Matt's Replica Crich-Style Police Box

[matt sanders]

Another sunny day, so on we go...

This morning, I still had a third of the texturing to do.  When I did the first texturing yesterday, the mould walls were joined together in pairs, but to finish the job I need to split those pairs apart, and join the walls in the other pairs, to finish the remaining corners.

Splitting the walls apart was one of those "moment of truth" moments - would half the resin fall off and need replacing?  But luckily it was fine:



So - more splodging of resin, etc...



And eventually all the relevant surfaces are textured...



I've consciously "overdone" the texture, for a few reasons:
1)  I can easily sand the moulds back later, if I don't want so much texture, but it will be hard to ADD texture once the moulds have release wax applied.
2)  On the finished castings, I can easily fill in unwanted crevices with car-body-filler - and indeed I'll probably do some of this to help make each column slightly different, so less obvious that they're all from the same mould.
3)  Some bits of lumpy texture will probably remain lodged in the first casting, so at least I'll still have plenty left in the mould.
4)  The release wax will slightly soften the texture, as will the grey primer paint that will go on the finished castings, so I need to start with something fairly dramatic!

That's the theory, anyway...!

[matt sanders]

So - the texture is finished - now to prep the mould for casting...

First, to seal the resin, paint on a coat of Blue PVA Release...



And then a second coat...



Whilst that's drying, the non-concrete surfaces are given a coat of brown parcel-tape.



Back to the mould walls - and two coats of wax...



And reassemble the mould, to allow the wax to dry overnight...



NEXT EPISODE: Day of the Fibreglass!

[Sorvan]

NEXT EPISODE: Day of the Fibreglass!

Why do I hear an announcer's voice in my head saying: "Stay tuned for another thrilling instalment of Matt's Replica Crich-Style Police Box!"

Should I be this excited?  Do I need to start taking more pills?

Colin

[fivefingeredstyre]

You're not the only one who's stupidly excited by this build...

I'm dying to see how this works out... 

[galacticprobe]

I agree with Sorvan and fivefingeredstyre, and I am unanimous in that!

Dino.

[Kingpin]

Mother of God, this is going to be amazing.

Fantastic build diary, Matt.  Simply fantastic.

[matt sanders]

Well - this was supposed to be the fun bit.  I thought perhaps the fibreglassing would take about two or three hours - but in the end it was eight or nine.....

First, the Gelcoat, died black...



Then the glass matting, saturated with resin.  Note on the left, the column's "Interior" surfaces are pigmented an off-white colour...



Checking that the plastic pipe fits inside ok...



With the pipe removed, I joined the two halves together.  Note the joins/seams in top right and bottom left...



To join the halves, more gelcoat is painted along the joins, using a hi-tech tool, known as a Brush Taped On A Stick...



And more glass matting along the joins...

[matt sanders]

Time to put the plastic pipe inside...



Meanwhile, the end parts also need fibreglass...



These end parts are added to the mould, and whilst the resin sets a bit, I test the expanding foam that will go inside.  This is what happens when you mix the chemicals together, in a cup...



I stand the mould-box upright, leaning against the house, and pour in the mixed chemicals...



The chemicals expand to make a rigid foam...



Hopefully tomorrow, it will be safe to open the mould...  ;-)

[Sorvan]

more gelcoat is painted along the joins, using a hi-tech tool, known as a Brush Taped On A Stick...

Wow!  And I thought I had all the cool tools.

Colin

[galacticprobe]

Note the joins/seams in top right and bottom left...

To join the halves, more gelcoat is painted along the joins, using a hi-tech tool, known as a Brush Taped On A Stick...

Murphy's 2nd Law of Combat: If it's stupid but it works, then it's not stupid. Great ingenuity with that, though I bet the fiberglass cloth wasn't as easy to lay down as the extra gel coat was.

I test the expanding foam that will go inside.  This is what happens when you mix the chemicals together, in a cup...

And that's why it's nicknamed "Mountains in Minutes". They've used that stuff in the TV and film industry because it fills all the nooks and crannies, and is quite rigid. I know the 'Trek' franchise of old used it when they made the master forms for the 6-foot Enterprise-D (from Season 2 on); in Season 1 they used that dense florist's foam for the 11-foot Enterprise-D. Anytime they needed a new starship model they'd make the skeleton from plexiglass and then use that Mountains in Minutes to fill in the gaps and then sculpt it before creating a mould over it.

So you've got the same technical way of thinking as the professionals do! I can't wait to see how this post turns out!

Dino.

[Volpone]

If I suddenly had more time and money than I knew what to do with, I'd have a go at making a concrete police box.  But I think even that would be less "accurate" than this. 

Funny thing about this hobby--it is easier said than done.  There's a reason no two TARDIS props are exactly alike (or are completely to their blueprints).  For that matter, there's significant variation in the actual police boxes--it's easy enough for someone to join this place and announce "I'm going to make an exact replica of the Crich box."  Us being generally nice guys, we'll mostly pat them on the arm and say "That's nice.  Post lots of pictures."  But we don't actually think they'll do it.  Because we've all been there--you make a math error.  Or you realize what you wanted to do is going to be a lot harder than you thought, but you can come up with a 93% solution that will be more than good enough and settle on that. 

Having seen the effort that went into the lamp to get it absolutely right, I've got faith that this is going to be a real treat when finished.  And yes, it will actually be an "exact replica of the Crich box." 

...

You know what would be funny?  If you could set it up at Crich, next to the real thing and get the ladder and tape measure back out and re-measure it all while one of you is wearing an absurdly long scarf and the other one has a badge for mathematical excellence on his ugly yellow pajamas. 

[fivefingeredstyre]

This is seriously impressive stuff!

I cannot wait to see how this turns out...

[Mark]

Volpone, we actually spoke about doing just that with the museums curator. Some sort of PR for the museum as well as some fun!.

On our second visit to Crich Matt brough a test piece he had made of a wall section and I can tell you the fiberglass/expanding foam combination is amazing. I was blown away with how Matts texturing on the test part was identical to the worn and overpainted parts of the actualy police box.

This replica will be indistinguisable to the original as I know how much effort and hard work Matt has put into it.

[matt sanders]

And that's why it's nicknamed "Mountains in Minutes". They've used that stuff in the TV and film industry because it fills all the nooks and crannies, and is quite rigid. I know the 'Trek' franchise of old used it when they made the master forms for the 6-foot Enterprise-D (from Season 2 on);

Actually, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with that expanding foam.  It's handy for lots of jobs, but can be temperamental.  One of the first times I used it was 20 years ago, when making scenery for the Wallace & Gromit film A Close Shave (which i notice was on telly on BBC3 today!)  There was a scene where Shaun the sheep ate chunks out of Wallace's furniture, but rather than destroying the original props, I was given the job of making duplicates, with chunks taken out.  I made a big lump of this expanding foam, and carved it to the exact sizes of the sofa and armchair - and when I came in the next day they had shrunk by 10%! 

[matt sanders]

About taking the replica box to Crich - yes I'd love to do that, especially if it could be part of some publicity event or magazine article or something. 

And, if we can finally work out exactly where the Crich box originally stood in London, then perhaps, after visiting its twin at the museum, the replica could be loaded onto a lorry, and driven down the M1 to also stand on the pavement in that original spot!