The Brachaki Police Box Prop (The War Machines to Seeds of Doom)

[galacticprobe]

Tony, here's your image from "Curse of Peladon" lightened as far as I dared take it (and sharpened a bit) to show that corner post that was in mostly darkness:


Hopefully it helps you illustrate your point better.

Dino.

[Rassilons Rod]

It also looks like they'd at some stage scraped off a lot of the Aertex they'd plastered on for aUC/Daleks.

(Hope I didn't miss that at some stage in your text, Tony!)

[markofrani]

Once again Tony, great detective work!

With regards to the roof, I wondered whether rather than a total replacement they merely customised the original by simply attaching two pieces of wood on either side so that they were then flush with the sides and could then be attached by the hinges/brackets we see. This shot of the Axos location shoot seems to indicate that maybe?

This one from 'Seeds Of Doom' (the prop's last appearance) definitely shows hinges. I think also by this time the rear doors appear to have no ledge detail by this time. Maybe the roof was hinged on one side and then screwed into position on the other side.

[tony farrell]

Thanks for the lighter picture Dino - do you mind if I use it?

As always Marc, you make a good point but, for the life of me, I don't know how to include changes in the texture of the prop in this thread: Artex isn't a particularly stable product at the best of times - clearly it's intended for interior use only and won't stand getting wet - requiring as it does specific surface preparation and priming. We know that when the Police Box prop was first made, it was pristine. The photos and grabs from the Pilot Episode seem to show that the box was initially finished in a satin paint. If it was, then in the 1960s, this sheen finish had to be oil based. If oil-based paint was used, then the bare wood would have to be both primed and under-coated prior to the sheen being applied. Thus, the Police box prop had already had three coats of paint applied to it by the time the Pilot Episode went before the cameras. It was then dirtied-down/aged with the application of Artex and varying shades of paint for the remounted first episode only for this dirtying-down to be slightly reversed for the recording of the first Daleks story. That's three alterations to the prop's texture/paintwork in as many months!

If we look at the colour pictures from "The Abominable Snowmen", white patches are clearly visible on the prop:

Either someone has been out with some white paint or, more probably, bits of paint and Artex have fallen off. (I think it was a scuff in the paintwork which Mindrobber pointed to when he argues that the lock returned to the original door for "The Invasion".) So, Marc, what I've tried to do instead, is point out when significant (describable  ) changes to the colour/paintwork took place. Not perfect, I agree, but the best I can do.
Tony

[tony farrell]

With regards to the roof, I wondered whether rather than a total replacement they merely customised the original by simply attaching two pieces of wood on either side so that they were then flush with the sides and could then be attached by the hinges/brackets we see. This shot of the Axos location shoot seems to indicate that maybe?

This one from 'Seeds Of Doom' (the prop's last appearance) definitely shows hinges. I think also by this time the rear doors appear to have no ledge detail by this time. Maybe the roof was hinged on one side and then screwed into position on the other side.

I too did at first think that the prop's roof was widened in the manner you suggest. I then spent ages looking for evidence of this which you might expect to see in shots of the prop from above. I couldn't see any seems or joins on either side of the roof' 'pyramid' top which would indicate it had been widened. I then looked at the general 'state of repair' the original top-tier was in particularly in Spearhead:



In the UNIT lab photo, the bottom edge of the roof appears to have a thin section attached to it (perhaps a thin plywood sheet had been attached to its underside to provide a greater surface area to attach it to the rest of the prop (i.e., for safety/stability)). As far as I can see, this thin section wasn't present after the Terror of the Autons replacement. This is from Frontier in Space:

As regards the rear doors' 'drip sills', these had disappeared by Carnival of Monsters - so, I think, but can't prove, that these were removed either in the September 1970 refit or, when the prop was repainted in the lighter blue for Peladon.
T

[galacticprobe]

Thanks for the lighter picture Dino - do you mind if I use it?

No need to ask, Tony. It was always your photo; I just lightened it up to (hopefully) bring out the details you mentioned.

Dino.

[gerald lovell]

Tony, looking at the left side back window in "Carnival of Monsters", it appears that the panes are smooth perspex or similar material at that point; there's no sign of texturing.  On close examination of the four dark panes of the front window on that elevation, they do look textured.

G

[tony farrell]

Hi Gerald,
I'm not seeing plain perspex in the left-hand panel; what I can see is that the left pane is the same as all the others except the right-hand pane (bearing in mind the front and rear windows are 'blanked-off') The right-hand pane's four darker panels are dirty, but almost clear; its bottom right and left panels are textured:

I think this right-hand pane is the only original (1963 front door) window pane to survive the 1966 refit.
It was replaced so that by "The Time Warrior" it matched the others. (Time Warrior was recorded in the same production block as The Three Doctors and is the first time since Carnival/Frontier that we get to see the left-hand side of the Police Box with any clarity. All the other changes took place for "The Three Doctors", so I think this was when the original pane was replaced.)
 
If anyone can get some better photos, that might help us to be definitive.
T

[Rassilons Rod]

You mean "Right hand side of the left wall", right?

[tony farrell]

Yes, the pane closest to the front doors on the left-hand side of the Police Box. 

[Rassilons Rod]

Just checking

I'd swear I can also see a sill on the left window too... (same wall)

[tony farrell]

I'd swear I can also see a sill on the left window too... (same wall)

You can  ! The sills were retained on the left and right hand sides of the box. They also survived on the rear doors up to the 1970 refit. The actual window frames were separate from the perspex panes (as seen in the shots from Peladon). It was the original (1963) perspex panes not the frame which I think were finally replaced for "The Three Doctors" refit.
T

[Rassilons Rod]

Ah, I see what you mean. Just the "glass" was swapped out, I thought you meant the whole thing when you said somewhere "the last remaining 1963 window" went away at some stage.

[tony farrell]

Cheers Marc, I'll double-check what I've written just to make sure I was clear!

[geminitimelord]

TONY,

I love all of these photos you are adding in this thread. Having built my own Brachaki box, I was surprised to discover how easily the sign boxes were produced. After they aged and the wood started to seperate it is obvious it was made in pieces as when I built my sign box I attempted to construct the face of the sign boxes as one piece routing out the opening.  I love seeing the photos of this box as I am in the process of fixing some winter damage and while I havent decided to just lop off the roof yet, it is good to see these close up images of the ol girl.