MagePro's TARDIS

[magepro]

WOW!  ALL you guys ROCK!

[NOTE: I just noticed how much I typed. EGAD! Sorry guys. I'll keep the posts smaller after this one.]

New to the board here, but not to Dr. Who. I'm working with Who North America (Indianapolis, IN) to build a TARDIS product display. The plan is to have, at least the two outer walls (the wall with doors and one regular wall) done by Gencon '09! It'd be nice to have the product display area ready, but it's more important to get the 'front-end' working first.

It is basically for conventions so that people can come up and have their pictures taken in front of The TARDIS. Yeah, so its only got 2 walls. Walking around to the back side, product is displayed on shelves in the center and hanging from peg-board on either side.

We are attempting to mesh many of the years together (except for maybe a few obviously conflicting features and Matt Smiths new one) in a somewhat unique look.

Scope & Background of the Project:
We started out in the beginning of July '09 with a drawing a friend of mine did in AutoCAD. He used to work for a company that built display units for stores. So, he seemed like a logical  choice for the designer. We spent hours going over all the pictures we could find looking for key points about each variation and what we liked and what would work together. What we came up with, we showed to my friends (& boss) and Who North America. They were pleased.

The plans called for speakers in the roof that play the TARDIS sfx (Take-off/Landings), theme music and little advertisements. The sign above the door is lit and the light on top will flash when 'triggered' remotely. Between the sounds and flashing light, the hope is that it will be an attention grabber. I think the top of the lamp is a smidgen over 9 foot tall. The 'curtains' that Gencon uses to separate the booths is only about 8 foot tall.

To add further to the project specs, it had to be very portable and easy to break down and put together. It had to be sturdy, yet light-weight. Yeah, right. It is planned to be disassembled and put into a box with wheels.

Not being a complete idiot, I realized that the scope of what we were doing was way beyond my ability and we had a little over a month to get this thing built. I needed to call in some real carpenters and someone who could do metal work and weld. I can handle the project management and electronics for the box, so I guess we had had all the bases covered. Most of those involved in this project aren't getting paid. It's a labor of LOVE!  I understand now how you guys can appreciate this.

Yes, it is that intense.  What made it worse is that I didn't have a paint expert to make sure we had it properly weathered for the stock of wood we are using.

We started out in early July doing research on...

• Where to get the graphics done (as the previous graphics company we had used disappeared),
  
• Weathering of those graphics,
  
• The windows and the Hammered Glass look for the lower two outside windows,
  
• Where to get the electronics from,
  
• Where to get the metal from,
  
• Where to get proper light for the top we spec'd out,
  
• And a general amount of other questions we didn't even know to ask until we were right on top of it.
  

I think I've lost about 1/4 of my hair trying to figure out all this stuff.

THEN, I found this and it's sister forum with all sorts of ideas, techniques and helpful comedy when I was feeling overwhelmed by this project and the looming deadline.

My hair is growing back... slowly.

I have been taking pictures of the construction process as we've been going along, but it's slow going and it really doesn't look like much at all. We are on day 10 of the build process... well, day 10 that I've been documenting the progress. It's been rough going due to everyone working full-time jobs and other family issues. I've honestly been wondering if we will get the project done in time for Gencon.

I won't bore you guys with the details and eventually just post pics that show some actual progress. Is there a place to put up pics that we can link to in the forum? My servers are whacked and need rebuilt, but right now, all my time is into the TARDIS build.

Right now, we have a really heavy wood base (2, 3/4" 4x4) that has been glued and screwed together and sanded. We have 4 metal brackets with leveling feet and an alignment post that will mount underneath the 'base.' The alignment post sticks up through holes in the base to be bolted onto 3, 8 foot 2x2 tubes. This will serve as the skeletal structure for the walls, roof and display area.

We have the graphics for the sign above the door and the sign for the phone box. I have my feelings about some issues with both, but we are out of time to have them redone. The top sign is black with frosted letters that light shines through without any troubles. You can see it in darkness or light even if it's not lit up. With light behind it, it looks amazing. My gripe? The letters for 'Police' and 'Box' are not bold enough and the 'Public Call' words are too big and centered instead of being a little higher up. It's passable for now.

The phone door sign looks like it's scaled too large. The 'printed' words go too close to the edge (IMO). They used 'press-on' lettering that I asked them not to. As this is going to be facing outside the booth areas, my fear is that someone is going to try and peel off the letters. They are printed on a metal sign. So, I put about 6 coats of a clear-coat spray over it and I'm going to put an adhesive laminate over that to protect it from 'picky fingers.'

I have the speakers and a sub woofer ready. We are still trying to find the power supply GrayDave used in his project. Anyone with ideas for that, please let me know!

The sfx and music I have lined up and we are using a thumb drive and a specialized car radio to run it. I am ordering the rest of the parts for the RF controller and picking up the light glass for the top on Wednesday (7-29).

What's the big hold up? Labor. Admittedly, I am waiting on a call back from Perco about the light, but they've had a month to respond.

Yet to do... almost all the wood work. Burnishing the wood and painting. Soldering all the electronics. Putting the laminate on the phone box sign. Putting the laminate for Hammered glass on the Plexiglas windows in just the right areas. Getting the glass for the top lamp and small corrections for the glass fixture framing.

As soon as I get a place to post pics, I will.

[magepro]

Thanks again for all your support and encouragement. I said it before and I'll say it again, "YOU GUYS ROCK!"

About that black box I mentioned earlier. It was originally intended to be modified to cart the old girl around to and from conventions. However, it was decided it was way too small and has since been scrapped. We are going to use the hardware in one that will fit what we need. I'm hoping by the end of January to have the plans to begin working on our transport.

Also, as mentioned earlier, the storage and work place for our TARDIS has been dashed!  The loans didn't go through for the new buildings, so we are back to my garage when good weather comes to Indiana again. (March?)

Prepare your vortex manipulators, time's a wastin'!

[magepro]

Howdy!
I haven't transferred all my pics and status stuff over here yet, but I do have some good news. We will have a facility that is x2 as large as the one we have now. Our move date appears to be sometime in March. This means that we get to break out the hammer and nails and get to finishing up the old-girl.

I will have pics of our 'new' work area and the work as it progresses.

Items of note -
- the top lamp will be recessed so it doesn't look so odd.
- The windows will be done properly.
- The display area for product will be done in the 10 Doctor style with recessed display lights to better show the products.
- The "Police Call Box" sign will be lit.
- Sound will now be triggered and controlled remotely

I'd also like to darken it a bit as I still believe that it's a little too light. However, I'll let you all judge that.
Howdy!
I haven't transferred all my pics and status stuff over here yet, but I do have some good news. We will have a facility that is x2 as large as the one we have now. Our move date appears to be sometime in March. This means that we get to break out the hammer and nails and get to finishing up the old-girl.

I will have pics of our 'new' work area and the work as it progresses.

Items of note -
- the top lamp will be recessed so it doesn't look so odd.
- The windows will be done properly.
- The display area for product will be done in the 10 Doctor style with recessed display lights to better show the products.
- The "Police Call Box" sign will be lit.
- Sound will now be triggered and controlled remotely

I'd also like to darken it a bit as I still believe that it's a little too light. However, I'll let you all judge that.
Howdy!
I haven't transferred all my pics and status stuff over here yet, but I do have some good news. We will have a facility that is x2 as large as the one we have now. Our move date appears to be sometime in March. This means that we get to break out the hammer and nails and get to finishing up the old-girl.

I will have pics of our 'new' work area and the work as it progresses.

Items of note -
- The top lamp will be recessed so it doesn't look so odd.
- The light boxes at the top do not fit well. They need some shaving so they will be flat.
- The corner posts did not have the upper anchor bolt made or installed yet. That has to be done.
- The windows will be done properly.
- The display area for product will be done in the 10 Doctor style with recessed display lights to better show the products.
- The "Police Call Box" sign will be lit.
- Sound will now be triggered and controlled remotely

I'd also like to darken it a bit as I still believe that it's a little too light. However, I'll let you all judge that.

I used the pictures that I caught the top light on so others could see that it worked. I have a bunch of pics that the light was during it's off cycle. This is the carefully cropped right side view. The entire right side is open. We had 'stuff' in there covered over with a light blue bed sheet. It looked terrible!

I have to say that it looks like it's lacking some depth. The door/wall were made thin so it would be light-weight and easy to carry.
The light gloss (that was made un-glossy) we put on to protect it, gives it a little sheen and that enhances the 'thin-ness of it all.

All in all, for the short time we had to build a display TARDIS-ie box, I guess we did OK. She's still a work in progress.

[Scarfwearer]

WOW!  ALL you guys ROCK!

[NOTE: I just noticed how much I typed. EGAD! Sorry guys. I'll keep the posts smaller after this one.]

Hey, if you start a post like that, you can write as much as you like! 


Take a look at the FAQ section - some of your questions are answered there, and for those that aren't, it's a good place to ask. It's a good idea to ask unrelated questions on separate threads if you can't find suitable threads already.

Is there a place to put up pics that we can link to in the forum? My servers are whacked and need rebuilt, but right now, all my time is into the TARDIS build.

Most people use Photobucket who will host your pictures for free.

Oh and... welcome to the forum!

Crispin

[magepro]

   Thanks Crispin!

I found that out AFTER we got started...

This is our work area.   The big black box on the right is what we are 'thinking' about putting the parts of the TARDIS in for moving and storage. We need to rebuild it, but it shouldn't take more than 2 hours.

The base is sitting on the black saw horses. Initially, our lead carpenter was thinking we were going to park cars on it. It's 2 3/4" 4x4's that have been glued and screwed together.

Pictured below is the first one that has glue in circles and a happy face in the middle. What an artist...

There go the screws going in from our trusty Trent-the-builder. I think he put in 10 screws.

After cutting the 'side curtains,' it sat there for 2 weeks. So, I decided I needed to get started on the metal working. For the plan, we needed metal brackets that would come up from beneath the wood to hold 8' 2x2 square tubes. These guys fit inside these...

We didn't drill the holes in the 2x2 tubes until after the brackets were completed, so it was a sloppy mix. Just for esoterics, we primed and painted the brackets to keep rust away. To make a long story short. I drilled the holes to match the brackets. Here's the completed metal stuff (not including the bit that will match for the roof.) The neat part about these bad-boys is that they have leveling feet under them! I'll try and get pics later.

Next, we had to put tabs with nuts on the posts at set intervals so the walls could be attached. I took these and did my little Prime/paint so it all matched. Now, they look purty.

With the posts and brackets now done, Trent-the-builder came back to finish some of the wood work tonight.

We'll go back in time with my next post to cover the graphics and electronics. I include the top light in that area.

I'm still working on the burnishing and painting deal.  I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have this done by Gencon '09. Who do the Time Lords pray to? Rassalon? Perhaps that's who we need to talk with to get this done it Time.

[magepro]

It sort of dawned on me that you haven't see the overall plans to have an idea about what we are attempting. Half a TARDIS means half the time to construct, right?  


As much as I'd like, I don't think we will get the display area finished in time for Gencon. BUT, ya never know.

[magepro]

Ahhh, the graphics. I include the signs and windows in this group. I'll begin with the Windows.

I started looking at glass (Plexiglas-type) for the windows and came across several interesting possibilities for the textured panes.

The one in the middle is a pebbled glass look but the last one on the right is my favorite, but here is what we came up with.

Not my 1st choice. We used a small pebbled plexiglas and Gila Sidelight solutions called "rippled glass." The store only had 3 boxes left. When I called Gila to ask about something, they had no record of that product. It's that old. It's not meant to stick to anything but glass. It was old and curled. There was supposed to be an adhesive backing on it, but there was none on the one I got. No peel-off backing. My phone call resulted in an answer I was hoping not to get. They said it used strictly a static cling. This just tells me I need a clear, spray-on adhesive to keep it in place. I put some clips at the top to wait for it to dry and set it up with a spray bottle behind it so you can see there is some opacity and texture. The one on the left shows it on the surface while the one on the right shows if from the side viewed from outside the TARDIS.

I'll cover the phone door and Police Box sign next.

[magepro]

Phone Door sign was a hard decsion, but we decided to go for that distressed metal look. Our metal-guy, Tim had a bit of sheet metal that was reallly nasty looking. I cleaned it up with carborator cleaner and buffed it up a bit to get it ready for the printer.
I sent it to the printers and they used some press-on letters. I seemed to remember asking specifically about a silk-screen print so there would be no raised letter for people to try and pull off.
It looked a little bit too shiny and I needed to level out the area between the letters and the metal. I did several coats of a matt enamel spray paint.

It's still sort of wet in these pics and it's outside, so there is some sheen to it, but tons less than before. I am putting a clear laminate over it tonight (before we drill the holes for the screws) and I will weather the laminate tomorrow.

The Police Box sign we sent out to have done due to the time constraints. It looks great with or without the lights on behind it. With the lights, it's very impressive. I didn't even take them of the wrappers I was so excited.
I pulled out one and had my son hold it up to the floresent lights for back-light.

 I was impressed. I'm hoping others will be too.

I'll cover the top lamp after we've picked it up and started work on the fixture.

[magepro]

I can't say enough how AMAZING all you guys (and gals) are! The depth of research, time and effort you all have put into getting incredible results just encourage me to press on!

It's been a few days since I posted, but it hasn't been idle. I promised a bit about the sound and lamp on top, then we'll get back to the wood-work.

I followed as much of the info from GrayDave as I could with the electronics, but have had no luck in finding that wonderful power supply he used. Right now, we are using a "Solid State regulated supply with overload protection" that I've had since the early 80's. It ran a CB radio just fine then.


We did a slight departure from GrayDave's electronics because we need something that could be played longer bits than just the landing and take-offs. We inherited a BOSS 615UA 200watt car stereo.
It has no CD player, but it does have 2 AUX inputs (one in the front and one in the back), an SD memory chip slot and a USB port. Obviously, we went for putting the other stuff on a USB drive as we can easily fit 16 GB worth of music on it.

The other neat thing is that there is an IR remote control. It has a limited range, but if we can get to that part of the circuit board that contains it and move it to a place where we can 'signal' it from outside, that'd be great!

I think we will have an issue with the ampreage draw at 200 watts. Actually, it's only 50 watts as it counts all channels seperately and there are 4. We, however, are only using 2 9x4 speakers mounting in the roof. As this TARDIS is not meant to be outside in the weather, the small holes are not an issue. Whatthat causes uses when the draw hits too high. More on that later. We did a sound test and when set to the max volume, the power supply sees the bass peaks as demanding too much current and starts cutting the power. The power supply has to be turned off and turned back on again for it to resume function at a lower level.

When I add in the Digital recorder/player and the modulator for the light, there will be a lower threshold I would guess.

The speakers are not huge and the tweeter in the center makes them very directional for the high end. They are also not much on the low-end. We have a self-amplified subwoofer that's being given to us that will solve that issue. My only fear is that Gencon will have an issue with the "noise."   As soon as it comes in, I'll attach a pic here.  

I'll cover the light next...

[magepro]

As I mentioned before, we had a small change to the building plan in that the base is now made out of 2, 4'x4'  3/4" plywood that have been glued and screwed together. It was only intended to be 1 and some supports put in where needed underneath. This way, we could have kept the base at 3". Now, it is  at 3 1/2" plus the leveling feet. My guess, as we haven't measured it, is that the new height will be almost 4 1/2". Much taller than we had wanted. I hope that it's not going to look bad or be unstable because of this.  We had a hitch when the Table Saw broke.

Having a broken table saw put us behind schedule as well. The pully wheel and little half-moon piece flew off of the bottom and we couldn't find that little locking piece. Luckily, the boss brought his over and we were back in business. The owner of the table saw came over the next day and WELDED the pully wheel in place, so now we were working with 2 table saws and we plan to be catching up.

We were planning on putting the base on a 'shelf' created in the 2x4 curtain to get the base to be 3" total (not including leveling feet). The metal brackets went over 1/2" past the wood.


After trimming, they fit like a glove! The wood you see to the right is part of a wall we are constructing. We still have yet to begin on the door side.


The good news is that we are combining the metal work with the wood work now. Yippeee! Here, you can see how those metal brackets are going to fit into the base.  

We had some issues with getting the holes chiseled out just right to get them to fit in for testing, but it's working out.

We are building the doors just like cabnetry (sp?) to keep the weight low. It's a little more complicated than I expected, but Trent-the-builder is doing a great job considering not having all the right tools, an ignorant helper (me) and very little time and even less time to finish.


Once we get the 'windows' done (on Monday 8-3) and the doors glued and screwed togther, we do the putty, sanding and painting of the base and doors on Tuesday (8-4).

We ran into a little difficulty getting the right look when the windows were not lit from behind. Placed against a black background (not lit), they look awful as the surfice is not consistant and it just looks like something is stuck to the back of the plexi. We tried a heat gun to get it to sit tighter against the glass by shrinking the plastic laminate over the plexiglas. No go. The second thought would be to just sandwich the hammered glass laminate between another full piece of plexiglas. As we are quickly running out of time (8 Days), we will have to investigate that option later.

However, this idea is one we are adopting. We are putting a thin piece of plexi over the door sign to keep people from trying to peel off the letters. Even though I have several coats of a sealer/enamel cover, I can still feel the lumps of the letters. I'll just get the clearest, thinnest one I can find. It'll just screw on over the plate. As the door to the phone doesn't open, this is not an issue.

We should have plans for the roof by tomorrow or Tuesday and get to work on that. Running down to the wire. If not, we will start on the display side.

I'll have pictures of the electronics in 2 days.

[magepro]

A really rainy day spoiled my morning attempts as paint in an enclosed garage gives me a headache pretty fast. So, I actually did my real job this morning. All the while, I'm thinking about how I'm going to do parts of the door and when the design for the roof is going to come in.

The afternoon proved to be slightly less rainy and and with the help of our trusty dehumidifier, we were able to keep our wood stock dried out.

To recap from last time, we primed one side of a door/wall using an oil based Zisser (sp?) outdoor primer/sealer. We litterly poured the primer on.

Then did a light spray with a flat black enamel. We focused in the corners and edges and did some extra bits in the window frames. The enamel paint helped to cure the primer faster and it pulled itself to the top so the black was on the ridges of the primer, but still deep in crevises.  

After letting that dry, we put in a thin coat of the darkest blue we could find that was almost a grey (I'll get the colors updated here as soon as I find the names). The black bled through. between the lumpiness of the primer, imperfections in the wood (wire brushing and a dehydrating liquid rubbed in) the distressed look was almost overwhelming.

Still a little wet in this one...

But you get the idea.

We took it outside once it was dry to get some pics and see what it would look like in the sun (not that it's going go be outside). The bald guy there is not really bald, he's just too tall for his hair. That's the boss, Keith Bradbury. He's the owner of Who North America (www.WhoNA.com). He decided to come over today and supervise, but he ended up painting. Ahhh, the power of being a Project Manager. You can bend anyone to your will. I think in a past life I was a character from a Mark Twain book.

Depending upon the light and the use of a flash, the color seems to change wildly! If you are wondering about those top three posts, they will come off when we get the designs for the roof and we'll prime the ends.

The next part was to get the phone door stuff, the center line piece and hardware into place. Below is just the layout before we primed the wood bits. Tomorrow, I will paint the blue color and attach them all to the door.

See in this second photo the difference between a flash and no flash? The one with no flash looks really dark.

We have a lighter coat of dark blue we are going to dry brush over the wall/door and then we are going to use a floor polyeurothane all over the thing to seal it. It is a satin, but a little sanding will cut the sheen down... I think.

Any comments about the sheen part?

I think the doors and base will be finished by tomorrow and the electronics ready to mount. We just need to get started on the roof. Man, this is getting tense.

We still have to modify the transport box.  :-/

[dustyfro]

Oh wow, I never thought of putting black underneath for the weathered look!  The distressing looks AWESOME!

[magepro]

Thanks!  That means tons coming from you.

We have another coat of lighter blue (it's still pretty dark) we are putting on using dry brush and then polyeurothane (sp) that's specifically for floors seeing as the other side of this thing is a display fixture. It's clear and a satin, but I think we can knock the sheen down with a light sanding.

What do you think?

[magepro]

Our plans for the roof are almost complete enough for me to understand. Thank goodness Trent-the-Builder can follow them with no issues. Here's the explode of the roof construction. There's no detail on the angles of the roof, but Crispin's script work makes that a breeze!

The detail from the side, is self explainatory.


We will be working tonight on finishing the door/walls and the begnings of the roof. I'll post pics as I get the time.

EDIT: I shrank your splendid plan - click for full sized version - SW
EDIT Again: I put in the thumbnails to make it smaller still - Tom

[magepro]

Lighting Update.

The glass came in from Perco yesterday. I was so excited. The box felt a little light for the size. I opend the box and found that the larger one had been sent (at least I think it's the larger one). I was amazed that it was plastic. It has all the ocular properties of the glass one though it has a slightly grey-ish/blue tint to it.

Lighting it from below does not have the same effect as it did with the other cheap glass ones. I found a light bult that is thin and long and used a 40 watt version to to up through the center of the glass. The filement was just at the right focal postion and it was wonderful. I will get the fixture taken care of and get some shots later. I really want to get a brighter (re more wattage) lamp than 40 watts to put in it. Anyone know where I can find one rated in Benards? (joke from Planet of the Dead)

For the Public Call Box sign above the doors, we decided to go for florescent lights as opposed to the rope lights. They just didn't put out enough light and it was pretty yellow.

I was noticing in a shot when Rose joins in with the Dr., there is a wonderful shot of the back of that sign and it's lit by 3 (40 watt?) bulbs that look a little dim and yellow. But from the outside, it's bright and white in daylight.  

For the lighting, we are using cool white bulbs to get the most white light. Pics are forth-coming.