Scarfwearer Wooden console plans

[oslm]

That will work, but the image I was talking about does show it differently --



You can see that there is a very yellowish reflection around the top and bottom edges of the inlay that is making it look slightly raised -- Since my edges are straight, I may try rounding them over to see if that matches the image --

That reference image also shows me that my spacing between the inlay layers is to wide --

Later

[warmcanofcoke]

Ah that's what I wanted to see. I think they should be flush, inlaid. So the only difference in height would be the height in between the pieces.

So it would be smooth if you ran your fingers over the individual elements. Like inlays on a guitar fretboard.

I think I might have a go at cutting underlay board into those shapes and then backing it with another layer. and then attach it to the frame.  Then use a combination of varnishes to get that patchy look in the pictures.

[galacticprobe]

Oslm, one thing I noticed on your render that was off was where moving part of the panel covers meet the non-moving part:

Where the hinged edge of the panel cover is (red arrow), you've got the non-moving part (blue arrow) going straight down to the console's belt line. That part should follow the angle of the rest if the panel (dotted purple line).

You can get a better look at it in this image:

Notice how that panel angles all the way to the top of the belt line (purple arrow) rather than being a straight piece below the hinge.

I hope this helps with the details and accuracy of your render.

Dino.

[too_many_cars]

This photo proves(ish) a proportion with the crown at 22 wide and inside the belt at 36. There's a little distortion and low res, but assuming the panel slope really is 45 degrees, they'd have to rise 6 inches to meet the crown. Even the proportion of the outer belt (pink line and in a closer plain) checks out.

Getting this close, a 1/2 size foam core model is in order, which might lead into my first full size replica (but don't hold your breath).

This appears to be the closest I've found to a consensus on the dimensions for this console - does anyone have any new information?  I'm considering building one of these next year after my (Hudolin police box) since every piece of it will fit easily on the 18" x 24" laser cutters I have access to.  The laser also offers a neat solution to adding the Fablon diamond pattern to actual hardwood - just etch it into the front surface!

Figured I'd get started on a solidworks model of the console shortly, which gives plenty of time to fine-tune dimensions, source hardware, etc. etc.

--Brian

[galacticprobe]

Brian, for some of those panel cover pulls you could check out Van Dyke's Restorers. They've got all sorts of pulls that come really close to the ones on the panel covers. Some of them can be a little pricy, but they also have reasonably priced ones as well. (They are a restoration company, and do have items to match antique architecture.)

Regular home improvement stores should have similar pulls - certainly the three knobs on the plinth doors, and their hinges, and the panel cover hinges. The hard parts are those "rod support posts" around the top. Finding an exact match seems to be the bane of everyone that's tried to build this console. (In this case I think some "close enoughs" would be okay: depends on how accurate you want to get.)

And it's at times like this I wish I lived closer to you. I can't move about that fast, but I would gladly lend a hand where I could and hope that you could laser-cut out two sets of everything so I could put a "console kit" together and then build one. (The wife and I have wanted one of these since we first saw it in the very early 1980s when those episodes finally made to the States.)

Good luck with this when you finally get to it. (After seeing how well you restored the other console, I can only imagine that you'll have no troubles at all building this one!) I'll certainly be looking forward to following along as your Build Diary grows!

Dino.

[tony farrell]

This photo proves(ish) a proportion with the crown at 22 wide and inside the belt at 36.

This appears to be the closest I've found to a consensus on the dimensions for this console - does anyone have any new information?  

Figured I'd get started on a solidworks model of the console shortly, which gives plenty of time to fine-tune dimensions, source hardware, etc. etc.

--Brian

Hi Brian, I wondered if you're aware of Nathan/Warmcanofcoke's build of this console. In addition to Dino's suggestions, it provides excellent reference material on the layout of the various control and 'writing slope' compartments as well as information on the carved head decorations, etc. In case you haven't seen it, the link is here: http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=6018.0

In terms of the dimensions, again, I'd bow to Nathan and Lespaceplie's work as being the most up-to-date understanding we have. But, depending on your 'need for accuracy' or - put another way - if you want to be slavishly accurate to the original TV prop, you might like to consider one factor:

If you are looking compare our current plans with the studio plans for the wooden console room (also available here on TB) you should be aware that the studio floor plan's grid does NOT represent four square feet (24" by 24") as previously suggested. In fact, the floor plan's grid represents 600 mm by 600 mm (i.e., two metric feet by two metric feet). BBC Television Centre's studios were all designed and built in metric feet as opposed to imperial feet. See http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/old%20bbc%20studios.htm which has been written by a long-serving BBC engineer and who quotes the specifications for each studio.

Though a metric and imperial foot are only different by 4.8 mm, across the width of a sizeable TV studio, the cumulative 'distortion' could be considerable. If you take TC2 as an example, it was sixty metric feet wide by 40 metric feet long (usable floor space). 60 x 4.8 = 312 mm. So, if you didn't know the floor plan was in metric feet, you might think the studio was a foot wider than it was and therefore that the wooden console room was bigger than it actually was!

Please understand that I'm not disagreeing with any of Nathan's or Lespaceplie's work, I'm not. I'm simply offering the information as something you might like to consider when you try to finalise any dimensions you use.  

Good luck with the build and, remember, loads of pictures please!

T

[galacticprobe]

If you take TC2 as an example, it was sixty metric feet wide by 40 metric feet long (usable floor space). 60 x 4.8 = 312 mm.

Just to clarify the measurement above, since the end result is given in millimeters, the studio floor space was 59.05 imperial feet.

1 metric foot=11.811 inches (taking the 2 metric feet being 23.622 inches measurement above and dividing by 2);
60 metric feet x 11.811=708.66 inches;
708.66 divided by 12 (imperial foot inches)=59.05 imperial feet.

Roughly one foot doesn't sound like much, but when you're building a wall or some such for a set, it makes all the difference.

Dino.

[amos pogle]

At first I was having a small issue with the panels joining at the top of the unit, so I changed the 11" width to 11.5" and that seemed to close my gap issue -- The other dim's are correct and the do line up with the other parts

I'm just about to make a start on one of these, and would firstly like to thank everyone here on this thread and the others about this particular console for the amazing work that has given me the confidence to have a go.

I've been studying this thread for weeks now, and have been bothered by what looked to me like the unresolved question above.  Consequently, I made myself a 1cm to 1" mockup of the top panel section (above), which confirmed that the top measurement of the panel is 11.5" inches, not 11.

I'll be starting my build diary once I've cut out a few bits of wood, which will hopefully be tonight.

Thanks again everybody.

[lespaceplie]

There is better/more info about this in the Newbery TARDIS section.

[amos pogle]

I've spent literally days reading through these boards and I hadn't found that one previously!  What a treasure trove this forum is, and thanks so much for pointing me in the direction of that thread.

I'm sold on the rams heads and the rosettes rather than lions heads, but remain unpersuaded that the "ball and claw" feet aren't actually shepherd castors - a production photo which I was shown recently (on somebody else's phone so I don't actually have it in a postable format) has them looking very much like these old-fashioned castors.

I've been scouring the threads for the point where ball and claw feet became accepted wisdom, but haven't been able to find it so far - if you (or anybody here) can remember whereabouts it was could you possibly help a perplexed newbie please?  I'll be very pleased to accept that I'm wrong, but am getting a bit bogged down in all the knowledge here, while hoping that one day I may share some myself.

[tony farrell]

Do these help?










If you open the pictures in a separate tab and use the 'magnifying glass', they do indeed seem to show "ball and claw" feet.

The reason I've used metric dimensions (and therefore that my plans make the Newbery Console fractionally smaller than the plans created by Crispin/Scarfwearer) is because BBC TV Centre was built using metric feet; any floor plan of the studios at Television Centre is expressed in metric feet (300 mm).

Thus, if a dimension on a BBC TV Centre floor plan specifies - for example - 4 feet by 3 feet it does not mean 48" by 36" (1219.2 mm by 914.4 mm), it means 1200 mm by 900 mm.

T

[amos pogle]

"Do these help?"

I'd say, thanks very much!  The top one was the picture I was shown recently, and looking at it on a great big screen blown up even bigger I'm now persuaded.  I don't have any issue with your thoughts on the metric measurements either, at school in the seventies in England I believe they actually removed and disposed of all measuring devices showing feet and inches, we certainly weren't allowed to use them, rather like trying to airbrush imperial measurement out of history.  As the son of a carpenter and joiner who refused to recognise metric as a thing my life in measurement was a bit schizophrenic.  I still get a small frisson at the sight of a tape measure with both centimeters and inches on.

I'm genuinely blown away not only by the work that's gone into these plans, and your generosity in producing and sharing them, Tony.  Even though my skills will dictate that my version will be screen-recognisable rather than screen accurate I feel that you've given my console-to-be the best possible start in life with these drawings.  Since it will be getting an outing later in the year to an event run by Mat Irvine I'd like it to be as close as possible, though.

I'd seen two of the drawings yesterday over on the Newbery Tardis thread, but hadn't seen the others, have the full set appeared previously on yet another thread that I've missed?  (I have really tried to read through all the relevant threads before jumping out and asking stupid questions, but keep finding more and more and more, so don't doubt that there are many corners I've not discovered yet).

As a novice-but-improving woodturner, I'm fairly relieved about the feet, I can turn a close enough approximation of those fairly simply, and get my tame sculptor to produce a drippy claw thing for the tops. 

[saintcar]

Excellent reference material on this posting.
But I wonder if anyone has the original BBC Blueprints/floorplans of this set anywhere, shame they were not included on the DVD!
And a couple of seconds after just typing this I see this link! http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=2444.0

[tony farrell]

at school in the seventies in England I believe they actually removed and disposed of all measuring devices showing feet and inches, we certainly weren't allowed to use them, rather like trying to airbrush imperial measurement out of history. 

Haha! As a child in the 1960s, I was taught imperial measurements - inches, feet, yards, chains, furlongs, etc only to have to then learn the metric system. And, even though I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for nearly twenty years, I do find myself still thinking in terms of pounds, feet and miles. (As the old saying goes: Give me the boy until he is seven and I'll show you the man.) Since the weights of new-borns are still expressed in terms of pounds & ounces, perhaps all is not yet lost for the imperial system!

Anyway, enough of these trips down 'memory lane'.....

To answer your question, no, you haven't overlooked my plans for the Newbery Console, the wooden-panelled control room or the Newbery Tardis exterior; they are gathering dust in a quiet corner of the forum at the moment as - frustratingly - real life keeps getting in my way (and, these things always take longer than you think to present them in a way which is coherent, chronological and logical).

Though he won't remember me, I've met Mat a few times and have even looked after his display of props whilst he had lunch at the National Space Museum. He's a lovely, approachable and a genuinely nice bloke - I'm sure he'll be really impressed by your Newbery Console.  

T

(As for the feet, I'd 'go for' eight-five millimeter diameter wooden balls, cut 10 mm off their tops and then fashion the 'claws' out of resin.)

[amos pogle]

As long as he doesn't chuck it in a skip! 

Seriously, we've met Mat loads of times and always go to his local show that he puts on every summer with our Daleks in tow, couldn't agree more, lovely guy, and it was his enthusiastic dismantling of K9 many years ago in Milton Keynes shopping centre for the benefit of our then seven-year-old eldest, in response to some ridiculously precocious questions about electronics, that set him (and me in tow) on this mad journey.  (So yes, the saying about seven year olds seems to have worked in this case).