Tennant Era Console

[superrichi1a]

Hi there everybody! And damn and blast, is it really 5 years since I updated this?

No.

No.

I refuse.

That is not possible? Whaaaaaaat?




About a month ago I decided to hightail it out of my work flat in London during the lockdown and spend some serious time at the family home building some good old Tennant console. Didn't work of course, as within days I was inundated with menial tasks, administration, redundancy, and then, of all things, the virus itself. But anyway, I still found a few spare moments to get some work done. I'll start with the two videos below, filmed at the start of the lockdown, that bring you all up to speed on where I left off in 2016.

Most activity since Dino's update has basically been in collecting and building the controls themselves, but until now I never had a chance to attach and work on them - the console was stored in pieces. I devoted an entire day to cleaning out that damn console room (I mean garage... hehehehehe...), and now that it's semi-permanently assembled I should be able to offer far more frequent updates, as I'll be able to work on it a couple hours a week.

The videos are GoogleDrive links (I hope this works) - all you need to do is click and the video itself should open up with the minimum of fuss.

Thanks!


Video One - "The lighting takes off 10 years"
https://drive.google.com/open?id=15nJmU_U3f1DQ_vzaH-7MLqyiY__nLafG

Video Two - "Now I understand why the BBC were worried about filming in HD"
https://drive.google.com/open?id=15ta8Wvvtv1yNQG72Wm9yqmdkB8g_mXC7


I've got a few more small updates to share in the coming days!

Thanks!

[davidnagel]

Oooh splendid! And what an update! Looking forward to some progress mate!

[superrichi1a]

Thank you David for the kind words! And here I am again, back with another small update.

I've started the process of collecting and mounting the controls. Rather than just chuck up some pictures of all the junk I've collected, I'll keep updates focussed on the things that actually make it onto the console - I have a feeling a lot will hit the cutting room floor.

As I said back at the start, I'm seeing this as following more in the spirit of the Tennant console, rather than be an exact(ish) replica. On one hand this is due to the fact that it needs to be moveable, but on the other, if I'm honest, I always had a slight issue with the original prop. Having seen it up close many times, and having had good a play with it one one very fun occasion, I was somewhat disheartened that a lot of it didn't do much - most of the controls are static and non-functional. It looked great for screen, but as a big toy? Not so much. So by that logic mine will hopefully end up more fun to play with, but not look as good, oh well!

The aim is to incorporate as many accurate controls as possible, then focus on letting the rest just evoke the feeling of the original. Soon enough I'll start adding some heavily weathered classic controls in discreet places, too, so look out for some Hartnell lights and a door level (hey, it recycles, right?).



This is the doodah under the dohickey. Not overly accurate, but it's obvious what it is, and I don't think looks too bad! It's been built up with cut up bits of wire, plant pot, various tat, and these:



Not too far away from the house is a shooting range, and they always have a huge skip out full of spent cartridges. I've used a ton of these in various places throughout the console, altered, unaltered, painted, you name it! Expect to see more of them. In terms of the art of sticking stuff to stuff, I'm relying mainly on gorilla glue for permanent doodahs, and hot glue for doohickeys that I might want to switch out.



The console appears to be sprouting random bits of wire and cable from random orifices. How concerning.





These are two pieces of high-tech paraphernalia that are doubtless to awe you. They are... the smashed up topper pieces to my McGann TARDIS lamp that I rescued from the bin! I decided to use them because they felt in-keeping with the console's theme, they approximated the size and shape of the equivalent greeblies on the original, and they're functional! They both have little knobs and switches on from their past life as a lantern, and I've installed some LEDs inside the smaller unit.

Well that's it for now, I'll try to keep the pictures coming on the semi-regular.

[mrtardisconsole]

How do you post?

[karsthotep]

   It looks like you just did.   Are you trying to create your own thread?  Let me know what you need help with.

Karst

[MacktheTardisGuy]

I saw your use of Corrugated clear plastic sheeting for the rotor, and I thought this was a good time to say, I saw the original 2005 time rotor on an auction house for about 9 grand a few years ago. I haven't seen it since. It was the one used in series 1 as they had to replace both the entire rotor and the mechanism as it melted a small Corner of the casing but was still in good shape. If I can find it again would you be interested in seeing it?

[davidnagel]

I saw your use of Corrugated clear plastic sheeting for the rotor, and I thought this was a good time to say, I saw the original 2005 time rotor on an auction house for about 9 grand a few years ago. I haven't seen it since. It was the one used in series 1 as they had to replace both the entire rotor and the mechanism as it melted a small Corner of the casing but was still in good shape. If I can find it again would you be interested in seeing it?

We have that documented somewhere i think mate!