Ed Thomas Inspired Tardis Interior Scale Model

Started by jayjaycee96, Jul 20, 2017, 04:34 pm

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jayjaycee96

Stage 6: Internal Lighting and Time Rotor

I took apart a 9th / 10th Tardis playset console so I could use the LED circuit and mechanism for the time rotor for my model. I was shocked at how much work must have gone into manufacturing this playset as there was literally hundreds of screws which all seemed to be glued in. This really brought the model to life to see the time rotor move up and down was pleasing. Note that I had already started to attach the switches and levers onto the console itself.

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robajob

Your design process, use of materials, construction method and attention to detail is truly astounding.
Excellent work and a very interesting build thread, truly inspiring as to what can be achieved with skill, talent and imagination.

superrichi1a

This is incredible! I've never seen a model like this, absolutely astounding work! ;D
Isn't it how ironic that we have to think of solutions out of the box, in order to build our boxes a lot of the time?

jayjaycee96

Quote from: robajob on Jul 21, 2017, 09:26 am
Your design process, use of materials, construction method and attention to detail is truly astounding.
Excellent work and a very interesting build thread, truly inspiring as to what can be achieved with skill, talent and imagination.


Thanks Robajob! I have to say it doesn't even come close to your FANTASTIC model that you made of the Matt Smith Tardis! I think it must be a lot harder to produce a scaled down model of a design that already exists when you have to make all of those switches and levers! Thanks!  :)

jayjaycee96

Stage 7: Attaching the other half of the model together:

The next stage of production was to attach the second half of the model togehter once the electronics and time rotor mechanism had been fitted inside and no longer was required to become accessible. This was relatively straight forward. Cabling lined the lower inner circumference of the console, a design cue from the Ed Thomas interior. The switches to activate the Tardis playset were stuck to the outside of the console thereby allowing me to press the buttons and allow for the lights to flicker and the time rotor to go up and down. Also, cabling was run around the walls recreating a design cue from the Ed Thomas design. This would have been where the upper tier platforms would have been situated but unfortunately, could not be incorporated because of the lack of surface contact between the glue and the floor plates due to the abrasive coral effect of the structure.

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jayjaycee96

Stage 8: Chair and Wall facades:

I made a chair with the many hundreds of pieces left over from the project. Unfortunately, that broke relatively quickly and I need to fix it. The walls were made of parchment greaseproof paper. There are 10 walls in total. This is convenient because I can quickly remove them and see the model from different angles. I still need to consider a more effective way of attaching them as at the moment they are held on with blu-tack.

Some minor improvements will be posted later on such as a staircase and perhaps considering adding lights to the roundel / hexels as well as a tardis door.

I will also upload some more higher resolution photos soon.

Thanks, James.

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robajob

Quote from: jayjaycee96 on Jul 21, 2017, 11:38 am
Quote from: robajob on Jul 21, 2017, 09:26 am
Your design process, use of materials, construction method and attention to detail is truly astounding.
Excellent work and a very interesting build thread, truly inspiring as to what can be achieved with skill, talent and imagination.


Thanks Robajob! I have to say it doesn't even come close to your FANTASTIC model that you made of the Matt Smith Tardis! I think it must be a lot harder to produce a scaled down model of a design that already exists when you have to make all of those switches and levers! Thanks!  :)


Many thanks for the compliment, let's call it a draw!
Like you, the style had been set and the task was to mimic it as closely as possible to try and achieve a good representation, which yours does very admirably.
Very true about the switches and levers, especially as all of them had to move as well to be playable for my son and his 5" figures.

I do like the way that you have combined the various elements in your model, the best bits of the Tenant play-set within your construction and detailing, ready made lights and moving parts, one could say that you are being very environmentally friendly!
I made some very good contacts with regards to specialist lighting if you require them in the future for your build. EL Wire components, Fibre Optics and LED specialists to be precise, if you wish, I would be more than happy to pass you their details.
I am in the process of completing my build thread of the Matt Smith Tardis, again like you, I will be posting it up in sections, 11 in all, but I am at the moment just trying to post up some more detail pics and a HD Details video, so have a quick look later if you get time, regardless I shall be eagerly keeping an eye on your build. Keep up the great work!
Rob.

jayjaycee96

Quote from: robajob on Jul 21, 2017, 01:26 pm
Quote from: jayjaycee96 on Jul 21, 2017, 11:38 am
Quote from: robajob on Jul 21, 2017, 09:26 am
Your design process, use of materials, construction method and attention to detail is truly astounding.
Excellent work and a very interesting build thread, truly inspiring as to what can be achieved with skill, talent and imagination.


Ok a draw it is! What really impresses me is the detailing of the lighting, I do have some EL wire which is battery operated, something that was given to me from another project but I couldn't find a way of using it appropriately. Plus it was blue which doesn't go with the color scheme of the Tardis (who knows why the console was blue in the 50th ??? ) The unfortunate thing about the levers on my console is that they are fixed with superglue so do not move so it's very impressive to hear that the levers on your model do! I made the model in a week and a half (if you can quite believe that because I can't really  ;D ) Once the lasercutting was done, it really was just a case of assembling the whole thing together and using papermache. Most if not all of the model is stuff I found around the house so yeah definitely environmentally friendly. That would be good of you to pass on those details because I am quite intrigued to see what the roundel / hexels would look like if they were to light up and sweep round like your ones do! I am very excited to see the build thread and how you made a lot of the components; especially those scaled-down switches? Did I read somewhere that you have built another tardis interior in the past? Thanks, James.

jayjaycee96

On a side note: How do I make this Build post accessible to the public on the Tardis Builders site that don't have an account? I was told by a friend that the link doesn't work when I send them to my Build Diary of the tardis interior? Thanks, James.

robajob

I found a great company called EL Wirecraft with a great website showing all of their kits and products. The range and colours are vast, I am sure that they will have exactly what you require. I chatted with Dave Molz and Leanne at length to get the right products for the project, they were extremely helpful and knowledgeable, here is the link to their site http://www.elwirecraft.co.uk/.

I cannot believe that you made this in a week and a half, that is insurmountable. You must be extremely organised and focused to achieve that look in that time period.
Mine took me 2 years working as and when time permitted. So kudos to you!

Sometimes the best bits can be found around the house, most of mine was made up from various bits found around the house, including the time rotar housing, which was a packaging tube and some of the controls were made from my son's lego.

The sweeping landing lighting were made specially for the Tardis, I managed to touch gold and contact a guy that made them to my exact dimensions at a very reasonable price. They even came with a remote control to change the different light settings, which I have hi-lighted in the new HD video.
The company is called Chop-o-holics, I chatted with Steve and Beverly, here is the link to their website http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/chop-o-holics.
I contacted them from this page and chatted about my specific request. They were extremely helpful, very reasonably priced and made the kit up to my drawings/requirements and sent it to me very quickly.
I cannot recommend them enough. Apparently Steve has worked on other Tardis's as well, so I am sure he could help you with your project.

The build thread will be posted up here shortly, showing how all those fiddly bits were made and much more.
I had mentioned on here that I have also built a scaled down Pandorica complete with sliding doors and a scratch built chair. Also I built a full size Junk Yard Tardis Console with working lights, monitors and controls for my son to play with, "The Doctor's Wife" is one of his favourite episodes and he loved the junk yard tardis!
Those builds and finished pictures will be to follow in time, as I am in the process of moving house, hence trying to post a bit more on here before move day.
If I get the time, I will post up the start of the build thread, it just needs a little more tweaking.
For now, I hope that the contact details above are sufficient for your requirements, I am sure that both parties can assist you, if I can pass you any more information, don't hesitate to contact me.
Keep up the good work, Rob.

jayjaycee96

Quote from: robajob on Jul 21, 2017, 02:43 pm

Thanks Rob,

I will check that website out. At the moment, the model is mostly backlit with the opaque quality of the greasproof paper, trying to  recreate the backlit style of the Ed Thomas set through the vacuum formed panels.

Yeah well I already had the CAD file prior to that including the .dxf files to lasercut and I had planned out the project for the summer break so I had plenty of time on my hands before returning to university. 2 years is an incredible amount of time to be working on a project and the quality of the model validates that! Yes, I have a shed full of old and broken projectors, computers and electronics so the parts bin was endless haha. The sweeping lights to the model is a feature that I am definitely considering. I will be checking that eBay link later!

I look forward to seeing the build feed for your Tardis! I had considered just buying clear plastic straws and attaching led's on either end to create fluorescent-style lighting as appears on the second Ed Thomas design / first Matt Smith Tardis interior.

I also look forward to when you post the junk Tardis build!

Thanks, James.

jayjaycee96

Some higher resolution photographs of the Tardis Interior in its current state.

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jayjaycee96


galacticprobe

Jul 21, 2017, 09:36 pm #28 Last Edit: Jul 23, 2017, 06:24 am by galacticprobe
Quote from: jayjaycee96 on Jul 21, 2017, 02:17 pm
On a side note: How do I make this Build post accessible to the public on the Tardis Builders site that don't have an account?

You don't need to do anything, James. TARDIS Builders is browsable to anyone (except for the Members Only areas, and they're marked on the Main Page).

Quote from: jayjaycee96 on Jul 21, 2017, 02:17 pm
I was told by a friend that the link doesn't work when I send them to my Build Diary of the tardis interior? Thanks, James.

There is a 24-hour delay between when you post something and when non-members can see it. That's so the Moderators can review the posts and edit/delete anything that shouldn't be there. I've just logged out and went to your Diary and was able to see everything that you posted yesterday, but the things you've posted today weren't visible to me yet. So maybe it was just a case of the non-members trying that link before the 24 hours had elapsed. They should try it again. This is the link I found your Diary at while logged out: http: //tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=7907.0. (NOTE: Remove the space between the http: and the // or it won't work. I had to post it that way so you could see the URL. If I'd left out the space you would have seen the link to the first page of your post, like this: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=7907.0. So have your friends remove the space, or have them try that link you gave them again. They'll see everything from yesterday, but will have to wait until tomorrow before they can see today's posts.)

I hope some of that helps. Also... YOU'RE IN MY HEAD! This is how I was envisioning my "Identity Crisis" console! (Only I was having trouble putting it on paper. I think you've given my brain a nudge in the right direction now. Granted I don't have room to build a console, but I just might try making a small version to see how it will all fit together.)

This build is brilliant, and if I ever get a place where I have a barn or large out building with space in it to play with, I might have a keg party and get some friends to help me build a life-sized version of this - or something close to it at least. So let me give you some idea of what I really think of your model (and building skills)...
Envy(Medium).jpg

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

Karomak

Jul 22, 2017, 11:03 pm #29 Last Edit: Jul 22, 2017, 11:05 pm by Karomak
This is absolutely brilliant! I love the tiny little details that you've put on the console and if they were to 'coralise' the console more and more as the series went on, this is what I would want it to be like! :)


Oh yeah everyone, I'm back posting here again.
What are you gonna do? Moisturize me?

-The 9th Doctor, The End Of The World, 2005.