the cardboard console of cardboardiness

[CurtisAG]

hello people, i have started working on my tardis console. i drew up some plans and have already begun construction but obviously the main material is cardboard but i have faith in myself that i will do good. now the design i came up with i got inspiration from all different eras of doctor who as well as some inspiration from some other custom made tardis consoles but i do want it to look unique which i think i did well.

here are the six Panels i made don't worry they will be reinforced cause currently they are floppy.

Panel 1

Panel 2

Panel 3

Panel 4

Panel 5

Panel 6
i have also made a few of the levers and other fiddley things now the key thing i wanted for this console was that i want everything to be able to be interacted with and that i want majority of the levers and stuff to server a function.

so that above will be like artron energy reader or something like that.

that cool lever above is on Pane l5 and was inspired by the 2010 tardis interior which is one of my personal favourites.

in this image you have the main demat lever as well as the white lever which is inspired by the 2005 tardis console.

those are the hexagons at the top of all the panels

and finally here is a picture of the console on the floor. you can also see K-9 and the Tardis exterior there as well which are both also made of cardboard. anyways thats it for today, this is actually my first post on the Tardisbuilders.com website, i have been on here sooo many times but i've yet to make an account until now. Anyways this is all for now and i shall update you all with progress once i have made more. wish me luck  Allons-y

[russellsuthern]

Hey Curtis,

Welcome to TARDISbuilders!

Great to see you as a new member.

Cardboard is such a great material to work with. I love it!
Your work looks superb.

Would love to see build diaries for your K-9 & TARDIS as well.

Keep up the good work!

Best regards,

Russell

[d0ct0r131]

I really like the idea using Flux Capacitor part for TARDIS Console.

[Cardinal Hordriss]

So far so good. My first consoles were cardboard, theh foam core board.

I've got a little flux capacitor keyring that strobes and I've debated including it as a console component.

[jpittsta]

this is looking great so far, the plans are coming along nicely, keep going and never give up and youre in for an awwesome console my friend:)

[CurtisAG]

holy crap guys thank you so much for all the nice comments, I really appreciate it.
I have made progress on the console since the last post, firstly I changed up the plans as I disliked panel 6's top section of the monitor, instead I will be making a spinning ring thing and having a monitor spin (unfortunately not a real monitor but are well)

I have also made some more cool levers and stuff like:

above is the spinning wheel thing on panel 5, it's not currently finished cause im going to glue it up. I'm going to glue all of the levers up at once because then they will all be dry at once and i can attach them all the next day but know idea when that day will be right now.

above is a lever extremely similar to the one in the 2013 console and is on panel 4. look i really liked that swingy lever alright lol.

above is the little like radiation reader things on panel 3. they aren't complete i just kinda cut out a shape and thought hey those circles are perfect size so yeah imma finish them tomorrow.

so a bit of a long story with these levers they were originally going to be for panel 3 and they still are but i thought they would also be good for panel1 so im going to make an extra two and use them instead of the 2013 console levers.

So here below are going to be each panel so far from 1 to 6 and with a bit of a description on each:


so for Panel 1 here im thinking on moving the two corner toggle switches to Panel 4 to fill up the empty space as i believe this panel already has enough. this Panel also has the slider things on it which i need to do and i need to make the said sliders but thats not too difficult cause i have done them before on a different console but we don't talk about those lmao.


so for Panel 2 obviously a lot of work is still to be done on this panel so not much to comment here so far other than the fact that I'm still flickering between making the right corner of the panel a keyboard or a number pad, what do you guys think?


for Panel 3 here i believe that its almost done already i just got to make the flux capacitor which i do want to make glow so im going to leave that for way later and just put together a material list for that but good thing is i already got lights.


Panel 4 here is pretty much done now like Panel 3 but i am going to move the two toggle switches from Panel 1 and move them here on either side of the little switches at the top. other than that there's nothing. also i don't know if you noticed but there is a toggle switch on the other side of the demat lever.


Panel 5 needs the spin wheel to be finished and for the danger meter to be made. the thing im worried about for this Panel is that people will think that the big lever on this Panel is the demat lever which it's not but are well that just adds to the fun and mystery and means I'm the only one who knows how to fly it:)


Pane l6 here needs the lever right corner done and don't worry that box is just a place holder i might even use that but if i do i will cut it down to a smaller length. this panel also needs the buttons and stuff a the top but they won't be proper buttons sadly but are well. also the three Hartnell like levers on this panel i will be getting rid of since that light switch panel thing takes up that space and honestly if those Hartnell switches were there they would make this panel look cluttered.

Honestly I am extremely proud of how it's going so far and i think either tomorrow or the day after I'm going to try and fortify and stabilise each panel and make them stronger and I'm also going to buy more glue. i have high hopes for this console and i got tons of cardboard so the only thing that could stop me is the will to do it all and that's not getting in my way this time. anyways im signing off this update . thank you and enjoy your day or night, goodbye:)

[Jade]

This is looking good. And the way you've done your levels have given me some ideas for when I do my own. also looking forward to how you do your flux capacitor (also something I'm planning on having) Looking forward to seeing more.

[elkad]

Looking at these cardboard prop posts makes me think of this guy on YouTube, "Epic Cardboard Props". If you want to gain experience, or learn a trick or two to make your props even more lifelike, this, is, the guy to go too.

https://www.youtube.com/c/EpicCardboardProps

for example:

[CurtisAG]

hello people, thank you all for the more nice comments and im glad i have inspired some of you.
i have continued to make good progress and have changed the plans again which you will see shortly.

so above is the new updated plan, i decided to change panel 2 as i disliked the look of it as the spinning location decider or whatever its called wasn't looking the best as i just didn't think it would work well as i want this panel to be able to choose your destination not be limited to like 5 or 7 to select from and with the data and month i didn't want to make multiple spinning sections for them but i did end up making the spinning thing for the day of week

the day of the week is that box, inside is a spinning 7 sided object with a dowel going right through and when you spin the  shape inside you select a day and then beside that is the danger meter which will permanently be on this panel and will no longer be moved as well as the blue rocker switch and the blue toggle switch which will probably be cloaking and shields and then you got the base part of the keyboard which i will be making and im really excited to begin making it and you will see pictures shortly.


Panel 3 here is done now a part from the flux capacitor which im glad so many people love that idea. i have also made the little like radiation meter things out of cardboard and a think a old toy train controller that has been broken for years but i grabbed the like volume nobs



Panel 4 is completely done now with the added two large black toggle switches on either end of the small toggle switches which i quite like the look of.


i have finished the spin wheel and it looks really nice but i might extend the dowel as i feel like when its attached it might come of or spin on an angle but i don't know i will just have to wait and see.


i made another two levers which im currently not liking much cause the dowels keep coming off but once i glue those dowels to the main lever holder piece then everything will be better.


i have now glued all of the top shaped pieces to all their respective panels and oh damn they secured the panels way better than i hoped but just to make sure i will be adding additional support to the back.

so for the keyboard on panel two i took a part an old keyboard many years ago so i could put a keyboard onto my old Tardis console but that was many years ago and now im making a really really good one, the last one i made only had four panels.


here is what i got from the old keyboard, this is what makes the keyboard do the fun clicky thing. i can't believe i never thought of this before hand but what im going to do is cut out small squares which will be the keys then glue those small squares to these key parts and bam i got a working keyboard.


this above is all the small squares for the keyboard before they were cut out and i just put all of the key parts i have on top of them to make sure i have enough and I do, i just cut two rows off. I just find this so weird to look at.


and then here are all the squares lined up to where i want them on the keyboard base and i had more than enough even with the two of the rows that i drew up removed. i hope that sentence made sense lmao. i am really excited for this Tardis console and so far its looking amazing.

now for this last part of the update i do want to show you all something im pretty proud of and i got inspiration for this from a ring. its one of those fidget spinny rings.

but i loved it so much and with the Tardis console being made i was like oh damn this would be awesome to have on the top middle for a monitor to spin around on and so that's what im doing. i guess i also got inspiration from the 2013 console but are well. anyways here is the main spinning part of the console middle

so the inner ring is larger and should stop the outer ring from spinning off, the inner ring will be held down and secured while the outer ring will be lose and able to spin. it works pretty well from the trials i did and i hope it stays like this and works:)

so far everything is going really well and now what im doing before gluing together the levers is that im going to add additional supports to the back of each panel just to be safe and i will also be making all the detail pieces for the console so it doesn't look very bland and empty and i might end up drawing up a second plan just so i cant sketch out the designs of the details on all panels. im really happy with how its going and can't wait for the panels to be finished. thank you all for all the nice, amazing and supportive comments take care everyone:)

[CurtisAG]

hello everyone, its been a while since my last post and oh damn I have gotten progress and its almost full on assembly time.

firstly this is the finished panel 2, it has gone through many changes and this is final version as its already been glued together. unfortunately the glue couldn't actually stick the clicky things of the keyboard to the cardboard so I just used double sided small tape to attach the keys but it still works. also I made a new lever which I shall show the progress in making it below:


I started making this lever with the idea of being I guess like maybe a gear stick or whatever where there are three different modes and that's the three flat sections on the lever base, here are some images further in the build of it

this was the dry fit of it and obviously its glued together now and is glued on panel two now as you saw above but im proud of how the finished lever looks and operates.


this is a test piece of cardboard I did to ensure that the holes for the levers are the correct size and honestly im extremely happy I did this otherwise the console panels will most likely have random holes in it.

I also found this switch that I want to use on the Tardis console as the fast return switch but can't find where to put it as well as these on/off rocker switches which I have put on panel six as panel six's top section was basically empty.

so here below is each panel that's pretty much been finalised and glued up except panel 1 now just note none of the switches and rocker switches are not glued on so that way I can remove them if I want to paint the console:


so here is panel 1 which is the least complete but I will be gluing the main two levers on shortly and i also have yet to make the sliders for the top section but will also be making them shortly but they shouldn't take long.


Panel 2 you have already seen but im just going to show you again lol


Panel3 is done apart from the flux capacitor and also in this photo the two levers aren't there but they have been glued on i just had to add the covers to them and the panel 1 levers to make them look better, i also added a cover to the handle section of that lever on panel 3 as well.


Panel 4 has all the switches attached and the demat lever glued on and im probably going to have to make an underneath section for turning lever on the left because if its on an angle it just dangles down like still attached but if you left it up it just falls back down so im just going to add it so there is a stopper so it doesn't look bad when nits not in the up position, when its in the up position it just gets caught on the switches so it just stays up there which I don't mind at all.

 
panel 5 is finished, the top compressor bars im happy with and find mildly funny since they are office supplies and they are on the Tardis but they are fun to fiddle with so I don't care lol. also the big lever on this panel I love to death its so fun to play with and also I did add pieces to cover up the open sides of this lever and all the other levers with open sides so that way it looks neater. the spin wheel looks good but I feel like the wooden dowel in the middle of the spin wheel is to short cause whenever I spin it, it ends up coming out of its spot which is either because bad design or the short dowel but are well the dowel is glued in place and I ain't making another hole for the spin wheel.


Panel six here I slightly changed the lever on this panel as when I was gluing together the pane l5 lever I unintentionally placed the lever into the lever base and made it more like some sort of like gear stick and I loved that idea and so I was like screw it the lever on panel six will be like that and boom it became like that. you can also see the on/off rocker switches and the light switch and omg I love all the switches on the console.

finally a while ago I took a picture of the Tardis console all like dry assembled to get an idea of what it would kind of look like and holy crap im so excited to actually glue the panels together.

now I also do want to state that after the panels are glued together and stuff I am planning on making a custom base like I have a cardboard box on top of a table that will be holding this console up but I will properly make like an outer shell to spice up the look of the console and make it visually appealing and so I can actually use it for filming as well and not have it look super ugly on screen. anyways thank you and i shall see you next time for another update and next time I should either have the panels glued together or have the glue drying but yeah im excited to get more progress.