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Matt's Replica Crich-Style Police Box

Started by matt sanders, Aug 03, 2014, 10:41 pm

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matt sanders

The Bondo stuff looks very similar to the car-body-filler that I use quite often, and would certainly give a good effect.

The advantage of the Jesmonite (for me) is:
-  It's water/acrylic-based, so non-toxic,
-  It's cheaper (I've got some left over from a previous project),
-  It has a much longer pot-life/working-time. 
But the filler would certainly work too, and may be better in some instances.  (If parts of my fibreglass get damaged when removing from the mould, then that's what I'll be using to patch them up!)

Whilst the Crich box has certainly been patched/repaired with concrete/cement in many places, sometimes in a rather clunky/obvious way, that's not the main effect I'm after, as I want to emulate what a police box would have been like in the 1960s. 

So - some damaged concrete, a bit of patching, and the effect of multiple layers of paint, where patches had flaked off and been painted over - like on the TVM box, or an old post-box. 

Crich is rather lacking in this latter effect (flaked-off painted), but that's probably because in the renovation ten years ago much of its surface was stripped back to the bare concrete.

Volpone

When I built my TARDIS, I didn't miter the panel trim.  I added an angle mainly for aesthetics but as it turns out it is practical in preventing water from pooling and rotting the plywood.  Rather than router 32 panels and monkey with the rounded corners, I had about 3/4 of a 5 gallon pail of thinset laying around from when I tiled my bathroom.  I'd intended to "frost" the entire TARDIS for looks but also to build up slopes and plug gaps to help fight water intrusion.  As it happens, it takes quite a bit of plaster to create angled trim and luckily I did that work before anything else, but I did use some to hide screw holes and imperfect joints (with the odd smudge for looks).  Phone was on my charger when I took The Dog for a walk today but I've got a couple shots that aren't too bad: 
20140515_113228.jpg20140517_173926.jpg

Unfortunately my cornerposts have a definite wood grain to them and I used up all my thinset (and all my grout) and can't justify buying more, so I'll likely use the bags of sawdust from when I refinished my living room floor and mix that with wood glue to do the cornerposts. 
"My dear Litefoot, I've got a lantern and a pair of waders, and possibly the most fearsome piece of hand artillery in all England. What could possibly go wrong?"
-The Doctor.

matt sanders

Hi Volpone - interesting to see you're in Portland Oregon.  I lived there nearly a year in 2008, when I was an Art Director on the animated movie Coraline.  Very fond memories of Portland, and I went back to visit a couple of times afterwards.

The film was based on a novel by Neil Gaiman.  He came to visit the studio once, but I didn't take much notice.  A year later, he was writing Dr Who...

Volpone

OK.  Here's the ships crossing in the night/6 degrees of Kevin Bacon of that:  I moved to Portland in 2002.  Got a studio apartment maybe a half mile from Laika's offices (the people who did "Coraline").  It was on my run route, so about 3 times a week (give or take), I'd run by the place and wonder what they did there.  At the time my background was in IT, I was studying for my MBA, and my undergrad was in art and theater.  Maybe in an alternate reality where I'm smarter and/or luckier I work for Laika.  (In 2008 I was living in Hawaii, doing some work for the Marine Corps.  Came back at the end of 2008.) 
"My dear Litefoot, I've got a lantern and a pair of waders, and possibly the most fearsome piece of hand artillery in all England. What could possibly go wrong?"
-The Doctor.

matt sanders

I left in September 2008, so we really did pass in the night...  ;-)

matt sanders

This Episode:  "The Concrete Texture on the Base!"


First, bung a load of plywood together...


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matt sanders

Then use Jesmonite Resin (reinforced with glass-fibre tissue), to simulate the INVERSE of a "concrete" texture...

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matt sanders

Paint on blue PVA release-agent, and three layers of wax, and whilst it dries, cut some glass-fibre mat to size...

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matt sanders

Dye some polyester Gelcoat black, and paint it on the mould, followed by Resin, with the fibreglass mat...

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When it's set, sand off the lumpy bits...

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Add more Gelcoat, and clamp it onto the Base (prepared earlier)...

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matt sanders

When it has set, remove the mould, to reveal the concrete texture...

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Rinse and repeat...

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Cue the Rain and Hail...

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...  So, go inside, and do something else instead...

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matt sanders

NEXT EPISODE: "Mould-Box of the Columns!"...

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Mark

Looking very good, very complicated but very good.


superrichi1a

This is one of those build threads where I'm learning a lot without meaning to! You, sir, have succeeded where countless fully trained teachers failed, congratulations ;)
Greatly enjoying this build, I always thought I would like to learn how to do Fibreglass properly and do a portable TARDIS some day, this is certainly resurrecting that desire...
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?

Sorvan

So you're effectively gluing the completed piece of textured fibreglass skin onto your wooden frame with a layer of gelcoat?

I'm just fascinated by this.

Colin

Mark

I might be wrong (happens frequently) but I though Matt was making the texture on the mold so the fibreglass would be embossed with the texture rather than attached.

Again, might be wrong.