Mobile TARDIS build - BC style

[DTrasler Writing]

I've mentioned before, I think, that I'm a bit slapdash and impatient, and my measuring is terrible. When I built the dalek the first time around in 2018, I couldn't figure out why the measurements kept coming out different. Turned out, one of the things I was using to measure was a level with built-in ruler, except the ruler STARTED AT ONE. Not zero. SO every time I used that to measure, I got a different number to my tape measure.

Anyway, this is front of mind right now because I'm trying to mark up the front panel, which is 1/4 ply. The right hand door (as you look at it from outside) should be functional, and I'm planning to have the actual phone panel open up too, with a scale 3d printed phone inside. I like to have these grandiose plans when it's Future Me who has to actually make the thing. Sadly, while I was marking up the Tardis, I was actually supposed to be building the walls of the new shed. Running short on time, I opted to stop, rather than rush the last five panel measurements. Looking at it now, it's obvious I should have drawn four vertical lines for the sides of the panels, then done the horizontals and inked in the panels that resulted. But I didn't.



Now it's Monday. I'm working right through Thursday, and on Friday we fly out for (ultimately) Kefalonia. Baggage restrictions mean I won't be taking the Tardis with me. Ironically, it's too big on the outside.
Work should resume in October, but I will also have to be working on the Mad Science Lab we're having for Halloween. And finishing the shed.

[DTrasler Writing]

Thanks to an escaped Husky following my kid home last night, I got an unexpected 45 mins to work on the Tardis, while my wife went round the neighbourhood looking for the owner. I rashly cut out the door, then reattached it with four hinges. Four sound like a lot for a door, but it's wobbly wood, and likely to stay that way even if I put the extra pieces on the front.



I didn't cut out the windows or the phone cabinet door. They would require more precision and more time than I had. Will I get them done before we go? I don't know. I do know I'm going to be spending most of this holiday thinking about the Tardis I left behind at home...

[DTrasler Writing]

Finally back from holiday, and thanks to six flights in fourteen days through four time zones, I have some disastrous jet lag to deal with before work starts again on Tuesday. Still, if you don't know what time it is, where you are, or even which way is up, what could be better than picking up power tools?

I finally cut out the windows and phone box door on the front panel:


I cut four long thin strips to go vertically on the front, but attached them while the panel was lying down, so they're horizontal in this image:



And there's only two of them...



In the above picture I have added three of the horizontal bars. What I should have done was just buckle down and cut out the rest and fit them, but I'm suddenly exhausted and unable to focus. Exactly the wrong time to try and make and fit the sides of the inside of the phone box bit...



I've packed up for now, and come back upstairs to see what's happening, but my wife, who is ALSO jetlagged but treating hers with Ouzo, has slumped in front of "Bridgerton", so there's no help there.

Wonder if I'll manage to paint any of the Tardis tomorrow? I'm supposed to be finishing the shed, getting the shopping and doing a bunch of ironing, but you know how Mondays go...

[DTrasler Writing]

Ok, it's late afternoon, but I have achieved many things. Mostly dull things, like ironing and shopping, but I also got another major piece of work done on the shed, so I awarded myself an hour of Tardis time.



The first step was doing all the tedious measuring and cutting out and gluing that I gave up on yesterday. This was made easier by a shiny new tape measure I bought to help with the shed. Well, mostly the shed. OK, I said it was for the shed, but it was actually for the Tardis. Now, at last, the front has all the additional pieces on. Except...

OK, this isn't going to be a screen-accurate build, right? Because of exigent circumstances, and my own incompetence. But I'm just not sure about that one strip that goes up the middle of the doors. In theory it would cover any gap between them, but I have to be SO careful in placing the handle, otherwise your fingers get caught when you open the door. That strip would make it almost a certainty. So I haven't made that, but it could be a last minute addition.



I fitted a back to the phone box. I also found a rotary phone file online that I can 3d print once I've got my printers back in order.

I've been itching to start painting this, but that would be a huge mistake. I have to wait for the glue to dry, wait until I have time to let the paint dry and not have to move it. But what I could do was paint the inside of the box black. Don't know if that's right or not, but it feels right. Or should it be white?

[russellsuthern]

People have done both.
White is more "Police Box accurate", but black hides the inside more, making it more dark & mysterious.
I painted the inside of mine white.

Regards,

Russell

[DTrasler Writing]

Thanks Russell - this is the kind of research I like doing, where someone tells me the answer without me having to go and look something up! I think my final choice will depend a lot on what colour the phone turns out to be. A black phone inside a black box might be a bit too metaphysical.

[russellsuthern]

Happy to help!
Yes, the phone cubby must be white, or you won't see the phone.

Russ

[DTrasler Writing]

Made it through my first week back at work, but I'm in a bit of a slump today. I was supposed to get a bunch of materials from Home Depot to finish the shed, but the measurements mean the math is insane, and no matter what I do, I will end up with large pieces of siding that I can't use anywhere else for anything. It's a waste of money, and it irritates me.

All this means I'm also in the wrong mood to be trying to do anything to the Tardis, but time is ticking by, and I don't get a lot of it without other duties. Now that I have mown the lawn (another waste of time) I decided to put the thing together and try and figure out the side supports.



This was the high spot of the day. Then I tried painting in some of the shadows on the near side and ballsed that up. The side supports won't work the way I wanted them to, and I don't have any nuts to fit the bolts that I got, I can't move the thing because it's wedged in under the shed roof, and then I cut my arm open moving some roofing asphalt.

There are some days where it's not wise to attempt anything complicated, and I really get that. But I can't just go and have a nap, because this is the only Saturday I get this weekend. This is a third of the time available to me, and I'm not kidding myself that there won't be a ton of other "Just five minutes" jobs to do tomorrow and Monday (It's Thanksgiving here in BC, which means a day off work.) My wife is very understanding for the first ten minutes, but after that she thinks I should really buck up and get on with things, despite all the evidence that everything I touch today will break, fall over, explode, or end up covered in blood.

[DTrasler Writing]

I spent a good portion of this morning on trying to get my stupid Epson Printer to comprehend the notion of printing one picture over several sheets of paper. Whichever program I used, it insisted that my options were:
1: Print out only the centre section
2: Scale the picture down to fit on one page

I KNOW there's a way to do it, but I suspect the answer is to install Adobe, and life is too short. I need to print out a design 26 inches long and five inches high. In the end, I cheated, and ended up having to selotape things together where I guessed they would go, like a mupppet.

It's still too short, right?

[Volpone]

...It's still too short, right?...

That isn't as simple a question as you'd think.  There have been a bunch of different TARDIS props since the show originally premiered in 1963.  The width of the lettering part of your sign looks about right for the original box that was used from 1963 into the 1970s (with some questionable repairs done to it in later years), but the frame the lettering fits in extends out to the corner posts.  A picture is worth 1,000 words so a link to a bunch of pictures is probably worth something:  https://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=7390.0

The way I did mine is I made 3 images in PowerPoint:  One that said "POLICE," one that said "PUBLIC CALL," and one that said "BOX" and printed out 4 of each.  Since mine was eventually going to get backlit I got transparency printer paper like they used for old overhead projectors (this was years ago and I don't know if you can even get the stuff anymore but paper works if you're keeping it simple).  Then I very carefully cut the "POLICE" right at the very edge of the right side of the "E" and the "BOX" along the leading edge of the "B" so the dividing lines would be less noticeable.  Since you can't print white, once I had it all fastened behind a sheet of plexiglass, I spraypainted the back of the sign white.  That's how I got the white on my phone door sign too.  Of course that's an extra step if you're just printing on paper.   

[DTrasler Writing]

Thanks Volpone, those pictures are invaluable! Not least because I can simply adapt what I already made, rather than going back to square One! A friend from the UK has offered to use his Cricut to produce the other signs for me. I've accepted, but I haven't sent him the dimensions yet, he may not HAVE a Cricut, and he may have been joking.

I have a short work week this week, but we have to celebrate our delayed Thanksgiving next weekend, and we have officially started the Halloween nonsense. We take Halloween very seriously here, and so are trying to construct the MAD Science Lab, including Spider Enlargement machine, trans-dimensional portal, and all manner of other things. Luckily, it's started raining again. Due to slacken off in April, I think.

So, it looks like this solitary, wobbly window frame might be my only Tardis achievement for some time.

[Volpone]

OK.  Running back through, the TARDIS from the 1996 TV movie and the most recent TARDIS also have the narrow sign in a wider sign box:  https://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=968.0https://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=9258.0 (and this is actually more accurate to real London police boxes than the wider sign). 

[DTrasler Writing]

I don't know if this happens to other people, but it's quite common for me:

I started this build with a vague aim to get it ready for Fan Expo Vancouver, in Feb 2024. We go to Fan Expo every year there isn't a pandemic, so it was a good date to aim for, and probably manageable. Along the way, a little voice in my head suggested it would be nice to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who by parading the dalek and Tardis around the local area a bit.

Yesterday I finally twigged that the 60th is actually NOVEMBER 23RD! It's about a month away, and that month contains our delayed Thanksgiving, Halloween, and my Wedding Anniversary. It's also close to my nephew's birthday, but he's going to Eton now, so he gets NOTHING. He's gotta learn that class warfare starts young.

Anyway, I now have exactly the same amount of unmanageable projects as I did before, just way, waaaaaay less time to get them finished. I guess I should send that file to my friend for Cricutting, because he doesn't have long to get it back to me....

[russellsuthern]

Never enough time!
I never put a time constraint on any of my builds as it would have put me under too much pressure.
I prefer to just pootle along till it's finished!!

Russell

[DTrasler Writing]

That's a very sensible attitude Russell, but it's exactly the kind of thinking that has left me with unfinished manuscripts for YEARS, and I'm supposed to be a playwright!

My wife is very much about the reason for things, so telling her I'm building a Tardis for Fan Expo gets less sarcasm than telling her I'm building one because the voices in my head said so.

She may have a point, actually.