Brachacki Model Build

[lorisarvendu]

I didn't like the gloss Royal Blue I used before, as it can make the varnish prone to flaking in places, so I tried a Satin coat instead.  Came out quite a nice colour, and the matt varnish covered it well.  Stump of a cocktail stick for a yale lock and no bent wire handles this time ('cos Hartnell's box didn't have one).

The signs were laser-printed backwards (so the toner's actually on the back) onto acetate and sealed behind with white primer.  Then glued on with PVA.

Is finished!  Now gotta find shelf-space!

As usual, my silver friend shows his approval...

[geminitimelord]

I really like what you have done here! I love this box, well hey I built one too... As mentioned in another thread, I am really considering a repaint to a colour like this. Again Great Job.

[lorisarvendu]

Thanks.  It's an odd design for me.  It's the style of TARDIS I'm least familiar with, and only by reputation as it were.  I only started watching Dr Who in about 1968 (I remember Yet in the underground, Cybermen coming out of tombs, and foamy seaweed) so by this time the TARDIS already looked a lot different, and I grew up with the battered old "flat-top" that Pertwee inherited.

I don't remember this high-topped "original" style at all from my childhood, and even today it looks strangely thin to me, especially compared to the chunkier style of the "real" boxes that I regularly saw in London around that time.  But it does somehow say "I'm from the 60s, and I look better in monochrome".   Which is why I did my build diary in black & white:  http://www.spacewarp.co.uk/who/BrachakiBuild02.htm

I'm glad I made the effort to get a special lamp made though, It definitely improves it.

[geminitimelord]

I hear you on growing up with a particular model. Tom Baker was Doctor Who for many years on Public Television, the only place you could get Doctor Who in the early 80's. But after looking at all the boxes and trying to make a decision on which one to build I fell in love with the Look of the Brachacki Box. Honestly I wish the New Matt Smith Box would have just been a larger version of the Brackacki. Oh well......

By the way I just love how you did your Build Diary in Black and White.... Very Classy Looking!

[galacticprobe]

Honestly I wish the New Matt Smith Box would have just been a larger version of the Brackacki. Oh well......

I agree, Scott, but at least they brought back the white PTO panel (instead of a silver one), white window frames, the St. John logo, and the Fresnel lens for the lamp. I know they only came close (loosely) appearance-wise, but at least they tried.

They never tried with the Newberry, Yardley-Jones, or Hudolin boxes, and they were all new builds. They had two perfect chances to have done that in the Classic Series: one being at the end of "Frontios" after the Gravis reassembled the TARDIS after the meteor bombardment smashed it across the caverns; and a more appropriate one being "Attack of the Cybermen" when the 6th Doctor was fiddling with the Chameleon Circuit. After changing shape three times, when the TARDIS finally returned to a Police Box near the end of that story it would have been the perfect time to bring back the white window frames and PTO panel. But they didn't.

So, you've got to at least give the Moff points for getting as close as he did with the Smith box. I've also heard rumors (and I can't remember where - might even have been on here) that with the Smith Mk2 box they've thickened up the window frames a bit to make it more like the Classic boxes. I haven't seen any good photos of the Smith Mk2 yet, so I can't verify that rumor.

Dino.

[lorisarvendu]

You've only got to look at the newTARDIS and new Daleks to see that the Moff is a big fan of the Cushing movies (and I'm with him on that).

[galacticprobe]

The new Daleks are a far departure from the ones that came before them (even the Cushing ones). The 2005 Daleks came closer to the Cushing movie Daleks than these new 'KitchenAid' look-a-likes.

The new 2010 TARDIS harkens back to the original Hartnell box (which was admittedly similar to the Cushing box; their coloring is about the same, with the Cushing box being closer in size to an actual Police Box).

And for the record, I also am a fan of the Cushing movies, however, I'm glad the TARDIS doors, unlike the Cushing box, still open inwards (with those few exceptions we've mentioned on that other thread).

Dino.

[lorisarvendu]

As a regular reader of Doctor Who Monthly I can confirm that Steven Moffatt was influenced in his choice of both TARDIS and Daleks by the Cushing movies.  He wanted the TARDIS to look as blue as it did in the movies, have the St John badge back, white windows, and he wanted the Daleks to be bigger, coloured, and have big bumpers. He loves the films.

Honestly, he's said all this in interviews.  Although you could make a case for the 2010 TARDIS being based on the Brachaki design, nowhere in the series have there been such brightly-coloured monstrosities as the new Dalek paradigm.