Custom Hudolin/Yardley Jones TARDIS.

[Volpone]

I can't wait to see your blue in different lighting conditions and on an assembled box.  With the walls backlit at the window they have a much darker, more Hartnell or even Eccleston look.  But the corner posts, with regular top lighting have the bluer shade of, say, Oxford Blue in outdoor light. 

[drgonzo]

It will still be a while before I get the box fully built and picture ready (hopefully not too much longer). Blue itself is such a wonderfully variable color depending on ambient lighting, more so than most others. Thats why it was a trick to find a color that everybody liked that was acceptable both indoors and out doors.

-Jay

[drgonzo]

While I'm waiting for my glass order to arrive I took the time today to paint the back of each window flat black to match the interior of the box when installed.

[drgonzo]

Now that the third coat of paint has had two weeks to dry and cure, I took the time today to do the final install for the hardware on the right hand door. I wish my camera could capture how nice the brass looks against the dark blue. In person its quite classy.

[drgonzo]

The phone arrived yesterday. This is a Crosley CR62, a readily available 'retro' phone that my friend picked out for use in the Call box. With phone in hand I can now begin building the box to hold it that will attatch behind the "pull to open" door. It will be removable to allow the left hand door to open fully when desired.

[Yoz]

impressive build!!

[drgonzo]

Thank you. The kind words and encouragement from everyone is really appreciated.

-Jay

[too_many_cars]

Fantastic work - I'll be doing a Hudolin box soon enough to display with the McGann console, and I love your construction details + choice of color!  Very nice, looks the part.

--Brian

[drgonzo]

It felt good to get back in the shop today to begin work on the Phone box. First thing to do was to make a face frame for the box itself to fit on top of the face frame that the "pull to open" door abuts when its closed.

You can see the interior frame below. As mentioned earlier this keeps the "pull" door from swinging inward too far and also prevents any light leaks when the door is closed.



I then built a duplicate of the frame along with a bottom cleat. The cleat will mount to the back of the left hand door to take most of the weight of the telephone box. The frame will mount to the box opening itself.

[drgonzo]

Next I built the box itself 8 inches deep and sized to fit the interior measurements of the face frames. Pretty simple.




Then I made a small Daiza or platform for the phone to help feature it more prominently and also hold it securely. The plunge routed mortices accept the little feet underneath the phone so the base sits flush. We wanted the phone to be more of a cool accessory rather then an afterthought.

[drgonzo]

I cut a back for the box from some scrap plywood and tried it all out. It should look nice in its new home.

[bobjohns]

How's it all going? Looking forward to the next update!

[drgonzo]

Once the face frame was glued and set, I was able to then glue it directly to the telephone box frame. As I say so often "you can never have enough clamps."



I then attached blocks and turn buttons around the outer perimeter of the Phone door opening to allow for a quick take down and set up for the telephone box. You can see in the photo below how the two Identical face frames (one on the box, one around the door opening) meet up when the box is attatched to the back of the left hand door and how the face frame on the telephone box acts as the "catch" for each of the turn buttons.

[drgonzo]

Now that i was sure my phone box attachment method was going to work, I centered the small base into position and marked it for glue up. I found that the telephone looked better just slightly off center to accommodate the visual weight of the phone cord on the left hand side.

[drgonzo]

The finished phone box was painted flat black to match the rest of the interior. I noticed that the black phone, when placed inside the black box, was somewhat nondescript. I decided I wanted to highlight the phone a bit better, so I drilled a 4.5 inch hole into the top of the phone box in order to allow ambient light from the inside of the Tardis to illuminate the phone just a bit. This opening provides just a nice pool of light so one can actually see the phone inside that black box.