Yes, this is my sixth police box, so if i haven't got the hang of building them by now....

my first box was built back in 2001, and like this latest build, was built as doorway into my shed



my second box was built in 2005. I original made this one to give away for charity. Long story, but sufficient to say that it didn't happen, and finally ended up at Portsmouth uni on display along with an old phone box. This box was built slightly wide than my first box to be more like the new doctor who TARDIS that was just about to come to our screens again.

boxes 3,4 & 5 were all half scale boxes. two my son has in each of his bedrooms as wardrobes (one at his mum's, and one at mine!), and the third was built for a friend

but the latest, and maybe the last! i was going to say hopefully, but I'm not sure how i feel about that, is this one. as with the first box, this one is also a doorway into my new shed. on the first box, i made doors in the back of the box with which to entree the shed, but this time i haven't, and only have a kind of link tunnel. this did mean that i only had to build three sides!

this build took 6 weekends to complete, with a few evenings for good measure. its build out of ply and pine. if anyone else goes down this route, make sure the pine is straight, at least when brought, as working with twisted wood is a nightmare!

before starting, i pulled together, from a number of sources, a number of known measurements of the Tom Yardly-Jones prop and CAD'ed this plan. i'm sure this is still not spot on, but working from pic's etc, its quite close. the base is 4'6" so if you would like to use these plans, just print this out in any scale you like and just use this measurement for the base and the rest should be easy :-)

Back to the build. the first part i built was the base



then it was table saw time to cut up all the profile wood for the panels. I'm sure many have used the same technique as i have! these were then glued and screwed, from the back, to the ply sheet which was first cut to size. on my first box, i screwed the profile bits on from the front and then made wood plugs to cove the screw heads, but this didn't look that great! the finished product looked like this



Next was the corners. these were cut from the ply sheets, as they are too wide as they come, and then using 45 x 45mm wood internally, they were screwed together. to get the quarter round profile on the corners, 15mm profile wood was used.

progress shot

next was the roof. this was made from pine, but the four roof sections unto the light box were made from ply



with all the key pieces made, they were then painted in wood sealer. this stuff comes in two parts and goes off very hard. this was then topped with undercoat and finally blue! i have gone for Oxford blue, but this maybe a little too dark for most peoples tastes



view from the inside of the shed out into the box

it was only after this latest build that i was pointed in the direction of this web site! so i thought it would be nice to shown others/you guy's (and Girls) what i have done. having looked at a lot of other builds on here, i have seen some very good work, and some points i which i could have seen before building mine as i could have incorporated them! never mind

one useful thing that i have done, that maybe of interest to other builders, is with the windows. mine are made from rigid plastic. this is cut on a machine at work that we use for labels. it comes in many colours, including blue, but it will never rot! its also a very fiddly job cutting out the wood to make the window frames, and then making a good job of painting them. maybe not during the build, but in a year of two's time when touching up is required!!

i have also made the phone door label from the same material and engraved the lettering. this can be done in bold print, but when the engraver had finished doing the out line of the text, which it does first, i stopped it because i like the look!

i have fitted an interior light which does a great job of lighting up the sign boxes at night, and have also fitted a flashing light on top. i plan to add sounds in the near future!

well i hope you like my box, and just wanted to add, keep up the good work!

Nice builds.

I'm not 100% sure but having made 3 full sized builds must be some sort of record!

What happened to the first shed build, did it succumb to natural weather related death or did you just fancy a new version after nearly 11 years?

I did notice that your first box has some interesting arrangements for making the door panels. Are the 45' angled joins any stronger than the normal sort of joints?

Thanks for you're kind comments

Sorry to everyone for the poor English. Guess who couldn't sleep last night! prob not the best time to make my first post!

Interesting question about the angles. This was my first build, and I really did make hard work of the panel work. All the horizontal pieces of wood went to a point into the vertical runners! i can post a picture of this if it's of interest, but it's not a method I would use again

Sadly, the box stayed behind when I left the marriage, and with no maintenance, it just rotted. It was taken to the great skip in the sky. Never mind!

I thought it was the same place but with some nice new crazy paving!

The v notch work just got my attention because I hadn't seen it done that way before. If you say you wouldn't do it again than thats enough for me!

I also noticed what looks like a floor mounted ventilation grill. Is this what it is and is there a similar thing on the outside at the back?

Just nosey.

BTW, can't say I noticed any poor English, must be my poor reading! lol

No, it's a new house! But my tastes haven't changed..... Still wanted a police box at the bottom of the garden!! But who wouldn't!!!

In the new box, that is a vent in the floor. When I made the base, it was the usual square, with three floor supporting side to side pieces of wood. Each of these had 4 or 5 20mm holes drilled through them so air could move around underneath. The base was then painted in a mix of creosote and old engine oil, twice.

Before the base was put down on the concrete base, sealant was put around the base. Then the vent was cut in. This means that air can keep the base in good nick and if any water does track underneath, it can dry out again and not stay trapped and rot the wood!

Have I gone over the top?!?

OK. The build is done, and I'm keeping on top of the water leaks, so what next.... The inside of course!

I have decided to go with a view of the console room from the five doctors. This was after all the console room I remember most from my childhood

After looking at a number of options, I have in listed the help of a spray paint artist to paint the inside as I think this will give the best results! Sadly my painting skills are not up to the job.

The other option I looked at was having the pic blown up and printed out, professionally of course, but this had a number of problems. The first being that the picture looked awful blown up, so would need some sort of enhancement. The second was getting the correct perspective and feeling of depth! The inside of the box is small as you all know, so making it feel big is at the top of the list

I did also look at using the new roundel and column wall paper, but this would be nowhere near as good as having a console in view!

I have today made ready the inside of my box to mount the plastic sheets that will have the art work on. I'm doing the two main sides, not forgetting I only have three sides to play with, and having two door cards made up to give the doors the roundel workover!

The other prep work I have done is to mount new lights for the windows. Originally I had one central pendant light which lit up both the box and the light boxes, but with plastic card now being mounted on the inside, the windows will be covered. Using some battening I will be mounted the card proud of the walls allowing me room for some LED lighting behind ( I have used shaving lights as they are only £7 per strip and run from mains so no transformers are required!) this will give the illusion of a normal box from the outside, but no windows will be seen from the inside

I hope to get the plastic sheets this week, so I will take some picks to show you all what I mean

You know, we do have 3D artists on here, and a few have done the 5 Doctors console room.  Maybe putting a call out to them to do a high end render from the outer doors facing the console will give you the effect you need.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

Sorry I didn't think! Still, I have seen this guy's art work and it is top class! Also he's a Dr Who fan as well, so its not all bad!

Progress has been made though. I now have the plastic sheets all cut to size, and today I was able to do a dry fit (sorry, no pun was intended, nothing is dry at the min!)

Anyway, here are some pic's



This pic shows the battening fitted to the sides of the box to take the plastic sheets, and the strip lights which will light up the windows when covered. Because the plastic will remain white on the back side, this will help the light, light up the entire windows. Tested it tonight and it looks ok. where i have them at the sides of the windows, it does tend to light one side more than the other, but I will try to diffuse this to give as even a light as i can.
This next pic shows the plastic card all in place. I was worried that i wouldn't be able to get the big sheets into the box without bending and scraping, but it all went fine.



i intend for the corner where the two big sheets meet to be the main focal point!
This next pic shows the doors



The doors will sadly have a gap at each side to enable them to open fully, but this does give the picture a break, and will enable the doors just to be painted to look like the doors.

So i hope soon i will be able to post pic's of the finished job, but this is the pic i'm basing the look on

Ah one of Mr Semenoff's masterpieces