Building a Model TARDIS
Part One
2003
I first started building a model Police Box/TARDIS
in August 2003. I chose 1mm thick card and decided to make life easy for
myself by building to the same scale as the box shown in my ancient photocopy of
the original Metropolitan Police blueprints. This meant I could just
measure the plans and transfer them direct to card in centimetres. This
would result in a model approximately 45cm high. NB: I've just checked my
plans and they're 1" to a Foot. Ergo this is a 1/12th scale
model.
First stage was to create a plan (or "net" if you're
under 20 years old!) of the main "box, with windows and panels.
As you can see at this stage the windows are still blank, but
there are now panels. These are simply another piece of slightly
overlapping card glued onto the back of the panel holes. I've also created
window "frames" by laborously cutting oblongs of card into a frame pattern and
glueing them behind the window holes. It's going to be a bugger painting
them!
Having got this far I decided it might be cool to have a proper
flashing blue LED for a lamp, powered by a couple of AA batteries. I
started investigating electronics shops, and put what I'd already done on the
back burner for a few months...
Some Time Later...
Well, having been unsuccessful in finding the right
type of LED (flashing 2x a second), I finally returned to my model TARDIS...five
years later!
Yes, it's been sitting on top of a bookcase growing
dusty for half a decade. I have no excuse. I was just
lazy.
Luckily it has coped well, apart from going a bit
yellow, so I decide to continue.
Firstly I glued small oblongs of transparent PVC
(from a laser-jet printer transparancy) behind each window and then painted them
black. I know it's not the "pebbled" texture of proper box window panes,
but at this stage I can't think of a way of doing that, and I don't want to put
it to one side for another five years!
Windows in place, I glue the box together
carefully. This is the first indication of what the completed model will
look like, and I get that little frisson of anticipation when I see that
familiar oblong shape.
Close up the window frames look a bit frayed, but I can
shave off any rough bits with my snap-blade knife, and anyway painting them
should smooth over the rest - so long as I can avoid slopping paint onto the
window panes!
I've cut a small square hole in the top, just in case I
do go with my idea for a battery-powered LED.
Now the biggest part of the model has been made, it's
time to start adding all the extra chunky bits that make a police box
look like a police box.
Fiddly Bits...
I'm going to build up the corner posts by adding layers of card strip.
OK it looks a bit crooked, but by this time I've resigned myself that my TARDIS
is going to have a "funky" (i.e. not totally straight-edged) look. God it
looks rough close-up!
But by making successive layers thinner, I'm starting to get a
bevelled look. Ignore the dried PVA, that'll just add to the "weathered"
look when I eventually paint it. Finally a thin strip down the edge gives
it the finishing touch.
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