So some of you may remember my http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=7009 attempt back at the start of this year, and truth be told, that ring was too bulky and not screen-accurate enough for my liking, so I've decided to give it another go.

The first step was to get some actual rings. I bought these on eBay for £1 each. They are made from stainless steel, but so far the gold-coloured coating is holding up pretty well, and they should be good enough for what I have in mind.



Next up was the gem. Thanks to Davros Skaro for managing to identify the actual type of gem used in the original ring as a green peridot (see his post here: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=6964.msg91900#msg91900.) Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to make my replica that screen-accurate (real gems are really expensive ), but I could certainly modify an acrylic craft gem to be a close enough match.




On the far left you can see the dark green gem that I was originally going to use, before I saw Davros Skaro's post, and in the middle there is the pale, amber gem that I modified. First I lightly sanded the reflective silver off the back of the gem, before giving it a few coats of "Leaf Green" acrylic paint.
Once this had dried, it left me with a close-enough match for the original ring.



The hardest part of this build was always going to be the bit holding the gem. Then I remembered one of the pieces I had made with my first attempt at 3D printing the ring (the rings ended up being too small on that attempt, so I never used any of the parts.) With a bit of light sanding around the edges, I was able to push the gem right into the slot, which I then attached to one of the rings with hot glue.



After a few coats of "Emperor's Gold" acrylic paint, you'd never know the difference! (Well, maybe if you looked closely enough, but for now I'm happy with this one - at least until I can afford the £400 price tag on the Celestial Toystore's version )



Kind regards, The14thDr

WOW, that looks really good, you've done a great job on that. Well done. 

Chris.

Nice. Are you going to wear it generally? Or just as a costume piece?

Hot glue may not last long enough if its worn for longer durations, but thats just from experience personally.

Quote from: Davros Skaro on Jun 07, 2017, 11:05 pm
WOW, that looks really good, you've done a great job on that. Well done. 

Chris.

Thanks Chris. It's definitely a big improvement on the first one I made.

Quote from: davidnagel on Jun 08, 2017, 12:48 pm
Nice. Are you going to wear it generally? Or just as a costume piece?

Hot glue may not last long enough if its worn for longer durations, but thats just from experience personally.

Well, I just tend to wear this as a costume piece now rather than everyday use - eventually I got bored of people asking me why I was wearing a wedding ring.

Quote from: The14thDr on Jun 08, 2017, 04:02 pm

Quote from: davidnagel on Jun 08, 2017, 12:48 pm
Nice. Are you going to wear it generally? Or just as a costume piece?

Hot glue may not last long enough if its worn for longer durations, but thats just from experience personally.

Well, I just tend to wear this as a costume piece now rather than everyday use - eventually I got bored of people asking me why I was wearing a wedding ring.

Tell them your married to a very nice girl, "The Tardis". LMSO.

Chris.

Quote from: Davros Skaro on Jun 09, 2017, 12:08 am

Quote from: The14thDr on Jun 08, 2017, 04:02 pm
Well, I just tend to wear this as a costume piece now rather than everyday use - eventually I got bored of people asking me why I was wearing a wedding ring.

Tell them your married to a very nice girl, "The Tardis". LMSO.

And then show them a publicity photo of Suranne Jones as Idris the TARDIS! (I think I know where to get you a really good one of her if you can't find one using either Google Image search or the BBC web site. )

Dino.

Knew I'd seen her before, it was series 3 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, She played Mona Lisa. https://catecinem.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/drwho-doctorswife/



But back to topic, here is her as "TARDIS",



Chris.

No eyebrows...

From "City Of Death"

The Doctor: "The Mona Lisa."

Romana: "It's quite good."
The Doctor: "Quite good? That's one of the great treasures of the universe and you say quite good?"

Romana: "The world, Doctor, the world."
...
Romana: "Why hasn't she got any eyebrows?"
The Doctor: "What? Is that all you can say? No eyebrows? We're talking about the Mona Lisa. It's the Mona... Good heavens, you're right. She hasn't got any eyebrows. Do you know, I never noticed that before."
...
In 1505:

The Doctor: "Leonardo? Leonardo? Ah, that Renaissance sunshine. Leonardo? The paintings went down very well. Everybody loved them. Last Supper, Mona Lisa. You remember the Mona Lisa? That dreadful woman with no eyebrows who wouldn't sit still, eh?"

14th, let me poke around my folders. I might have a larger image of her. I have vague memories of getting one from a costuming forum way back when (a publicity photo, so it was a nice one) when my wife was thinking of making one of these costumes so she had something to wear (other than "normal human" clothing) when going to a Convention. I'll post it here if I can find it, or if you'd rather I can e-mail it to you. (I think I've still got your e-mail address. I'll check on that, too.)

Yeah, I was also surprised when I learned she was the Mona Lisa in 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'. It's amazing what a little make-up, and a different voice can do for a person. (But really... an Italian woman in an Italian painting, done by an Italian Renaissance artist in the 1500s Renaissance Italy, comes to life in the early 21st Century and speaks with a Cockney accent? An Italian accent, maybe, but Cockney? Mmm... nope... just can't figure that one out.)

Dino.

Thanks guys (that would make a really great prank - and people would fall for it too! ) I can't tell you the number of times I've made a Doctor Who reference and just enjoyed the look of pure confusion on the person's face as they try to work on what in Rassilon's name I'm talking about.

Dino - either's fine, and I think you'll have my email address from when I sent you those files for the fabricated dispenser (if not I can just send you a quick PM with my email address.)

Well, as davidnagel warned me in his earlier post last year, the hot glue just wasn't strong enough to hold the gem for prolonged use (in fact it fell off about a week later while I was out walking the dog - just my luck! - and I lost it.)

Does anyone have any ideas on how I could replicate the gem holder? The gem itself is easy, I just need something to put it in (this time I will use two-part epoxy to attach it rather than hot glue - I used that to put together my metal lightsaber and it holds up really well.)

Thank you in advance for any help.

Maybe slicing up a felt-tip pen, like a Berol.

Hmm.. that's a good idea (and something I never would have thought of!) At this scale, scratch-building from any material is way out of the question - far too fiddly - but a "slice" of pen would be perfect after a few coats of gold paint.

Thanks Cardinal Hordriss!!

You're welcome. For a long time I've had to make do with what I call Blue Peter methods so I'm not too bad at cobbling things together from existing bits.