TARDIS Power Cell V2

[The14thDr]

Today I finally plucked up the courage to attempt the fins around the edge of the crystal.

I decided to go with just three fins instead of the original prop's four, purely because I prefer the way it looks with three.



Again, I'll carve these into a more triangular shape once the clay has had plenty of time to set.

More updates soon.
Kind regards, The14thDr

[The14thDr]

Today I carved and sanded the three fins down to a more even shape.

Looking at the power cell now I do wish I'd gone with the more accurate 4 fins rather than the 3, but for now I'll leave it as it is.



Next step is to paint the fins and touch up the parts of the collar where I got a little eager with the craft knife.

Kind regards, The14thDr

[Cardinal Hordriss]

Looking good. The crystal has the look of unpolished green calcite or unpolished green agate, it's a good finish you've achieved. I keep meaning to get around to buying the Mooncrest version but I'm not confident I could do it justice RE the painting of the band section.

[The14thDr]

Thanks Cardinal Hordriss. If the Mooncrest kit was a little more within my price range I definitely would have bought that and saved myself a lot of time.

The crackle on the band section does look really tricky though (hence me just painting it plain gold.)

[galacticprobe]

Looking at the power cell now I do wish I'd gone with the more accurate 4 fins rather than the 3, but for now I'll leave it as it is.

I think you've done a fantastic job with this one, 14th! And look at the "fins" this way: with only three, if you plug this into your console (large-side down) so those fins sit in sockets like an actual plug, the crystal will never wobble unlike if it had four fins due to Euclidian Geometric Postulate #3: "Any three non-collinear points determine exactly one plane." (Depending on which version you read it's worded a little differently, but means the same thing.) It's the principle of why a 3-legged stool or table never wobbles, no matter how uneven the ground is, whereas a stool or table with four legs will wobble because it's got that extra leg to create the possibility of a second plane.

Also, she your custom TARDIS; she's allowed to have a power crystal with only three fins on it! As for the "crackle" finish on it, if you have a steady hand you could always try drawing it on with a pin-point Sharpie like someone did with the crackle on their 2005 console build. (I wish I could remember which build that was so I could link to it. Anyone remember?) Anyway, that could be one way of getting that finish on the rim. And if you don't like it, you can always paint over it and make it solid gold again.

Dino.

[The14thDr]

Thanks Dino! I have been toying with the idea of having a "port" in the console for the power cell to sit in, so that's useful to know (I never knew that about 3-legged stools and 4-legged stools - I guess you really do learn something every day )

And thank you for the tips on creating the crackle effect, I just might give that a go....

[Karomak]

like someone did with the crackle on their 2005 console build. (I wish I could remember which build that was so I could link to it. Anyone remember?)

MuseumDave comes to mind. Also I believe BioDoc did it that way too. Two absolutely fantastic builds.

[The14thDr]

When I was adding the clay fins, I managed to chip some of the crystal, so I was forced to repaint it today.

I began with this undercoat of "leaf green" acrylic paint.



I then used a tissue to dab small amounts of lighter green acrylic paint on top, and then more "leaf green" on top of that, until I got a ratio that I was happy with.



Now I just need to redo the glow-in-the-dark paint and this prop will be finished.

Kind regards, The14thDr