Mike Verta's s18 TY-J

[mverta]

Here's what the two signbox control files look like.  This hidden-line view makes it easier to get a feel for the contours.





Although the remaining sides are copies of these two, I'll be doing some unique damage to the copies after the fiberglassing.

[ThymeLorde]

I'd noticed that chipping on the step above the doors, but never noticed that slight dip (and overall wonkiness) of the strip around the inside of the top sign. It makes me think what else is on the prop that hasn't been found yet. Also interesting to think how "non-straight" pretty much everything on  this box is. People always talk about the Altered Brachacki as being the most wonky prop (which, given its trapezoidal shape towards the end, among others, is definitely true) this one had its fair share of wonkiness.

Are there ANY right angles on this box? Any perfectly straight surfaces (Well, straight to an imperceivable tolerance)? Is there ANYTHING on this box that is simple and straightforward?

[mverta]

The bottom edges of the doors are pretty close but, no, there are no mathematically precise 90-degree angles anywhere on the box. It's been a few months since I found anything on the box that I hadn't seen before, but I'm zoomed in on this thing literally all day every day. And I'm just dealing with one season, a handful of shows. Trying to track that level of detail over multiple seasons would be maddening! 

[mverta]

Just more on this point, here is my CNC file, rendered; same doors seen in the live-action video from last week.  Look at how - in this context - all that damage and wonkiness almost seems imperceptible:



The chatter on the steps draws your attention to it because of its extreme nature, but you already know the rest of it is completely whacked out - yet it doesn't feel like it.  Move the light 15 degrees and all that would change and it would suddenly look like it fell off a truck 100 times.  Even still, take all those things out, and it immediately looks wrong, though we can't put our finger on why.

[typeforte]

It is eye-opening to see it pointed out just how shonky the prop was, even in its very first - theoretically factory-fresh - production.

Something else that's pretty eye-opening (to me at least) and which perhaps goes some way towards explaining it - is that the Yardley Jones plans are dated 25th Feb 1980... and the filming date is 20th March.  For a prop of this size (and long term 'keep for whole series' significance) and involving as much as it does to fabricate... that strikes me as a buttock-clenchingly tight turnaround!  Yardley-Jones's plans depict outward-opening doors.  And I guess that's what they made... only to conclude, after it was a bit late, that outward opening doors would be forever at risk of the inner-GRP-faces being glimpsed on screen.  So the extra rail above the doors was chucked on to prevent them swinging outward and they were hence-forth to be inward-opening only.  Had there been more time on developing the prop, they'd have made the doors taller from the outset.  But alas, the drawings did depict them as outward-opening.

Something else that I've been speculating over - the droopy thermo-GRP area above the sign boxes.  the droopy - almost melted - effect on that portion directly above the sign boxes.  It's so localised to that portion that it makes me think that that portion is unique in being fabricated out of whatever it is that they've fabricated that bit out of.  And it may just be a coincidence, but that bit is a bit not featured in yardley-Jones's original drawings.  There is no pseudo-stack above the sign boxes / between the corner posts.  The roof just extends down until it meets the sign box.  So I wonder whether the side-walls were assembled and fabricated before the roof was.  And once it was clear that the roof would not have a funky stepped shape around the bottom, but would instead be just square and flat in order to sit on/across the top of the side-walls... then they realised they'd need to fill in that zone above the sign boxes.  So - in very short order - the pseudo-stack ledges were conceived and grafted on as an afterthought (fabricated from something other than the regular GRP used for all the other components).  

Just my suspicion... and bearing in mind the drawings and the extremely tight turnaround.  It's amazing that they managed to come up with such a pleasingly designed and proportioned prop - and from a standing start in less than 4 weeks.  Hats off to them!

TF.

[mverta]

So the extra rail above the doors was chucked on to prevent them swinging outward and they were hence-forth to be inward-opening only.  

I took this as fact for awhile but it appears the steps themselves don't actually stop the doors from hyperextending forward - there's a latch bolt and metal strike frame inside the box which prevents the doors from ever actually hitting the steps/signbox (which is good, because it would likely push forward and/or fly off just like it does in the Hammersmith photos.  Here's the bolt and metal frame:



That's the reason for the distinct metal "clank" sound heard when the doors are slammed.  And I THINK the bolts have always been there - I think that's what's seen in this photo:



Given that you don't actually NEED the steps to stop the doors from opening outward (the hinges and door frame pretty much does that), and given that there is obviously a metal latch preventing this from happening in the first place, I suspect it may have been as simple as a cosmetic fix to stop the obvious gap between the top of the door and the steps.  It just doesn't look good.  Further evidence is that when the doors are fully closed, there is a sizeable gap between them and the steps - they never, ever, actually touch.  They never actually stop the doors from going anywhere.

This is how it is on my own build, by the way, where a latch bolt on the top of the doors clicks into electronic strike plates mounted in the framework behind the steps.  Basically it's a fancy version of what's seen in the photos, here.  The door will never actually touch the steps, will never hyperextend, and will have a nice metallic clang when slammed closed.

[mverta]

Working on the PTO sign, which I've sort of put off 'til now because it's mind-numbingly tedious. Still...

[bjones]

If a thing is worth doing...

Bx

[mverta]

This is my latest 3D control file for the ankh key.  The only thing stopping me from sending it off is that I'm not 100% sure of the actual size.

Does anybody have a known dimension for any aspect of the key?

I've left the edges sharp and all the extruded parts at their highest points in anticipation of wearing them down to create the appropriate final surface heights.  I've also saved the hole at top to be drilled after manufacturing.

Not 100% sure yet which metal I'm going to have this made in...

[Mark]

Not sure if it will help you but this page might be of use

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=874;start=135#lastPost

There is a picture of Jon's key next to some coins and further down is a picture of the key hanging out of the TARDIS with the Yale lock in the same frame.

Perhaps you can figure something reasonably close measurements from them?

[mverta]

Yep that's what I've been using as a reference, but it's still mostly a guess.  That guess is about 1.8" tall.

[deck5]

The very excellent Mooncrest models key (Mk IV) is 49.5mm tall -- that's 1.9".

[mverta]

If you can tell me which coins or what sizes they are, I can probably tell you to a high degree of accuracy if that 49.5mm is correct...

[BioDoctor900]

Mike, that's an English 1p and £1, although the £1 coin has recently gone out of circulation

BioDoctor900

[mverta]

Hmm.. that 1 pound coin must be severely worn down - according to the Royal Mint the discontinued round coin's thickness is 3.15mm, while the 1p's thickness is 1.52mm, yet these appear to have very similar thicknesses - certainly the 1 pound coin isn't nearly twice as thick as the 1p.  What do you think?