My TARDIS

[linkjrep]

Woohoo go Yoz!

By any chance do you know the name of that 2010 color?

[Volpone]

I went with an "Oxford Blue" for my TARDIS.  If I were doing it again, I'd go even darker.  The color seems very light in sunlight and I'd prefer more of a "Met box" color.  That said, you're putting yours indoors, right?  Be sure to look at your paint under the lighting you'll have. 

In a perfect world, you could look at a TARDIS-sized sample on the material your TARDIS would be built out of.  At the other end of the spectrum is a 2" square paper swatch.  Test your swatch out at different angles--light will act on it differently in a vertical orientation (the TARDIS sides) than it will from above (where it will likely shine down on it).  The reason I mention a "TARDIS-sized sample is that they are so big that I suspect that your TARDIS will markedly change the lighting environment. 

All that said, the bottom line is to pick the color YOU are most happy with.  But if you want my opinion, the "2010" is very nice.  And the Barachki is too light.  The 1963 TARDIS is pretty dark, in my opinion. 

[Scarfwearer]

You may find this board helpful: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?board=90.0

Crispin

[Yoz]

Woohoo go Yoz!

By any chance do you know the name of that 2010 color?

Well It got a number code but Its not that much helpful for you unfortunately as it seem to be a local thing when I tracked it down. I have been in other paintstores and got the almost identical colour but with another code and and with another production company....

@volpone Thanks for your input. It will be an indoor Tardis and I already figured it out it will steal loads of light thats why I reserve a corner for it. I realise that whatever colour I choose it will be a surprise. Dont want a bad surprise though. Its tricky with the 60s Tardis as most pictures are black and white and in poor condition

@Scarfwearer

Thanks a lot for the link. Its amazing how much details these forums have, there is always so much to discover and you guys sharing direct links to for me undiscovered places is great when Im so occupied in my mind to just get all this together!

[Yoz]

Saturdays diary>
So the second visit to the carpentry specialist turned out a bit diffrent than friday. When everything was about to sum together I got to see the first sight of a price for all this. It turned out that the price for having the custom angled sawing cuts made by them would cost me more than all the materials cost together!! Not that I wouldnt have afford it but it didnt feel good for two other reasons. Im having a timelimit for this project and its severely delayed as it already is. I would loose it all if waiting them two weeks out.

Mostly, as an artist I felt I want to create this from scratch as much its possible to do. I fast decided that I will make the advanced cutouts all by myself. I realised that the reasons for me not being that successful in previous buildings of mine is that I didnt have access to the correct tools for it. So I simply bought an electric saw for detail sawings. To me thats a sport and a challenge and mostly I would feel that I MADE my Tardis! Not only putting it together!

Sunday>
Preparing the room that will serve as building room. The original plan to start off at the attic has been dropped where one reason is that the electric saw is not wireless and there is no electricity there. Watching "The Power Of Three" noticing the reason why I had to downscale my Tardis. Its too big for a regular living room not fitting the roof in. The same apply to Amy and Rorys living room. You see the ceiling and the Tardis roof couldnt possible be present, LOL! Just a funny detail you pay attention to when Tardisbuilding is all in your mind at the moment:

Monday> Resting day. Got notification from the carpentry store that all the building materials is ready to be picked up. This is due at 6am on wednesday morning!

Tuesday> Today I need adjust and update my plans as the assistant at the store completely messed it all up for me when changing my measurements to fit the stuff they physically have in store. I need to do this in order to identify all pieces when they arrive and to keep a track of my plan to follow

[Yoz]

Have spent hours collecting photos of each Doctor with each Tardis. Analyzing their colours a bit in attempts to find the colour I want for my Tardis. I know its rather impossible to line out a general colour as it have to do with lightning conditions and what settings the camera had when a photo was shot. Some looks very bright and some almost green. I printed out these photos on a big photopaper each. Just to get a bigger impression and to see the lightning environment in the room where the Tardis will have its place. Spontaniously when doing this process I feel I like the Tardis of the 5th Doctor the best in the general design. Still mine will be custom made as I dont want that flat roof. I also like the white frame windows the first and last Doctor have on their Tardises but that might look weird on a Tardis that in this stage seem to mainly be based on the 80s design...

After that I cut out a piece from each photo to make this close up analyse. The photos from the eight and ninth and tenth doctors is swopped here using other photos that highlight the Tardis better. I wanted the Doctors to appear in the first image but they didnt need to for this... conclusion. Still dont know. Poff so much work for nothing but Im sure I find my colour!

Btw, do I write too much? These forums have so many rules on what to post where. I basically thinking loud here and even if the images is not of my Tardis yet its images thats in my thinking process when planning my Tardis. Hopefully the actual building will start tomorrow or latest thursday

[Mark]

Hey, not at all.

The processes you have just posted make perfect sense to me, and I'm sure at some future point someone new to the board will read what you have put and do the same experiments thanks to your written thought process. Keep it up!

Thats the great thing about build diaries, if you put what you intend to do then others who may have already done it can advise for or against, possibly saving you time and money.

Just for information, when you say you like the design of the 5th Doctors TARDIS, do you mean the one it the picture above because that was actually the Tom Baker TARDIS slightly redressed. I don't remember why (there are others around this place that can explain) but this one was used for a few episodes after the then new version (which was used for practically all the 5th, 6th and 7th Doctors) was unveiled.

[Yoz]

Hi Mark,
Thanks for your reply. I have realised more and more how important these forums are with all the very detailed database it have. I simply add stuff that I have missed to find myself so far. I will put the colour analyze thing in the board for "Paint, Texturing and Dirt Washes" along with the original photos used. The joint photo of them all together on my table doesnt show it very well!

and yes I mean the Tardis on the photo with the 5th Doctor as seen above. I have really searched the references board VERY deep to line out differences to find the main Tardis for my replica to follow and thats the one I found. So of course it would be cool to see more photos of it and also with Tom Baker and to know what differ the redressed one out. But its frustrating to find really good and detailed and mostly high resolution photos of the Tardis history. I have digged all over the internet to find really good photos but I didnt find many. The Sylvester McCoy photo is in a really poor condition. Really went blurry when printed out

Wow, TARDISes are cool! Just saying ;-)

[Volpone]

Do a Google image search for "Oxford Blue."  That's the color I decided to use.  Sort of.  Now that I've been here for a bit, I think it is far too light for a London Met box.  But it seems like a pretty good TARDIS color.  I say "sort of" because if you go to an American "big box" hardware store and ask for a gallon of Oxford Blue paint a couple things will happen:  1) The 19 year old kid working behind the counter will stare at you blankly and you'll wind up over at the paint chip wall, trying to decide what blue is the closest to Oxford blue and 2) He or she will ask you what gloss level you want. 

I expected the first problem and when, one day, I actually found that Krylon (IIRC) carried a satin Oxford blue spraypaint, the color was almost dead on.  But the other question...I tried to think what an old concrete outdoor municipal structure would look like and for some reason decided to go with semigloss (the semigloss may or may not have had to do with water resistance in my mind too.  I forget).  In retrospect I might've went with a flat or an eggshell.  But in the end, with a number of washes and "aging" techniques I kind of like that the base is glossy.  It adds some depth to the effect. 

Before I discovered this board, while I was doing research, I found a guy whose work I liked that wound up using multiple shades of blue to make it look like old paint that was fading differently in different places.  I've tried this effect a bit but haven't really been happy with it. 

[Yoz]

Finally found the colour I want!! It will be based on the fifth Doctors Tardis. Really hope this will turn out good. Gosh what much time it took me to come to this conclusion. You may want know more of my analyse you can find it here  http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3860.msg44910;topicseen#msg44910
I made a specific Topic for this in the Workshop forums. I got some nice help along the way too  

[Yoz]

1) The 19 year old kid working behind the counter will stare at you blankly and you'll wind up over at the paint chip wall, trying to decide what blue is the closest to Oxford blue and 2) He or she will ask you what gloss level you want. 

Lol, Volpone. Thats exactly what I want to try to avoid, the situation with the teenager. When Im determined about something I want to make sure I straight forward in what I want. Even if this colouranalyse of mine took its time it will be worth it at the end. Imagine when you come to the painting stage and it turns out you dont like your Tardis appearance. That would be dreadful and thanks for pointing out the glossy issue. Need to be prepared for that too!

multiple shades of blue to make it look like old paint that was fading differently in different places.  I've tried this effect a bit but haven't really been happy with it.

Yes! Thats what exactly what I had in mind to do. I like the retro weared out raggedy style. Thought it might be better to get a bit too light blue rather than too dark. Then its easier to apply darker shapes than it would do if it was the other way round, applying light onto dark. It just crossed my mind that it might be cool to get two diffrent kind of blue to highlight this effect even more but it might just do blending one colour with black and thats it....

[Scarfwearer]

People often get a few small tester pots in some possible colours to try on some wood samples before painting the whole Tardis.

Crispin

[Mark]

Yes the TARDIS is pretty cool.

If you check out (if you haven't already) the following;-

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?board=45.0

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?board=74.0

You can see a potted history of this particular prop. I have to say those publicity pictures of Peter Davison next to the box are one of my favourite photos.

[Volpone]

One more comment on blue:  It is amazing how much it changes.  I've got a folder of over 30 photos of my TARDIS and yes, I've monkeyed about a bit with weathering.  And Mother Nature has applied a bit of weathering as well.  But the base color is unchanged.  Indeed, I've still got around 1/2 gallon of paint, so even though I want to go darker, it is likely going to be the color it is forever.  But I digress.  The thing I was going to say is, in 30+ photos, it looks a completely different color, depending on the time of day, time of year, level of cloud cover, etc.  It can look like the 1970s light blue or the 2005 almost grey.  Most of the time it is a kind of happy medium, though. 

So if you get the bugger painted and it turns out you're not entirely happy, don't worry too much.  Give it some time and the light may change and you'll love it. 

[Yoz]

Okay!! At this point this project is very present and clear. The moment you realise what the heck you are doing.
I got all the stuff for the Tardis right here since about half an hour. Had to borrow an extra wagon to get everything with me. It almost filled up the whole elevator and one part was so long that It covered up the stairhouse to the second floor,lol!

The help from the huge carpentry superstore have all been very positive. Very professional place and I got excellent customer service on all departments and stages in this.

Im all on my own from this point on
The first I will do is to identify all parts as there is also spareparts that I know is not needed for the project. But as I paid for full blocks on some materials I wanted to keep the spare cutouts that might be useful later on as extra support or to the interieur or to other future buildings

Estimate to start the real Tardis building diary tomorrow!
As I have pressure on time I have to work very intense and on long days. Dont know how the updates will look like from now on. I assume I will get very tired at the end of days but want to try do a daily updates in real time. But I cant promise as the photosharing takes quite some time to bring on. I have to adjust them to fit this forum and make separate updates for another website where I can use my watermark. But it would be great fun to have a kind of "live sharing process"

To be continued....