad for me as I'm in Canada.

Ebay Listing #200491238110 Ends: (13 Jul, 2010 19:18:52 BST)

Larger Photo here
4787560241_51baa0b508.jpg

As you can see Its basically spot on except for the latch which is reversed. This is I assume easy enough to change as they were rather simple locks. It could be as easy as flipping the latch, or as difficult as fabricating a replacement in the correct pattern. Ether way its an original ETAS lock, and would look rather nice.

"A vintage brass night latch for use with a rim cylinder lock.
The brand is 'ETAS' made by Enoch Tonks & Sons Ltd,
Temple Works, Temple Bar, Willenhall.
Dates from some time between 1921 and 1965.
The casing is made of a reddish coloured brass and is a very solid 3mm casting.
Dimensions 81mm by 53mm by 22mm.
The fixing holes are at 58mm centres horizontally and 42mm centres vertically."

Cheers.

deck5

Quote from: starcross on Jul 12, 2010, 10:04 pm
Deck 5, Excellent use of the scans!
I took a look at the linked thread and it is really close match. Its good to see they are getting some mileage in the community.
I wondered if perhaps it wasnt an original police sign that wasn't just black washed to make it dirty?


My guess: the Brachaki sign was a photo-collage of a real sign, then copied four times.

deck5

Jul 13, 2010, 11:32 pm #74 Last Edit: Jul 13, 2010, 11:33 pm by deck5
Quote from: deck5 on Jul 12, 2010, 11:00 pm
My guess: the Brachaki sign was a photo-collage of a real sign, then copied four times.


If I can be forgiven for quoting my own post, here's a photo that shows interesting evidence for the photo-collage idea:

hillj08.jpg