TARDIS Console Rebuild (Phase 2 WIP)

[davidnagel]

Wow! I disappear for a few weeks to have a baby and I come back to The14thDr's completed console - just wow! Nicely done sir, big round of applause to you. She's looking grand.

I look forward to further updates of added plinth and central column (I have never believed its called the time rotor).

[The14thDr]

Thanks David! I've been throwing around a couple more ideas for the central column/time rotor, but as far as a plinth goes I think I'm a long way off (I still haven't decided which design to go with). At the moment our dining table is the plinth, and for the rest of the time the Old Girl just lies on the floor. The options for the plinth have been narrowed down to an original-series one (similar to the Hartnell/Troughton console or the 4th Doctor's console) and a Five Doctor's style one. What do you all think?

Kind regards, The14thDr

[childofgallifrey]

I personally never liked the five doctors one, don't know why... I just don't like the slant of it, I prefer the Hartnell/Troughton/Pertwee plinth, maybe crossed with the 2010 shape plinth? (again, never like the coral effect) but that's just me.

[The14thDr]

Throughout the past two or three posts, I've mentioned a panel 4 refurb on multiple occasions, but it just occurred to me that I've never actually uploaded any designs for the new panel. So, using a 3D model of my console that I built on Google SketchUp, I made the new controls in order to test their sizes and proportions.

On the left of the panel we have my space-time throttle (which I finished in a previous post) and on the right there is a brand spanking new demat lever. In the centre I've designed an autopilot control panel that will be adorned with various toggle switches and knobs.
I actually cut a few pieces for the demat lever out of hardboard this afternoon, but the battery in my camera is dead so I'll save the photos for a future update.

Kind regards, The14thDr

[The14thDr]

Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos earlier on in the the build phase of my new demat lever, so here's where I'm at so far.


If anyone's interested here's the template I made for the side of the lever, including measurements.


The repairs on panel number 2 are coming to an end, as I managed to glue the new slider casing into position via a large tab on the back.


My latest shipment of parts arrived last week: a pack of 6 LED touch lights. This one is going to sit in the centre of my time rotor, and eventually I hope to put an orange filter around the top.

Tonight I'll try to upload some shots of the glowing time rotor in action.

Kind regards, The14thDr

EDIT: As promised, here's a photograph of the time rotor at night.

[galacticprobe]

The necks! The necks! Go easy on our necks and make sure those photos are right-side-up, man! (Especially mine; with the vertigo if I tilt my head that far to the left to look at anything my head could end up spinning like a fun faire vomitron ride for a week or more!)

Love that column glow, by the way!

Dino.

[The14thDr]

Thanks Dino. I checked all the images after I'd posted them, ad I swear that last one was the right way round!

EDIT: I rotated the last image and re-uploaded it.

[The14thDr]

I've finally finished the time rotor! I painted those tin foil tubes on Saturday and wrapped a strip of silver cardboard around the base of each one. Then I attached the warm white LED lights that I bought last Sunday onto the completed rotor.




There are still a couple of improvements that need to be made but for the most part the time rotor is now complete.

Kind regards, The14thDr

[galacticprobe]

That certainly looks nice. Those lights make so much of a difference. Are they on all the time, or only when the TARDIS is "in flight"? (Either way, she still looks really cool!)

Dino.

[The14thDr]

I keep them on all the time (or at least when I'm using the TARDIS) and eventually I may add some flashing LEDs for when the TARDIS is in flight.

[The14thDr]

I've posted this video in the gallery for this console, but I thought I'd post a link here, too. Throughout the video there are slight glimpses of the upgrades I have been making to the console over the past few weeks, as documented on this very page. You can see the new time rotor in action, as well as the demat lever I have been working on recently. There is also a quick demonstration of the removable slider box during the first half of the video, and for fans of old and new I've hidden 6 objects from the Doctor's past and future around the edge of the time rotor.

Kind regards, The14thDr

[The14thDr]

Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos in the build process of the demat levers arm section, so here's where I got to yesterday.

I finished cutting all the hardboard rectangles and sanded each one down so that they would all fit snugly together on the body of the lever. I decided not to paint the housing simply because I liked the natural look of the plain hardboard.
In this next photo you can see the inside of the housing, and how I put it all together. Basically, there's just a small length of dowel running through the centre of it all, and the small square of hardboard that sits in front of the arm prevents the lever from drifting along the dowel when it is pulled up or down.

I used the same type of system for the inside of the throttle lever to stop it from pulling out of the panel every time I use it.


And now for the main event! This morning I spent half an hour removing the old demat lever and replacing it with the new controls. I started by unscrewing the two missile cover toggle switches and then prying the lever from the panel. Then I used some acrylic craft glue to add the new controls.

Before:


During:


After:



And before I go I'll leave you all with a nice shot of the console's first four panels.

[galacticprobe]

Not a bad look at all. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have in store for the rest of the Demat Lever panel.

Dino.

[The14thDr]

Thanks for the kind words Dino. I think you'll enjoy what's going to be added to the panel. In fact, I'll be printing off the graphics today.

In other news, I took the old helmic regulator wheel that I'd taken from panel 1 and removed the dowel from inside it. Then, I found a party straw and trimmed it down so that it was the same height as my rotary switch on panel 6. After that I used some of my trusty acrylic craft glue to stick the straw to the centre of the helmic regulator wheel.
To make sure that the straw wasn't going to break off any time soon (like it did the previous 2 times I tried this), I used some PVA glue and kitchen towel to build up a few layers of paper mache around the straw to hold it securely in place.


Then I simply pushed the helmic regulator onto the switch.


Here's a short video of the helmic regulator in action.

Kind regards, The14thDr

[The14thDr]

I finally got the graphics and symbols printed for my console!

Well, most of them are for the console, but some of them I'll be using for various other non-Doctor Who related projects (the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice Iron Man's arc reactor and Spider-Man's web shooter).
However, I must give credit where credit is due. The black shapes with the white lines and labels were created by our very own kiwidoc for his amazing 2005 console build. He kindly sent these to me via email and I modified them slightly and changed the labels a bit for my console. The pink Platform One ticket I downloaded from TheRPF, and all the meters and gauges I found on a Google search.

And here's where I used those little symbols. I cut each rectangle out individually and glued them onto some previously-assembled hexagon shapes. (Fun Fact: These symbols were actually made by the doctor who 2 on his fantastically-detailed Time Rotor thread).

And then I wrapped a strip of cardboard around each of the tubes on my time rotor, before gluing these to the inside of the hexagons.



I had originally hoped to cut the hardboard control panel for the mixdle of panel 4 this week, but up to now the weather has stopped me from doing so. Fingers crossed the rain will hold off until this evening.
Kind regards, The14thDr