60's Wall/ Door roundel discusion

[BeeblePete]

They appear to come in 24" diameter and a 3ft length would get you 6 roundels. I believe they were 6" deep, right?

From what I read in the doors thread the doorway flat was 9" deep and the other two were 8". Not including the depth of those flimsy plastic 'bucket' inserts that went away later.

[Rassilons Rod]

Ah right, yes my mistake!

[BeeblePete]

Although looking at this shot, I start to think maybe all the flats were 9" deep to start with.



But as early as Power of the Daleks the sixcol flat seems more like 8"...



Then there's this 'Pyramids still. The focal length of a lens can 'flatten' the apparent depth of the camera's subject. I shall now try to forget about it all and just do what looks nice when i start building those dratted roundel wall models

[galacticprobe]

I sort of like the roundels with the "flimsy plastic 'bucket' insert"; they're the originals, and they have a unique shape to them. Flimsy? No argument as you can see the dents in many of them; but they have a certain character that the later "flats" don't have. (You can sometimes find large trenchers in "dollar" stores that could make a suitable facsimile of those bucket inserts; they just won't be as deep.) This sort of insert would be easy to fabricate if you have vacu-form equipment or experience. The forms would certainly be easier to make than the S14 and later textured roundel inserts.

The "flats" would definitely be easier to make: frosted plexi or perspex, flat and simple to cover the back of the roundel lining. The third option (mentioning S13, "Pyramids") and the easiest to make is the really "flat" flats: just two sheets of plywood stuck together with the outer sheet having the roundel holes cut into it: no depth so no lining, no inserts. But they are solid, and not intended to be lit. I don't remember who designed that particular set of walls, but, "I don't like it." I think the only other roundel design that was worse than the unlighted flats from S13 were those washing up bowls with the lights in their bottoms, a la "The Time Monster": roundel yuckers.

Don't dis the "buckets"!

Dino.

[Rassilons Rod]

Dino, after reading your post there, I should point out that the flat ones are the same walls as the ones from Time Monster - just with the bowls removed

[galacticprobe]

Ah. I can actually see that being done. The bowls were really bad, and the production crew probably didn't have enough time (or budget) to fashion "regular" roundels to back the walls with once the bowls were removed, so they just blanked them. Another case of "Improvise, adapt, and overcome." (I'm still not crazy about the look, though. )

Dino.

[Rassilons Rod]

Well aside from their inclusion in Season 13, I can't see them being meant for anything more than background decoration at that point. I don't think you see so much of that side of the console room during Evil and Pyramids. And their use as corridor pieces (in Mandragora) works too, especially when Sarah opens the door to the majesty of the secondary console room for the first time

[galacticprobe]

Come to think of it, I think there was actually one wall of the Junk TARDIS made from those blanked roundels. Obviously new construction for the episode, but a nice nod to the original designers and Classic series, that one. And it worked there. So I guess I'll have to re-evaluate my view of those. Maybe they're not so bad after all.

Dino.

[kert gantry]

I sort of like the roundels with the "flimsy plastic 'bucket' insert"; they're the originals, and they have a unique shape to them. Flimsy? No argument as you can see the dents in many of them; but they have a certain character that the later "flats" don't have.

Don't dis the "buckets"!

Agreed! Those original roundels are so stylish, it was quite a loss to the look of the ship when they were simplified.

But now I'm going to spoil it all by saying I'm possibly the only person in the universe who likes the Time Monster control room! Maybe because it's my first memory of the TARDIS from watching as a tot.  Also I like the brash, uber-seventiesness of those big bowls and wouldn't have minded if they'd stayed just a little longer.  I wonder if Pat's "You've done the TARDIS up a bit. Don't like it." line in Three Doctors was written before they knew there'd be a re-redesign, following the TM control room's poor reception.

[galacticprobe]

I was watching a show on DIY TV earlier called "Mega Den". They were remodelling a very large attic, and turned a small portion of it into a "space/Sci-Fi" theme for the kids. (That area was larger than most of the rooms in my house. Actually that attic was bigger than my house!) Anyway, they cut out a round opening that was about 24 inches in diameter in the wall between the two parts, and with the wall thickness (studs and drywall) it was about 6 or so inches thick.

They lined the opening with "flexible plywood". They showed the builder working with it and he was bending it like it was thick paper (card stock or poster board). It wasn't very thick - about like wood panelling that one would put on a wall - so that might have something to do with its flexibility, but I'd never seen the likes of it before. When he was done it looked like a clear Hartnell era roundel in the wall!

They also made "storage shelves" for the kids' toys out of those "Sonotubes", or as they referred to them, "concrete forming tubes", cut into about 12-inch long sections and backed with plywood circles. The tubes themselves had about a half-inch wall thickness at least. (They cut the sections with a table saw.) Some of those tubes were about 24 inches in diameter (they used smaller ones as well) but it made me think of this thread, and really wish I had a house with real rooms in it.

But has anyone else ever heard of or seen that "flexible plywood" before? If so, and you've worked with it, is it as flexible as that builder made it look?

Dino.

[atomicgraph]

not sure if its the same thing I'm thinking about ,but there's this bendy material , i think its called "bendy mdf" . i think basically its a composite material  that has thin cuts down one side of it, that gives it some flex. maybe its not the same thing you saw though.

[kevrani]

Yup. There are two walls. They're easy to tell apart in "The Time Meddler". The right wall has the later flat styled roundels just like the door wall the other wall has the earlier two stepped roundels.

The second wall also appears in the Space Museum (it's by the food machine). Although there isn't any evidence (that we know about) that the second wall appeared in Season Three, I did notice that it is used in Power of the Daleks: