So the TARDIS had its debut at the first Armageddon Expo to be held in Adelaide. As I hadn't made it as dismantleable (is that a word?) as originally planned, I had to hire a trailer to transport it in almost full form.
But alas I hadn't counted on the fact that my carport roller door only goes 190cms high! The box is several inches taller than that! So we tried to tip it on its side, only to find the carport roof was not tall enough to enable it to even tip over without catching. I was close to accepting defeat until we realised we could push it out onto the backyard and tip it over. At this stage it weighs about 120kg I estimate. So we had to rest is sideways on a sack-truck and push/slide it out onto the trailer on its side. It then rode the entire way on its side in the trailer. At set up, it had encountered almost no damage from the journey thankfully, a little scuffed paint on the base at the back. So with four men at the other end we picked it up off the trailer and wheeled it in on its castors into the convention. The carpark was rough concrete and promptly disintegrated two of the castors. Oh well at least I didn't need the brakes on then.
So here it is , completed and on display at Armageddon Expo Adelaide. It was a massive hit with tonnes of people having their photos taken in front of it. I used it as a change-room and storage for my costumes and other stuff from the Costuming SA stand! People freaked out when I'd pop out of it. Most amusing. Here's Turncoat Studio's video of the con, featuring said Tardis.
Originally it was to be part of our stand, but the organisers essentially commandeered it and placed it near the photo booth and celebrity signing area. I wasn't fussed.
Getting it home was much easier now that we knew how to do it. Next up is to find a correct lens and to re-engineer it so I can dismantle it. I can't be spending over a hundred bucks each time to hire a trailer to take it places and needing another bloke to assist.
Here's some other pics. Emmanuel I hope you don't mind me using them ;)
This afternoon and evening I spent finishing the TARDIS. I bought a glass jar yesterday which has worked out perfectly for the top lamp, which was the last piece remaining. It's not fresnelled however, but does the job. At this stage a vegemite jar probably would has sufficed as I just wanted it finished!
The jar in place with some dowels and a round piece of MDF. It's supposed to have a dome shape on top, but I'm all out of domes, so I used a bog tin lid and glued it on.
And here is it painted and attached. It's probably off centre still, but I think looks the part. One day I'll put some kind of reflector inside and maybe even rig up a light.
The rest of the afternoon was spent putting the rippled glass effect in the bottom corners of every window frame. I used a broken skylight lens and cut it up using a cutting disc on a dremel. This puts out loads of fumes so I feel a bit off colour right now from it! Each window frame is slightly different so I had to make each one for a specific frame, required much filing (I cheated and used a bench grinder as a file). They certainly aren't perfect but most stick in without any glue.
So the TARDIS is finished! Alas I can't take a photo of it all complete because it's too tall for the porch and I need muscles to get it off the porch in the backyard. Next weekend at Armageddon I'll take some complete photos.
Special thanks to Frif and my Dad for help with some of the labour, the signage and with tools. Total cost of all parts, paint, fixings, is $699. It would probably have hit the grand if I had to pay for the window glazing and the top signs. Probably take a few bucks off too I guess, because I bought some things that I didn't end up using for this, but will no doubt use elsewhere in the future.
*I never bothered doing the corner post caps.
Well, the end is definitely in sight! My friend came through with the Police Box stickers, which we put on the white perspex backing. Now I was to learn that for some reason sticking vinyl to perspex is 100 times harder than sticking to glass. The spray bottle and detergent trick didn't actually help with sticking it on, but made it harder and as such there is quite a lot of small bubbling in the signs. It doesn't show from a few feet away, nor in pictures thankfully, but enough that it's mildly irksome for me. Anyway they're done. Alas the crispness of the signs now highlights that the signboxes are not perfect either. I guess as the creator I'm my own worst critic.
Today we did a test fit of the signboxes and the both roofs in place, we had to move the whole box down onto the paving so it could clear the porch roof. With several layers of paint the second roof panel no longer fits inside the first roof panel, so there will be some sanding to get that right. Also from above there's some spacing between the first roof and the signboxes they sit on, which I may fill with a piece of fabric or something. But then again unless you're nine feet tall you wouldn't see it.
I've just realised I forgot to make the corner post caps! Ahh it's never ending.
Anyway here's another photo, note that I finally made the window frames. I kind of cheated by making 2cm strips of MDF and just sticking them to the perspex and painting them afterwards. Yes I should have painted them first. There was a fair bit of cleaning required to get it off the glass again.There's no outer edging to the frames but at this stage I don't really care.
So remaining is the lamp (which I found a nice jar that is suitable), and the pebbled glass pieces for the corners of the window panes. I may have injured myself lifting the box down onto the paving. It's ridiculously heavy. I'm also rather concerned about how I'm going to get it out, given the carport roller door has a rather shallow opening height.
So after allowing the paint to dry on Monday, I really wasn't happy with the colour. It looked too bright, yet dark, if that makes sense. Kind of like 11th doctor Matt Smith's TARDIS only bluer. Like this (kind of) -->
I guess that's okay if I was making that one, but I'm not and I don't want people to think that I was trying to. I really wanted a cross between the Hudolin 1996 film prop and the TYJ 1980's show prop colour.
This chart shows the different colours, simplified for your PC. I added some grey to the paint which made it way too light (like the Newberry prop 3rd from left), and then some black went in to bring it closer to what I want. Currently it's a cross between Newberry and Hudolin (2nd from right), but not as much like the TYJ (between those two) as I'd hoped. At this stage I'm forgetting about the paint. It's close enough.
So this is what it looks like. Again the PC screen really alters the colour, it's a fair bit darker, so to see it for real you're just going to have to go to Armageddon to have a look.
The real win was getting the window glass. I was quite concerned about where I would find frosted perspex that wouldn't cost a week's wages, until the maintenance man at work came to the rescue. I was asking him about broken fluoro light guards as a possible source and he took me into his storeroom and showed me this giant piece of frosted perspex that had a crack in it. So out to the ute to bring it home. It was just enough to do every pane! I'm talking within 10mm of running out it was that close! Currently working on the grid work for the windows, which I'll probably just stick to the glass using 20mm strips of MDF.
Still need a lamp and some signs and then I'm done!
Yep, put the door lock in. Thrilling. It was quite a bit more complicated than it needed to be, simply because the TARDIS door is much thinner than your average house door. Thicknesses had to be built up under the lock for it to work correctly. Also so the barrel looks in the right spot from the outside, the lock itself sticks out across to the fixed door a little further than natural on the inside. It all worked out in the end as I needed to build up the base for the striker plate and it lined up nicely. No pics of the inside showing the lock, but here's the outside. Yes it should be an antique brass colour, but I botched that when I bought it. Plus silver was like $15 cheaper - go figure.
Alas today is my last day off work until the bump-in day for Armageddon on March 4th. I spent the entire day painting, so I would feel like I had made some major progress, as I'm starting to freak out about the remaining time. Paint was a bit of a drama as I've found that the major supplier of paint base in Australia is based in Queensland and had been damaged due to the flooding. This supplier makes Dulux and British Paints and probably others. As such, supplies are getting low and both Stratco and Bunnings were out of stock. I had to go to the Solver Decorator Centre who took my colour swatch and fortunately they had the code for it, so they were able to make me up some. Alas the colour didn't come out of the can quite like it looks on the swatch! Straight out the can it was very bright, like Gordon the Big Engine blue, but I knew paint dries darker.
The whole box painted in two coats. This paint was very thick and caused some pretty pronounced brush marks. Not sure of my opinion on this. I'm probably my own biggest critic. Alas it's simply too bright, and the next coat I'll dilute the blue paint with a slosh of black.
Still have to make the window frames, window glass/perspex, find a lantern and have signs printed. It's going to be close.
A good friend came down from Clare today to give me a hand with some laborious work, sanding and filling primarily and cutting out the holes in the signboxes for the signs. He also brought down the perpex sheeting for the signs and will bring the actual vinyl lettering next weekend.
Oh and yesterday my Dad came over and helped get the box off of the base so I could paint the base and install castors. Castors sit about 5mm below the base so it can move about freely (without the brakes on it moves about a little too freely!)
The box is bloody heavy at this stage, it was very difficult to get it to go back on its base and we ended up twisting it a bit and cracking the filler in several places. Oh well, refilled and sanded today.
Completed the roof today as well, sanded all the filler and gave it a base coat of that awful white paint I mentioned in an earlier post. Remembered to wear a mask so I don't get sick this time! The roof certainly isn't perfect, the angles aren't quite even and some of the filling is a little amateur, but it's the roof, Only if you are 9 feet tall could you even see it. The lamp box is still a bit off square too. I may see what I can do about that, although I may just leave it.
Whee, it's the roof complete and in undercoat.
So here it is , completed and on display at Armageddon Expo Adelaide. It was a massive hit with tonnes of people having their photos taken in front of it. I used it as a change-room and storage for my costumes and other stuff from the Costuming SA stand! People freaked out when I'd pop out of it. Most amusing. Here's Turncoat Studio's video of the con, featuring said Tardis.
