I am doing a build project, but I thought I might share some of what I learned in building my Matt Smith era lantern.

I've seen a lot out there about the lanterns, but its mostly old information and you cant get many of the items anymore, so I thought I would chronicle what I used and how I assembled it in case it might help others in their quest.


To start with, unless you are a master metalsmith (and I am certainly not! LOL!), you will need to buy something to get the top part of the lantern. I got mine on Amazon here;
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EBT7A0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Its a ridiculously cheap built lantern, but they must know we use it for Tardis building cuz it costs ~$31.00, but it is the perfect size if you are building a full scale Tardis. The only drawback is that it does not have the metal up under the "hat" like the holy grail "Gardman" lanterns did. Sorry, but if you want your lantern to be a full on replica, you will need to make that bit yourself. I did "meh" okay on mine, and I'm happy with it, but it could of been way better as I am seriously lacking in metal working skills LOL! See what I'm talking about below;

I had to fabricate some metal to go up in there, then curl the outer perimeter of the hat under to hold it in place. Also you have to cut out the chimney bit and epoxy it back together.


Next you will need the glass bit to go in the middle. All credit has to go to "Volpone" as he turned me on to "Vermont Lanterns". He said he ordered the 6" glass. My little voice told me to buy the 5" model and I'm glad I did as the 6" one would have been too big. In retrospect, use the measurements of your top block on the roof. If it's 6" x 6", then you want to use the 5" glass.
Here is the link to what I ordered;
https://www.vermontlanterns.com/content/anchor-lamp-chimney-155


This was very reasonably priced at $17.99 + shipping.

The rest of the fixture was made with "Trim Coil" typically used for aluminum siding or metal roofing.


And assembled with "Pop-Rivets";





It took me a whole weekend to assemble mine using a picture as a guide and guessing the dimensions.



I used the guts out of a cheapy $5 jelly jar porch light kit for my bulb socket and wiring. This way I know its safe and electrically sound.



But it was worth the effort.


I completely forgot to add this LOL! This is a comparison with the picture I was using as a reference (Which I got off this site btw... Can't remember who posted it, but many thanks to whomever did!)

If anyone is interested in seeing more detail in how I actually did the build, you can see the video from my YouTube channel here;

https://youtu.be/nzxLhZmwHtc

That turned out about perfect. Although the OCD in me needs to say that I don't actually remember what size glass I got--only that it was on closeout at the time and was out of stock for awhile.  I just linked to the 6" one because I figured that the new series TARDIS is so big that it must have a pretty large lamp. I'm glad you got one that worked.  Yeah, the 6" one would have looked odd with that lamp.  Since you were fabricating the collar, you probably could have made it work, but it would have looked funny.

Agreed,
In my case, the top block on the roof was 6x6 inches, Had I ordered the 6 inch diameter glass, I figure I could have made the lamp look right, but it would have extended over the edges of the top block and looked too big. Bottom line is, I made a guess and got lucky LOL!