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Building A TARDIS in Japan

Started by kittymalt, Jan 01, 2015, 04:14 am

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kittymalt

My husband and I recently got into Doctor Who and really wanted a TARDIS wardrobe for our clothes to hang in (nice and useful). We live in Japan, but our Japanese isn't so good yet... It didn't stop us, progress is being made! We also do not have a lot of power tools (just an electric drill we got for cheap from Ikea). If you're here you will need measurements for wood in millimeters. Wood cost is very inexpensive, total cost for all of the side/door panels for us was about 5000 yen (roughly $50 American), and that was including the woodcutting fee from the hardware store. We went with 9mm thick plywood for the doors and sides. image.jpg

kittymalt

This is a standard form you would fill out at a Japanese hardware store to get your wood cut. Top 3 lines are for your name and contact info, then you draw how you want the wood cut with measurements in the empty box (in millimeters). Some hardware stores do delivery of the goods for a fee, but we just walked the wood home on a dolly. We wanted all of our panels to be the same, so we purchased 4 panels of 12x910x1820 plywood and they cut all the wood at once (it is between 49-197 yen per cut), so to cut all that wood it was only 15 cuts at 49 yen each. With our limited Japanese, we had taken the form home, translated it and filled it out, and then went back with the form. Buy the wood at the hardware shop, then bring it over to be cut (best to do so right away, you have to keep the receipt as they won't generally cut materials you've brought in from somewhere else).IMG_1320.JPG

kittymalt

Jan 01, 2015, 04:41 am #2 Last Edit: Jan 01, 2015, 04:47 am by kittymalt
We attached wood planks to a backing with wood glue (that bottle has the Kanji for wood glue) and then screwed them in from the back to make them strong. The panel my husband is holding is the mock-up we made from really cheap thin plywood to make sure our measurements were correct (yay, they were). Now, to make the real box! Too bad it's New Years here in Japan today, most shops are closed :( We should have bought sandpaper and nails yesterday...IMG_1322.JPGIMG_1323.JPGIMG_1321.JPG

kittymalt

IMG_1325.JPGIMG_1327.JPG Day two of actual building (not just getting materials) and three walls are finished and the door is in the making.

davidnagel

Looking splendid already!

Entirely jealous of how cheap your wood is out there!
Regards
David

kittymalt

Base posts are in, walls/doors have their final coat of paint, and lantern is finished. We could not find a good lantern in the shops, so I made one. It's pretty good for the price, we paid 108 yen all together for it ($1), which is how much the clay cost. We had the jar, chopsticks, silver tape, and wood scraps lying around already anyway. IMG_1331.JPGIMG_1337.JPGIMG_1334.JPGIMG_1335.JPGIMG_1336.JPG

galacticprobe

Jan 05, 2015, 09:08 am #6 Last Edit: Jan 05, 2015, 09:10 am by galacticprobe
That looks like a pretty darned good scratch-built lamp to me! Well done on that! Nice color blue, too: reminds me of that 1972 VW Karman Ghia I used to own back in the '70s and early '80s.

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"


kittymalt

The top is almost ready to screw in, just need to finish all of the signs. We tried a stencil and spray paint on vinyl fabric, but... maybe more sticky tack to stick the stencil to the fabric would make less bleeding of the black paint. We'll keep trying. IMG_1341.JPGIMG_1338.JPG

Volpone

A couple options for an indoor build like yours: 

My second POLICE BOX sign iteration, I went to the local office supply store and hand them print and laminate them.  Because it was black & white it was 1/5 the cost of doing color.  Even a low-tech solution like that should be light-able. 

When I did my remodel this summer I did a variation on my first version:  I got transparency paper for my inkjet and printed the signs up myself.  The way it worked, I did one sheet ending at the trailing edge of the E in POLICE, and one sheet starting at the leading edge of the B in BOX, with a middle sheet to cover the rest.  I did mine in the TYJ/actual police box blue and white instead of black and white and it looks OK.  For black should hide the seams even better.  And because yours is indoors you won't have to worry about rain washing away the ink.  Mine went behind plexiglass (from an old poster frame I had laying around).  If you aren't doing something like plexiglass, you could give yourself a bit more overlap and just glue them together with a spray adhesive. 

What's that?  How do you get the white writing with an ordinary printer?  Flip the sheets over and spraypaint the back white.  The black covers it in all the spots but the lettering.
"My dear Litefoot, I've got a lantern and a pair of waders, and possibly the most fearsome piece of hand artillery in all England. What could possibly go wrong?"
-The Doctor.

kittymalt

The TARDIS is very near completion, only a few details remain to be done. The signs need to be replaced, as the font is far too large (a detail I cannot believe I overlooked!). The paint over stencil over white vinyl was okay, but difficult to clean up nicely... maybe I shall try sticky vinyl with the lettering cut out on top of Plexiglas... what a pain. IMG_1343.JPGIMG_1347.JPG

Volpone

Most people here always have some thing that they aren't completely happy with on their build.  That's fine.  It gives you something to work on later.  And most people that look at your build don't even notice the thing that bothers you so much.  Yours turned out very nicely, but I look forward to seeing the reworked signs.  :) 
"My dear Litefoot, I've got a lantern and a pair of waders, and possibly the most fearsome piece of hand artillery in all England. What could possibly go wrong?"
-The Doctor.

galacticprobe

Jan 12, 2015, 05:29 am #12 Last Edit: Jan 12, 2015, 05:36 am by galacticprobe
What volpone said. And try not to be too critical of yourself. A TARDIS build is like, well, any TARDIS; she gets some of her quirks from her owner, and no matter how you look at her, she's always beautiful. And like volpone said, people are always making some revamps or tweaks on their builds, and we always love to see how those tweaks evolve.

Your Old Girl looks great. If you want to replace the signs one day, or not, that's up to you; no one can tell you that you're wrong with what you've got because even the actual prop at times didn't look like the actual prop! (Don't dwell on that one too hard; it will make your brain hurt.) And if someone has the audacity to tell you that you did something wrong with any aspect of your TARDIS, do the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" thing: point at them with outstretched arm, only instead of squealing to call in fellow body snatchers, shout at them "Rivet Counter!" - and then ignore them. (You can tell the difference between a Rivet Counter and a fellow TARDIS builder by the way they approach you and comment on your TARDIS; it's all in the delivery of the critiquing: fellow builder, friendly conversation-type talk about things; rivet counter, blunt self-righteous statement of "fact" on what's wrong.)

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

sad rat sid

Jan 29, 2015, 08:23 pm #13 Last Edit: Jan 29, 2015, 08:24 pm by sad rat sid
Nihon no TARDIS wa subarashi desu!