Hi Everyone,

Well, heres my efforts. This is my go at recreating the original 1963 version of Hartnells Tardis from An Unearthly Child as constructed by Peter Brachaki. It's entirely made from timber and glass.

I started off using a set of plans that I found on the web but quickly realised that they would not build the sort of Tardis that I wanted to build. Instead I ended up using some dimensions that I got from a friend and worked the rest out myself.


As can be seen from the below (somewhat blurred) image I managed to source a genuine glass fresnel lens. I used a halogen light in order to give a pulsing effect when the lamp goes on and off, the light is reflected out through the lens like a lighthouse! Sound effects are provided by a stand alone MP3 player and external speakers.


The phone panel sign opens to reveal an enclosure for a phone. The handle is the only concession that I made to practicality in trying to reproduce the original Hartnell box as seen in Unearthly Child, which didn't actually have any handles! The lock is a 1960s Yale lock, fitted on the left as per the original box. I got the lock from a 1960s house. Oh okay, it was removed from my front door and the wife was furious.....but I do at least have a nice new lock now


Here the Tardis internal lights are on. The pebbled panes of glass are real pebbled glass from the 1960s which I had to cut very carefully as it was old and quite brittle. The Tardis takes on an almost black finish in some lights, as the original box did. I used DH Oxford Blue in the B&Q Edwardian range and combined it with black masonry paint to achieve this effect.



I added some noise and grey scaled this picture to try to capture the atmosphere of the original Tardis as it was seen in 1963. I always loved those white window frames and the St Johns Ambulance Brigade badge, which I always thought set the whole box off beautifully.


I would like to have kept this Tardis but unfortunately my circumstances have changed since I started to build it and I needed the space that it occupied in order to build a house extension. Fortunately it is now owned by a good friend of mine and is being very well looked after indeed. If he is reading this then thanks David for giving the box a really good home!

Thanks guys,

I must admit that I like the woodgrain effect on the new Tardis too, but the original Police boxes were made from concrete and the BBC tried to make the Hartnell Tardis look as if it was too so I tried to emulate that.

Crumblefiend: In my opinion the font on the original Tardis signs was not a standard font, it was a prop guys idea of what the Police box font should look like. Its slightly different from the font that was used on real Police boxes, that being the case I hand wrote the signs from several good reference pictures of the Hartnell box.

Good luck with your respective builds guys!

Stu

You know, I've been sliming around this forum for a few years now, and every once in a while a build comes along that makes me set down my Wild Turkey and go, wow. And this is such a build. I can't believe I'm only discovering it now! What a phenomenal piece of work. I especially love the textured finish. Is there any danger of it flaking off? I also love the fact that it has a REAL fresnel, and REAL sixties pebbled glass, and a REAL sixties Yale lock. Stu, I salute you, sir!!

I must confess before I ask this that I have not seen any William Hartnell episodes besides a bad picture version of An Unearthly Child , and it seems like everyone is doing this when it comes to the classic TARDIS, but surely the door is not concrete....

Looking at the actual police boxes on other threads the doors are clearly wooden, as a concrete door would be very difficult to use I would imagine.

So are the doors on the classic TARDIS supposed to look like concrete?

I think Stu hasn't looked in since before the move, but he's a mod on both Project Dalek Forum and the Dalek Builders Guild.

Crispin

I think you will find that after the pilot episode (when the tardis was smooth) it was decided to put a thin layer of artex on to the prop to age it and make it a bit more weathered and dirty it up ,I think that as different designers have taken on Dr Who they changed the police box appearance to suit the particular episode it was in ,I don`t think there is a definitive Police box prop ,A quote from Ray Cusick in a recent Dvd was,that the interior was cut down due to the amount of man hours it took to erect ,at the end of the first dalek story they only used 2 walls and the console ,and the fact that a lot of the furniture inside the tardis was hired in,obviously a great deal of what we have seen on screen has been due to budgetary constraints ( the fact it remained as a police box at all was due to the fact that Verity Lambert didn`t have the money to realise a different shaped Tardis prop for each story) so thats why the chameleon circuit got stuck . Oh and that box is really stunning Well Done !!

I was not denying that the box looks superb, nor was I picking at any other boxes I have seen, I was merely attempting to ascertain if the door should look like it is made of concrete.... I guess it depends on the build and whether it is TARDIS based or police box based.

WOW, NICE BOX... This is exactly what Mine is looking like. Minus the cement look. Wondering how I would do such a thing or if I should do such a thing......

Quote from: mordrogyn on Mar 07, 2010, 04:57 pm
I was not denying that the box looks superb, nor was I picking at any other boxes I have seen, I was merely attempting to ascertain if the door should look like it is made of concrete.... I guess it depends on the build and whether it is TARDIS based or police box based.

Ha ha! Good point indeed!  Nowadays the whole exterior appears to be made of wood (complete with grain), the signs are inaccurate again and again, and the windows the wrong size.  Then we find that back in the 60s the whole box looked like concrete (including the door).  The TARDIS chameleon circuit just can't get anything right!  Perhaps the TARDIS itself has never actually seen a real police box?

Quote from: mordrogyn on Mar 06, 2010, 08:33 pm
I must confess before I ask this that I have not seen any William Hartnell episodes besides a bad picture version of An Unearthly Child , and it seems like everyone is doing this when it comes to the classic TARDIS, but surely the door is not concrete....

Looking at the actual police boxes on other threads the doors are clearly wooden, as a concrete door would be very difficult to use I would imagine.

So are the doors on the classic TARDIS supposed to look like concrete?

An actual Met Police Box only has one door not two like the TARDIS.  It is indeed usually made of wood and is on the right hand side (when facing the Box).  The other (left hand side) "door" that houses the phone panal isn't a working door at all but part of the main Met Police Box structure and IS in fact made of concrete since it is a part of the Box as a whole.

Smashing job Stu. Let me be the first to congratulate you on a fabulous build. I hope you have the authentic humm of the original on your MP3 player

A very nice build! And quick by the sound of it.
How did you texture the surface?
And how do you get the door to shut with no handle? Is it sprung shut?
I got the "Beginning Boxset" for xmas, so I've been looking recently at and these high definition images of the Hartnell TARDIS, so a Hartnell build seems very topical.
Did you take any construction pics whilst you were under way?

Crispin

Beautiful TARDIS Stu!!
What you need to do now is take a pic of your daleks trying to get in lol!

The texturing looks great and those windows really finish it off.

Again Great build

TM

Fantastic build Mr Currie!

A bit jealous to be honest (much as I am of everyone on here :p)

-Marc

Thanks for your kind comments guys, it's very much appreciated.

Hey Crispin I used some of the images from the Beginnings box set as reference pictures, they are great pictures aren't they?

The texturing was done using a product called "No More Cracks", which is a sort of filler. When it drys it has a texture like cement so I figured that it would be a good choice to try to simulate the uneven surface of the Hartnell box and the cement texture of the original Police Boxes. The wood underneath the filler is brand new kiln-dried timber specially custom planed to one inch thick, you would never guess it was new by its appearance though!

The door is fairly easy to shut and simply closes shut by pulling on the styles. I wonder how they did it in the original? Maybe that was sprung. I don't remember ever seeing it close now that I think of it.

I didn't take any construction pics unfortunately, my camera was busted for a while, then I lost the lead. I don't have much luck with cameras

Stu