Having seen those photos of print in process, I can understand more of what goes on & thank you for posting them, seeing is understanding. I remember what my lecturer once said when doing my apprenticeship, quote: "I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand" & how true that is.

You've done a brilliant & amazing job on these bits, keep up the good work & I hope the printers keep behaving for you.  look forward to more pics & parts.

Chris.

Hi, sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been happening, the model has progressed ahead significantly. I've just found myself particularly time poor recently. I can set prints going, and then leave them for however long they need to go, but sitting down and typing out the diary is very time-intensive. And a lot has happened, model-wise, so expect a few large updates over the next day or so....

... don't really have time right now to do one, but for the moment, let me leave you with this...













...enjoy

D.

Your build is looking amazing!
I was wondering if you where going to add extra coral to the TARDIS console and struts? I did when making my own, if you paste a mixture of Polly filler and glue over it looks quite convincing! (I have a build of it on my profile) keep up the great work!

WOW That has come along, your doing a really great job on this & don't panic/worry about how long it is between posts, we all have lives to live besides being on here, so just update when you can. Keep up the great work, loving this build.

Chris.

Thanks kitkat123, thanks Chris, much appreciated...

... I hadn't intended to do any more work on this than was *cough* (chequerplate) *cough* necessary (says the fellow who keeps adding details!). I'm not really much of a model maker; I'm reasonably good with some mechanical design, excellent at 3D modelling, and have a fair amount of experience with CNC programming and production. That's really all I bring to my projects. I'm not a painter, or wood or metal worker or renderer; I'm fairly lazy and like to do the minimum I can to make something work "well enough". So, having printed the bits and fit them together, that's it as far as I'm really concerned. I like my consoles to have some glowy, lighty bits, and I started to do that with my other consoles, but as you can tell I haven't actually finished them yet...    ... fortunately for me, I don't need to do any of that for this one, because the console is already electronic; part of the reason it was so attractive to me as a project

... the thing about not posting for a while is it can eventually turn into a huuuuge job in itself! I've actually now got so much to update, I'll probably have to break it into a few updates. Also, I forget what it is I need to talk about! So, I'll endeavour to not leave it so long in future...

Cheers,

D.

... ok, not sure where to begin...

... wall and base printing continued pretty much as it was going at the last update. This was Wednesday last week:



... the first support piece of the Dais, part of the Base




... and the walls...















... the holes on the sides of the walls were a bit loose on the dowels, so I made a mental note to make them slightly smaller on the subsequent prints. Unfortunately, that only happened sporadically, I remembered for some but not for all. It's not critical in any case, the walls line up well enough, with plenty of support from elsewhere. Below is a picture of the previously printed wall section sitting on the base, joined to the new wall section which isn't. You can see that it leans away. That's because the dowel sits a bit loose in the hole. As I said, once completed, it's not really going to matter that much...




... and held together by PET tape...




... getting there...






... the thing with using the blue tape, if I haven't mentioned it already, is great for adhesion. Unfortunately, if you leave it on for too long after the print finishes, the bed cools down and the adhesion is even better. I originally thought that the application of acetone on to the tape had somehow increased the adhesion, but it turns out it's just the long cool off process. Anyway, suffice to say, removing that section of wall from the printer...




... so, either get the print off the tape quick, or accept that I'll have to replace it.   Makes it tricky if I leave a print overnight while I go to bed. C'est la vie...

... anyway, I got on with the next wall and the next section of floor...






... unfortunately (which I seem to be saying a lot recently), the print decided not to stick...




... on most parts that's fine... well, not FINE, it's a pain in the... anyway, it can pass as long as it's not visible, a critical join or just not gonna stuff the print up.  So, this one is a bust! I think the problem is front left corner of the print bed - it seems to be where prints warp and/or fail the most. I re-oriented it and gave it another go...
























... nice!

... as for the current wall...

 

 






... fitting together well...

... and the next...





 


... these are printing like... I want to say butter, but that doesn't seem right. It's working kind of like a production run, the wall file prints go in, the printer spits out a wall a few hours later... I barely need to check it they're going so well...

 


... the angled holes in these walls have printed a lot better than the previous ones. I did reduce the diameters slightly to keep the integrity of the wall. Seems to have paid off...







... apologies to anyone who suffers from acute trypophobia...  

I was running low on the filament colour for the base, (I thought I had enough to finish, but on inspection of the reel, realised it wasn't going to get me through another large section), so I decided to print a floor top and hope I would manage to get through it before the spool ended...












... and while that was going, decided to fit more pieces together...








... really happy with the way everything is fitting together...      

... the floor top, on the other hand, was oriented with a corner on the front left of the printer bed! My bad... so, it warped!








... in this instance, the warp is visible, critical. not to mention stuffing the print up! This one has to be scrapped! And, on top of that, there isn't enough of the filament left to print any further parts for the base. At least not yet... I placed an order to get some more filament at the time I noticed I was running low, but it hadn't arrived at this point. Time to move on to other parts and colours...

... and I'll post that in the next update...

D.

so... following on...

... come Saturday, and I can't finish any of the base. So I move onto the dais...
















... so far so good...




... not so good    I'm gonna let it slide for the moment and see what happens...




... well, it's levelled out, but that hole doesn't look great...




... they look fine on top...




... but this unfortunately killed it. I tried to re-drill these holes, but the size, shape, position and angle just didn't cut the mustard... in the meantime...










... etc, etc... again, I don't have any problems with the wall printings... I hope I'm not boring everyone with the excessive photos... the build currently looks like this






... I started on the lower dais again, re-oriented...










... hmmmm, the edges have curled again... not AS badly though... these may be useable...










... well, they've attached to each other well, and they look to be sitting flat... we'll go with them for the moment, but will change printers for the next ones, so they sit flat. They don't need to have a polished underside, and given how many there are I'd rather they printed accurately. I've only got a couple of walls left to print anyway, so the second printer will be free to print em soon enough...

... in any case, the beginning of the dais looks good on the rest of the build...








... happy at this point. Getting happier...

... the next wall...

 







... currently, I seem to either have about reached my limit for pictures I can effectively post, or something is currently wrong that I don't understand. Either way, I can't save any more than I currently have (besides text). So, I'm going to finalize this update, and start another one...

D.

Wow, D! When you post an Update, you really post an Update! Everything is so amazing! You make it look and sound so easy. (Sure, you mention the occasional hiccup now and then, but they are few and far between and you still make it sound and look easy.)

This is going to be one magnificent console set. It already looks amazing and you keep upping the bar!

Quick question on the console: I know this is a totally trivial detail, but will you be able to reverse the lower insulator "rings" on the top of the console where the column meets it? The War Doctor's console had the larger ring on top (which I thought was odd since when it was the travelling promo console for the Series it had the smaller one on top). But I guess when they redressed it for the War Doctor's console they wanted it to look really different than the 2005 console so besides the white panels, they put the larger ring on top.

Dino.

WOW  This is looking great & no your not boring us with all the photos, with out them we wouldn't understand what is involved, happening & all the rest, so keep the pics coming.

I'm really loving this build, wish I could afford a printer like this, I would have a lot of fun. But I will suffice drooling over yours, (metaphorically speaking of course) for now. LMSO.

Chris.

Thanks Dino, thanks Chris... thanks for the kind words and encouragement. I'll do my best to not disappoint on the updates, and keep them coming, large and with lots of pics. At least I'll try, I ran into some technical hiccoughs with the updates last night, it didn't seem to like it when I added more pictures, but was fine when I added more text. I'm wondering if I may have perhaps reached my picture limit...? I don't think it was, it seemed more like a technical glitch than a restriction... anyways, we'll see...

A lot of what I post about during the build(s) IS a condensed version, partly because I'm keen to not waffle on more than I already do, but also because I simply don't remember everything. I remember largish technical errors, little problems arise but they fall by the wayside. This might be part of the reason that it looks and sounds easy... the truth is, it IS actually quite easy. I know there was a lot of time, patience and experience in my particular areas of knowledge invested prior to building these models, but really, anybody absolutely can learn it, and it's not that difficult and doesn't take a lot of time. Pretty much everything is done with the computer, and the software is getting easier and easier all the time. The only thing I really do, besides think up the design, is the assembly. And in terms of design, if you you can think it, you can design it, again, the computer and software make it really simple.

There are a variety of differences between the War Doctor console and the 2005-2010 console; the extra coral-ly look to the console, the white lights instead of green, the reversed insulators, the cracked marble "ring" around the console (which is more metal looking and less angled in DOTD), etc, etc. I don't see a point in really altering the console to look like that. I think the idea was that it was meant to be a throwback to the 2005-2010 console that was cobbled together as quickly and cheaply as possible, with the intention that it had so little screen time that the majority of people wouldn't notice the difference. It's only we sticklers for detail in this community who examine images and stills for hours on end to to be exact in detail that really pick it up. So, I'm happy to leave the console as is. Unlike the other builds I've done, where I was pretty meticulous in a fair few of the details (not all), for me this was always going to be about realising a somewhat idealised version with some artistic license. The fact that I'm using bits "borrowed" from the CO playset kind of means I had to, i.e the set had to fit around the existing parts, in a manner that I thought was pleasing enough, would fit, and still pay homage to the console room I'm trying to represent. Also, I'm not at all confident I could take parts of that console apart nicely, and reassemble it in a slightly different way with ballsing it up completely! As i often like to say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"! It will work well enough as it stands...

... errrrmmmmm... also, I'm lazy! I know I keep adding detail, but in reality it's just enough detail I feel will sell it. I'm not one for making things more complicated than they need be (at least from my perspective), or making extra work for myself. That might actually be the biggest reason...       sorry Dino...  

Chris, 3D printers are not that expensive, and the quality is going up and prices coming down all the time. These printers are about 3-4 years old now. New, they were about $1000 AU (~ £565 UK and ~ $790 US in today's exchange), but I'm pretty sure that's come down. Mind you, these ARE a cheap Chinese knock-off of what was already a very cheaply put together, hobby-kit printer. Nevertheless, the results it produces aren't to be knocked. And there are cheaper printers than that besides! I don't know if there are Aldi in other parts of the world (certainly in Germany they do), but once a year they have a sale here that lasts precisely 90 minutes - it doesn't last any longer because after that, they're sold out COUNTRY WIDE! They sell a not-bad, simple, home-use 3D printer for $299 AU! So, Chris, if you want to get your foot in the door, that's a great place to start. As a fellow Aussie, you can certainly take advantage of this; keep an eye out for the Aldi sale...

Quote from: d33j r093r5 on Feb 07, 2018, 01:42 am
There are a variety of differences between the War Doctor console and the 2005-2010 console; the extra coral-ly look to the console, the white lights instead of green, the reversed insulators, the cracked marble "ring" around the console (which is more metal looking and less angled in DOTD), etc, etc. I don't see a point in really altering the console to look like that.

And that is perfectly fine. This is your build so only you really have to be happy with it. (I just asked about those mods to the console because I'm part cat, and very curious. )

Quote from: d33j r093r5 on Feb 07, 2018, 01:42 am
I think the idea was that it was meant to be a throwback to the 2005-2010 console that was cobbled together as quickly and cheaply as possible, with the intention that it had so little screen time that the majority of people wouldn't notice the difference.

Well, they already had that "Travelling Promo Console" on hand - in storage somewhere. So it was already built years before the 50th Anniversary Special came along (even before the New Series premiered); all the Promo Console really needed was some redressing, which they did to it rather well.

Quote from: d33j r093r5 on Feb 07, 2018, 01:42 am
It's only we sticklers for detail in this community who examine images and stills for hours on end to to be exact in detail that really pick it up.

You can say that again!

Quote from: d33j r093r5 on Feb 07, 2018, 01:42 am
So, I'm happy to leave the console as is. ...

sorry Dino...  

Hey, no need to be sorry. Like I say, this is your build and only you have to be happy with it. (Though we are all happy to watch it come together as it's looking more and more amazing!)

Dino.

Thanks Dino

... there might be a delay on the next update though. I'm ready to post, but there seems to be a problem with uploading pictures all of a sudden. Not sure what it is, either I've hit some sort of limit (wouldn't surprise me, I do post an awful lot of gratuitous shots!), or there's a technical glitch. I've put in a bug report... I guess we'll wait and see if it's me or not...

Well, D, the only limit I know of is 100 photos per post. After that you have to start another post. So you can have one topic with 100 posts in it, with 100 photos in each post, for a total of 10,000 photos in your topic.

File-size limit has been increased so GIFs and PNGs can be 1MB. JPGs (and JPEGs) don't have a file-size limit, but they do have a pixel-size limit. Normally the Forum software automatically resizes the images, but if the JPG is huge pixel-wise you could get a time-out error, or some other error.

Putting in the bug report is good because people that know far more about this than I do (which is pretty much limited to the above) will be able to let you know what's wrong.

Dino.

Ok, after a lot of faffing around, I seem to have fixed my technical issues. So, on with the show...

... with the first printer now unassigned, I started on the upper dais...












... am REALLY happy with the way these have turned out! Remember that chequerplate pattern...?




... that's those little raised dots along the surface of the finished part! They look amazing! And they have this fantastic surface texture as well... how well does it all fit though...?








... hmmmm, not bad... however the diameter on the upper dais doesn't quite fit (it's a little small), the edge and top surface of the upper dais doesn't meet the surface of the console it's supposed to, and I have completely FAILED to take account of those pipes running down from the underside of the console...




... the pipes I need to take account of...

... I have this rather old, battered, electronic vernier, which always seems to be on the fritz. It's constantly telling me that the battery is about to go flat, even though it's got a brand new battery in it. It still seems to be accurate though, so I haven't bothered changing it in a long time...

... when it came time to measure up the console for this build in order to make it fit, I was having some difficulty though. It's only a 150mm vernier, and it has a rather small "nose" section. So measuring diameters above a certain size (when you can only come in from the side and not above or below) is problematic. I'd wanted a larger vernier for some time, but never got around to getting one. I measured up the centre section of this console using the old vernier as best I could, but at the same time I decided to order a new, larger one...

... it arrived late last week...




... but I didn't bother with it as I thought I had an accurate measurement. Now finding out that my upper dais didn't quite fit, I decided to break it out and re-measure... and lo and behold, it tells me I am out by pretty much exactly how much the dais is out... ok, so, we go back and widen the ID on the upper dais... actually I went back and widened the IDs on all sections of the dais, just to make sure I got the clearance. The top plane of the upper dais was measured most accurately in this instance, as I needed it to line up with the console as accurately as possible. I also included some cutouts for those dangling pipes...






... and the finished product...






... but...!!! Does it fit...






YAAAARRSSS!!!!          ... REALLY happy with how this worked out!  ... mind you, what you may have noticed on these images, is that the whole thing looks like it has moved out of position at some time during the print. The bottom has warped a little bit as well, so it won't sit flat on the lower dais. And while I made the upper diameter larger, I messed something up on the lower diameter... so it's not quite even... decided to print this one again. The reason it moved, was the glass platform it gets printed on had slipped out of position during the print. So I removed it completely, gave it a good clean, and put it back... with LOTS OF BLUE TAPE!!! It's not only NOT gonna move, it's going to give me a non-warped print too!! *insert grinning devil face*

... I had since finished printing all the walls, so I decided to start printing the pieces of the lower dais on the second printer. It has the blue tape, it should adhere a lot better without any of that problematic warping...




... and the new half of the upper dais in re-print...




... this was now late Sunday night. I went to bed...

... and woke up to this:




...ooooh, shiny!!! and this:




it may be the only time in my life where I can say, happily, that I have NOT gone to warp...  ... yes, I know... that was awful... I promise not to do that again...

... so where does this leave us...






... perfect! Or as near as dammit...

... anyway, now that I'm printing on the blue tape on the first printer as well, I don't need to worry as much about setting prints on it to avoid the front left corner... which in some ways is better for the parts, as in-fill goes right-to-left-to-right or top-to-bottom-to-top. If I can just put them on square, I'll get a much better print pattern around the various pieces...






... the next to lower dais pieces, and the 2nd half of the upper dais... and the finished products...














... ok, that last one may have been a little unnecessary, but I thought it was appropriate...

In any case, I was a little slack in taking photos on Monday, so the only other real print photos I have are these:







Monday was a rather slow day anyway. Lots of other things to take care of. Mind you, the filament I ordered arrived...








... hmmmm, there's supposed to be another spool of the dark, so I can work on 2 printers at once. I received a note saying the other spool is on back order as they're out of stock. Oh well, we'll make do for the time being. There's actually loads to still print in terms of the dark filament, the lower dais still needs to be finished... AND we need to get on with the roundels as well...

... anyway, that'll do for this update. Fingers crossed it updates and doesn't freeze on me...

D.

... so... we're at yesterday...

... I've not been leaving prints overnight the last few nights. Mostly because by 11pm when prints have been finishing I haven't been ar**ed to set another print going. And I think the printers can do with a rest as well. They're mostly pretty quiet, but can be disturbing if you're trying to sleep, and I had people over on the weekend. Also, I'm not keen on trying to remove prints stuck to that blue tape for a few hours, coz I'm terrified of damaging the print, or worse, damaging the print bed... but I digress...

My 3mm dowels arrived today... Yay...





... but I didn't do anything with them right away. You'd think by this point I'd be keen to connect all my walls together wouldn't you? Actually, I've had so much happening that I didn't really think about it until late this morning... but I'm getting ahead of myself...

... now that I have the dark filament, I can get back on with printing bits for the base. The top sections of the base you may recall were printed directly on glass; it gives them that nice polished sheen. I wanted to keep doing that because it's the look that I want, but also since I started in that vein, I want to continue, or it will look a bit wrong...

I peeled off the blue tape, removed the glass completely from the bed, gave it a verrry thorough cleaning, and then wiped it down with acetone. Then re-adhered it to the bed (I used some small bits of the blue tape this time, because that stuff is actually amazing) by the corners, sprayed the surface with hair spray (you read that correctly - it's actually really good for helping keep prints on the bed, and it slightly mattes the polished finish), and got printing...






... fantastic, no problems. In fact, these top sections for the base are some of the best prints to come off the machine... they're beautifully consistent, nice and flat (provided I avoid that front left corner) with a lovely finish. They almost (almost, mind) look like production like parts. Small flaws give them away, as does the tell-tale signs of 3D printed layers... aside from that, I can't complain about these at all...









... again, I've been a bit slack in taking lots of photos. Here are the last of the lower dais pieces, and another of the top sections... unfortunately, I don't have any more bottom sections to attach it to yet... but that'll come later...




... and the completed Dais!!!                










... GRATUITOUS WAR DOCTOR SHOT!!!

... that sort of brings us to this morning. This is when I decided to try sticking those walls together...

As I mentioned, the 3mm dowel sticks were ridiculously easy to cut to length. I just lined them up with a 6mm dowel to get the size, scored it with a Stanley knife, and then applied pressure until it parted from the main, almost perfectly. slight touch up of the end and it was ready to use...

I needed to re-drill the 3mm dowel holes in the walls to get them to fit, but they slid in very nicely once that was done...




... a half-wall with the 3mm dowels inserted...


... and the finished walls...




... you can sort of see the breaks in the walls where it waves down the centre...  






... which I'm not overly thrilled about. I had much better success with that on previous builds, it wasn't obvious at all... I suppose I can live with it... for now at least...

... how does all this look...?




...        .... did I build THIS???!!?  .... ok, I take it back... I'm happy with this... you don't even notice the walls unless you're looking for it...




... yeah, the uncompleted sections are more obvious taken from this, more honest angle  ... oh, that little plastic disc in the bottom right hand corner of the picture...? Yeah, that's the stand that poor John Hurt was standing on... I attempted to lift the whole lot up when I was joining it together, forgetting it wasn't ALL fixed together... If he wasn't made of plastic, I'm sure he would have regenerated...  






... you can see, he's fine though...

Anyway, that brings us to the last few hours... in which I started printing roundels  



... looks ok I suppose... however, I just sort of got the file ready and chucked it onto the printer without thinking about it. It printed up-down and left-right patterns for the solid layers... which they ALL should have been, except I didn;t change the settings for it did I...? Oh, well, it will suffice as a test piece. They don't take long to print individually, about 23 minutes a piece, and that's because I slowed them right down to get a better surface finish...






... you can see the gaps in the print where it's not doing complete infill, and the rectilinear pattern in the centre... you wouldn;t notice it up close, but these can still be done better... also, notice the jagged edge around the perimeter... that's because I left a brim on these pieces, that they don't need. Check that, if I printed them on the glass, they probably would need it, for adhesion, for a better print. On the blue tape, it;s kind of redundant. And, I need to cut it off with a knife afterwards, leaving that jagged edge... ok, at this point, I already had the next roundel on the printer, with a complete infill this time and a concentric fill pattern... so I'll have to remove that brim on the NEXT print...








... doesn't look half bad though, for a test piece...

the next base top was printing at this point as well, and finished just after the second roundel test piece...










...oooooh, shiny...!

... and the second roundel test piece...








... the interior looks a bit "meh"... but at least it's concentric...!   *sigh* ... this is one of those "toss-up" situations. The exterior perimeters are perfect, they look exactly as they should, nice and round, filled in, etc... but the interior looks a bit dog's dinner... if I go rectilinear, the interior will look better, but the exterior will be  a mess... what to choose...










... yah, we're going with option number 2: concentric ... I mean, I guess I kind of already decided that, because I set the bulk lot to go. Concentric, and with no brim...







... they're currently about 68% done. The 2nd last top section of the base came off the 1st printer about 10 minutes ago, and the final piece is printing now... that should be done in about 2.5 hours. The roundels are printing in batches of 12, which is about as many as I can fit on the printer bed. I need 96 of em. So, 8 runs, at about 3.5 hours a pop at a guess. In addition, I'll need 24 Half-Roundels as well... I'm guessing I can do those in either 1 or 2 runs, probably at between 2-4 hours per run... so I'll have all the roundels in a couple of days! The remainder of the base will start in earnest tomorrow. The bottom sections of the base are about 14 hours a pop, and there's another 5 of the to do! Also, the base section under the dais, 2 more pieces like the one we've already done at 9 and a quarter hours each, plus the very front sections of the base. Not sure how long those will take, but there's 2 of them, and they'll probably be a few hours each. So, still a lot of printing to go, in spite of how finished it's looking... I'll update the rest of the pictures from today some time tomorrow, and give you another update. But as of now, we're pretty much caught up...!

D.