1:18 Scale 1960s 'Brachaki' Console Room Build

[jamiebate]

Hi Guys!
I've long been obsessed with building a TARDIS set for the character options action figures, which I've collected on and off since they began making them nine years ago. When I became primarily a classic fan I always wanted a console at least and a room to go with it, of course we never got one. Since then I've bought and sold many figures - being a rather indecisive young fool as I was (and still am), and have made countless attempts to build consoles and walls. I started off working in what I knew - card and paper, this then moved into wood with my getting access to a laser cutter, and then cast acrylic sheeting as a material with a neat and glossy finish for this sort of thing. Having I guess mastered the laser cutting process, I now get my work created from a company in Shoreditch with a great website that works out a quote based on your design. Initially wanting to work in 1:13 scale - meaning I could bring in the figures if I wanted to (not that there are many suitable 60s figures, Hartnell and Troughton, that's it really), I quickly realised this wasn't going to be financially viable especially where the walls are concerned, I was already compromising on making the roundel depth the equivalent of the 9 inch original set. So, I decided to go with 1:18 scale, I've designed and had laser cut a console in this scale before now and I knew I could get it to work and look relatively accurate. Working at this smaller scale also allows me to have more space to work with, and now I'm thinking of further possibilities besides the two walls and console, maybe the Fault Locater wall, or the internal doors, or maybe recreating those photo-roundel curtains?, or even just the rarely seen third wall of the set. I am eager this time to have opening doors, despite the reduced size, so I've ordered some 8mm doll's house hinges, the presence of which will I'm sure be worth the compromise of their ruining the look of the wall somewhat.
There are, lets not forget, a few classic figures in the new '3.75' action figure range, Daleks galore! which I'm sure will quench my thirst.
So, the first part of this build is a set of two walls, each comprised of a piece of 5mm white acrylic cast sheet, with the roundels and doors laser cut out of them. I made the decision to alter the door wall slightly, widening the spaces a little around the doors especially, but I don't think noticeably so, just so the structure isn't too weak. These will be backed with sheets of 5mm clear frosted acrylic which provides exactly the look I'm after having used it before. It allows for the roundels to be back lit which looks marvellous as well as removing the lights and having them blacked out as they appeared in various stories. Each wall will be supported by two pieces of plastic attached to their backs as supports, which I've fashioned in the same shape as the sides of the real walls from the series, (hard to explain perhaps, I'll shot the photos later). These will offer support as well allow the walls to stand on their own like the originals. Now, the original walls being 9 inches deep, those at this scale should be 12.7mm deep if my calculations are correct. As it is, the price wouldn't justify doubling them up, so I've compromised there.
So, overall, I'm awash with the possibilities for this little project, and I'm excited to get started!, the pieces should be arriving very soon so I'll keep you all posted!
Thanks

[galacticprobe]

Jamie, this sounds like a great project and I can't wait to see it start taking form. And you're correct about the wall thickness; just take the full-size measurements (which Tony supplied so well in his topic, http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3709.0, specifically the room measurements here http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3709.msg53730#msg53730), and divide them by 18 to get the measurement for your scale. Thus, 9-inch-thick walls divided by 18 would indeed be .5-inch thick.

Tony breaks down each aspect of that original console room set, and it is a long topic, but if you breeze through it you'll see his drawings with the measurements on them - as well as the occasional snippet of an actual blueprint from the set that help back up Tony's measurements - and you can work from there.

Dino.

[jamiebate]

The laser cut pieces for the first two walls arrived today. I've decided having them in hand to be patient and have another set made when I can afford it to get a closer approximation of the 12.7mm depth, another 5mm ought to do it. Any more and the doors would likely be too thick. I'll post a photo showing you what I have so far soon. 

[jamiebate]

Here are photos of the pieces so far and a Capaldi figure I just purchased in there too for scale. I bought some adhesive on ebay called 'Model X Pro' that is supposed to be the right stuff to join acrylic, but I probably wont be joining anything until I get the other pieces made. I will however be attaching the hinges to the doors, is superglue suitable?

[galacticprobe]

The pieces are looking excellent, Jamie. I haven't glued anything acrylic together (yet) - plexi/perspex, yes, and that almost acts like styrene. But superglue is supposed to glue just about any two substances together - wood to metal, metal to metal, etc., so "in theory", it should work on acrylic.

I would test it out on some odd pieces of scrap acrylic, if you have any at hand, and see how it works on that before trying it out on the good pieces.

Dino.

[tony farrell]

The laser cut pieces for the first two walls arrived today. I've decided having them in hand to be patient and have another set made when I can afford it to get a closer approximation of the 12.7mm depth, another 5mm ought to do it. Any more and the doors would likely be too thick. I'll post a photo showing you what I have so far soon.  

Hi Jamie,

I've been following this thread with interest.

I like the way your set is coming together (literally) but I do have a question:

I see you've built the doors with the off-set in their widths (just like the originals). I also see you're planning to 'sandwich' two layers together to get the required thickness/depth for the doors. Do you plan to reverse the off-set in widths for your next layer or chamfer the two layers? I just wondered or you might find that the doors won't open.

I'm looking forward to seeing more!

T

[jamiebate]

Thanks for your reply Tony. I'd never realised right up until now that the reason the join wasn't central was because as you say both doors had a diagonal edge in order to open. How I'll get around this I don't know, because I've no control over the edges, just the 2-Dimensional outline of the doors, unless I built them up like steps instead? a slight overhang of the next layer in place of an angled side?
On a different note, the hinges arrived, and here they are in place, not glued but just to show the size. As you can see, they're a lovely fit for the 1:18 TARDIS, which means they'd be even better on a 5" scale version! they're 8mm tall with an open span of 10mm by the way should anyone want a set, just from ebay, doll's house stuff I believe, a couple of pounds and you get four which is perfect in this case.

[galacticprobe]

I'd never realised right up until now that the reason the join wasn't central was because as you say both doors had a diagonal edge in order to open. How I'll get around this I don't know, because I've no control over the edges, just the 2-Dimensional outline of the doors, unless I built them up like steps instead?

Jamie, what if you took the next "cut" of the doors and flipped them over (upside-down), and then swapped left for right? The tops and bottoms look like they're the same thickness between edge and roundel opening. So, if you flipped and reversed the other side of the door panels, when you put them together your roundels and hinge edges would line up straight, but your mating (closing) sides would then have the diagonal that you need for the doors to open and close.

Does that makes sense? (I know it does in my head, and I can see it in my mind, but is my description coming across at least semi-coherently?) If not I can try drawing up a quick sketch to show what I mean.

|-----------------------//-------------------| <---New door panels, flipped and upside-down;
|    |         |       //     |         |    |
|    |         |      //      |         |    | <---Parts of the doors between the two panels;
|    |         |     //       |         |    |
|-------------------//-----------------------| <---Current door panels that were already cut.
(And if this exaggerated, rudimentary drawing doesn't work, then I can do a better one and post it, if someone else doesn't beat me to it.)

Dino.

[jamiebate]

No I think I understand what you mean, that's probably how I'll go about it.

In other news, I've turned my attention to the 'photo blow-up' roundels and have been looking at ways of recreating the design on Photoshop. I made a document at the scaled down size of 12' by 10' as it says in Tony's 'Original TARDIS Interior Blueprints' thread and made the roundel with two circles, one with a gradient, then repeated it to see if it looked right and I think it does. A couple of questions however, is it known what size each roundel should be roughly and is 12'x10' the right sized template for the image I'm tracing? I know what I have here is only a recreation in itself but it does hang over the edges of the canvas slightly so I'm wary to make my roundel definitively the sizes on that.

[tony farrell]

Originally the photo blow-up walls' roundels were 24" in diameter (nominal) but with - effectively - no spacings between them. According to Thomas Doran, the originals were replaced at some point in 1965 (?) and were reprinted at 25" diameters.

I have a PDF version of Thomas' excellent render of the PBUs which I used in a project which is 'on the back burner' (to give you an idea of the scale, the rug is 10 feet by 5 feet):




The PDF can be printed at a size appropriate to your model build. Send me a message if you'd like a copy.

T

[jamiebate]

That looks fantastic, and I'd love a copy, thanks.
I attached the hinges for one door this afternoon with loctite superglue, I just added a dot of it to the door, put the hinge in place, and then put some more around the edges of the hinge and on the holes for the screws just to seal it on there. I then attached the door the wall all at once using a similar principal. Sadly when I was adding them to the second door I put too much glue on a seized up one of the little hinges so I'll have to get another set to replace that one I think.

[tony farrell]

Hot water will dissolve 'Superglue'.

T

P.S., let me know your e-mail address and I'll send you the PDF of Tom's photo blow-up walls.

[galacticprobe]

That wall looks great with the door on it, Jamie. Sorry to hear about the hinge-glue malfunction, but if Tony is right, some hot water will loosen it up and you can wash it clean and then give it another try.

Dino.
P. S. Tony, I'd like a copy of that PDF, please. You already have my e-mail. (I thought I'd already gotten it, but when I looked in my folder where I put all of the drawings and graphics you've sent, it's not there.)

[absolutely]

i would also very much like a copy of this .pdf file. i've been looking for a better quality blow-up wall for ages.

[Rassilons Rod]

I'm also always in the market for upgrades