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Genuine Police Box sign?

Started by whitestar2010, Nov 10, 2006, 08:22 pm

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TG

Nov 14, 2006, 10:15 am #15 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:53 pm by scarfwearer
Thanks for posting all those pictures Whitestar1969. It's brilliant to see the sign in such detail. Very generous of you to share all the images!

Simon - My signs were made in the white perspex /vinyl method it worked well and they look good back lit. Ironageman made a great scaleable picture file (.eps file) of the Barnet box sign that I adapted for my signs.

It would be great to see Ironageman's Barnet sign next to Whitestars1969's Peckham Rye sign.

Rassilonsrod - I know you're asking simon but I'll chip in to say my signs were about £15 each (Do Vulcans use money?).

whitestar2010

Nov 14, 2006, 01:08 pm #16 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:53 pm by scarfwearer
Hi all,

Glad you like the pictures - very interesting reading about the sandblasting and screen printing. Mantawrays, no there isn't a metal frame around the sign I think that's just a bit of an optical  illusion - the glass itself is quite thick and there is some paint loss around the edge which makes it look like its framed.

On that very subject does anybody know how the sign was fixed to the box? There is no sign of any putty on my sign so I'm guessing that there was indeed some kind of metal frame holding it in place? I can't really make anything out on the pictures I took last time I visited the Crich box.

Sorry about the lack of sizes so far, I do promise to post something later today.

I'm having some luck removing the black gaffer tape from the back of the sign but its very slow going. I have found a warm iron does help a bit, but the glass gets alarmingly hot even on a low setting. I have found a suitable solvent which will disolve the hardened glue but there are still a few very small areas where paint is still lifting off with the tape :'( the glue has bonded so well with the paint its proving very diffcult.

I have found that there are several areas underneath the tape where paint is already missing - and I think the tape was put there to hide the holes which show through when the sign is backlit. Where there is paint missing on the blue section the glass underneath is definately slightly frosted, not clear and smooth. You can't tell when viewed from the front, but I'm sure it has a slight frost to it on the reverse side underneath the blue - there aren't any white ares of the lettering missing so I'm not sure of the glass underneath that part of the sign. Very odd - any ideas on the frosting - why sandblast and then screenprint?  ???

purpleblancmange

Nov 14, 2006, 02:03 pm #17 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:54 pm by scarfwearer
Gaffer tape, a total pain with everything.  The longer it's left on, the stronger the grip is.

As for why sandblasting and screen printing, the roughed up surface would provide an excellent key for the ink to grip to when printed on.  One of the most common materials that we used to print on was a "frosted" vinyl.  We'd print in reverse on the frosted side, but the front side would be nice and smooth and shared the same qualities as glass.

EDIT:  If you want to see examples of this, look on any PHS hand wash machine, found in service stations, the jaguar head badges for any Jaguar car and also the Armitage Shanks hot and cold tap covers.  I could name more stuff, but I'd bore you all to tears.

simon

Nov 14, 2006, 05:46 pm #18 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:54 pm by scarfwearer
Hi Marc and Timegirl, I got told the cost would be about $200NZ for the four POLICE BOX signs. All up about 70 quid I think? I think Timegirl got a bargain :) Remember mine are only 3/4 full size too. I won't know the full price until I get it done but it is around that much.  I figured someone had already made a suitable version available as a file somewhere but I haven't found it yet!

Whitestar1969, as for the real sign with missing paint you might be able to touch it up from behind if you can get an exact match paint. I has the same problem with an MG badge for my car. It is red and silver and painted on from behind a clear plastic disc. Some of the silver paint came off but I was able to very carefully match it with some paint from a model shop and touch it up. You can see where from the back but from the front it is barely (if even) noticable.

Simon

whitestar2010

Nov 14, 2006, 08:21 pm #19 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:54 pm by scarfwearer
OK here at last are some sizes for those that have asked :

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a216/whitestar1969/sizes.jpg

Sorry its taken a while - the glass plate is 100mm x 765mm x 6mm thick. If anybody needs any other specific measurements from anywhere else on the sign, spacing etc. do let me know and I'll measure for you, no problem.

The sandblasting to provide a good key for the paint makes perfect sense with regard to the screen printing, thanks Purple. That's what I love about this board - theres so many knowledgeable and skilled people here. :)

As to touching up the missing paint I had thought of that, I have a nice 0000 retouching brush that I could use to do a neat job assuming that I could find the correct shade of blue paint - I suppose the real question though is to restore or not to restore? It's a rare beast this sign of mine so I'm undecided about restoration, should I just leave well alone.

Any thoughts anyone???? :-/

Sorvan

Nov 14, 2006, 09:11 pm #20 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:54 pm by scarfwearer
Quote from: whitestar1969 board=general thread=1163190176 post=1163535660I suppose the real question though is to restore or not to restore? It's a rare beast this sign of mine so I'm undecided about restoration, should I just leave well alone.

Any thoughts anyone???? :-/

If it were me, I'd leave it alone.  Once you've changed the sign, there's no going back if you regret it later.

If I were you, I'd mount a thin piece of clear plastic behind the actual sign, and painting on that.  This way you can fill in any damaged spots without doing anything to the actual sign.  It might not look perfect close up, but you should be able to get it looking good from a distance.

Colin

whitestar2010

Nov 14, 2006, 09:23 pm #21 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:55 pm by scarfwearer
Colin - that my friend is a genius idea!! :D Very easy to do and as you say the sign won't in anyway be changed but with the right paint it could give me a good result - brilliant, I will sleep a happy man tonight - it was rather playing on my mind I must admit.

mantamatt

Nov 15, 2006, 10:12 am #22 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:55 pm by scarfwearer
Whitestar - thanks for the measurements -  appreciate it! ;)

ironageman

Nov 15, 2006, 08:22 pm #23 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:55 pm by scarfwearer
Seconded! And such nice crisp pictures too.
leonard cohen  1934-2016  standing by the window where the light is strong

ironageman

Nov 15, 2006, 08:24 pm #24 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:55 pm by scarfwearer
btw, about sandblasting - you can achieve much the same effect with hydrofluoric acid, using sticky-backed plastic as a mask. It is, however, horribly dangerous!
leonard cohen  1934-2016  standing by the window where the light is strong

simon

Nov 16, 2006, 05:35 pm #25 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:55 pm by scarfwearer
I sandblasted the glass gherkin jar I am usings as my temporary lamp on top of the box. I have smallish sized compressor and just used a small handheld sandblasting kit. They are cheap and usually have a tube you stick down into the sand and the blast of compressed air over the top sucks it up and out. I have found that never worked too well so I took the gun apart, turned the pickup part upside down and made a hopper to fit over it so now the sand is gravity fed. Works a lot better now!

whitestar2010

Nov 20, 2006, 06:49 pm #26 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:56 pm by scarfwearer
Hi again all,

I now have all of the tape and glue successfully removed from the back of the sign, so my next task is to put together some plans for a sign box I want to build to display the sign in. Obviously I'm looking to reproduce the sizes from a real police box as accurately as I can, so I'm looking for help with some dimensions if anybody can help. I have listed dimensions A - I as shown on the linked image - all dimensions are in inches.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a216/whitestar1969/signboxsize.jpg

A - 9" taken from Ironageman's Barnet box plan.
B - 5" if I is ½"
C - 31" if I is ½"
D - 30" total length of glass
E - 49" again assuming I is indeed ½"
F - 5 ½" taken from Ironageman's plan - 6" on the Original Trench plan - which is correct?
G - height of the actual glass is 4" and the Trench plan shows the internal aperture behind the sign as 4"
H - 2" from the end of the X to the edge of the glass - also shown on Ironageman's plan.
I - ½" approx for the inner frame around the glass - total guess work!!!

Any help or confirmation with any of these sizes would be much appreciated. If I can also get any measurements for the depths that'd be great as I don't really have any. I'm going to be tied up with a few other things for a while, but assuming I have some accurate plans I hope to get started in the New Year with an MDF build with a dark Royal Blue gloss paint job as per the original police box (if I can find the paint!!!)

Rassilons Rod

Nov 21, 2006, 04:22 pm #27 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:56 pm by scarfwearer
Quote from: timegirl board=general thread=1163190176 post=1163499347Thanks for posting all those pictures Whitestar1969. It's brilliant to see the sign in such detail. Very generous of you to share all the images!

Simon - My signs were made in the white perspex /vinyl method it worked well and they look good back lit. Ironageman made a great scaleable picture file (.eps file) of the Barnet box sign that I adapted for my signs.

It would be great to see Ironageman's Barnet sign next to Whitestars1969's Peckham Rye sign.

Rassilonsrod - I know you're asking simon but I'll chip in to say my signs were about £15 each (Do Vulcans use money?).


Meant to say thanks to both you and Simon... btw, you do realise that in this case Vulcan refers to Power of the Daleks, right? :)

-Marc
In the cities in the streets there's a tension you can feel,
The breaking strain is fast approaching, guns and riots.
Politicians gamble and lie to save their skins,
And the press get fed the scapegoats,
Public Enema Number One.

simon

Nov 21, 2006, 05:54 pm #28 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:56 pm by scarfwearer
I finally took my signs in to be made. The expensive one turned out to the the 'Pull to Open' one. It worked out to be twice the cost of one of the "Police Box" ones.  All up the total cost is $200NZ (about 70 quid or $135US). The door sign was actually even more but the woman said she'd give me a good discount. Mine isn't the same as Whitestars real sign though. I just did my own look that 'feels' right on my box. I did use it as my start point though!

Simon

chriskingbees

Nov 21, 2006, 08:09 pm #29 Last Edit: Apr 22, 2010, 04:56 pm by scarfwearer
Hi Simon
I actually made my own signs and was trying to achieve the original police box look. Whitestar's sign is quite a lot different (If only I'd waited) but as you rightly say, as do all here, it's what looks right to you. I'm looking forward to seeing them on your build. Great stuff
Many thanks
KB