Well, I thought I'd at least start a build thread on the 1/2 size TARDIS I'm building for my Daughter's Birthday.

I've got a very small budget for this and I'm not really bothered about making it accurate, I'm more concerned about making it child safe and fun!

The main plan is to make the frame out of all the bits of wood I've got lying around in the spare room and to make a "console" that's got lots of switches, light up stuff and sound effects. The switches will be mostly old car switches from my work (I'm a classic car auto electrician by trade). Sound effects will probably be provided from old car CD players with the controls hacked so they can be operated by the remote switches.
I'm also planning to make a TARDIS monitor that actually works - I've got an old Gameboy Advance with a video card so all I need is a cheap DVD player, again I'll hack the control so it can skip to different scenes to tie in with the TARDIS "controls"
All in all, it's probably going to be a mish mash of the current TARDIS console with maybe a bit of Tom Baker/Peter Davis era thrown in just for the hell of it.

Here's the beginning of the framework:

Had the slats from an old Ikea bed lying around - these are pretty good quality!

This TARDIS is going to be about 5 feet tall, the slats are near enough half that so I wood glue them together and reinforce them for the time being with some metal plates screwed to the other side:


And now I wait for the glue to set:


That's it for the moment, nothing major to report at the moment but I thought I'd at least get something posted rather than boring everyone with other random cack.  

Cool, very nice! Your daughter is one lucky kid! If you like I can send you a video of a recreation of the scanner screen-saver from David Tennant's time as The Doctor. Might be nice just to have playing when the scanner is otherwise inactive? It wasn't made by me, unfortunately, so I can't take credit, but, just a thought

Well, it's more the fact I'm really skint at the moment and she could do with a "big" present for her Birthday and as I've got a load of parts lying around I could use, it makes sense. Plus when you're 3 you're not bothered about how accurate things are and whether or not it's true to the series, you just want to play with lots of switches and flashing lights. This is the same girl who thought that the Werewolves in the old David Tennant episode just needed "a cup of tea and a biscuit"  

Is that this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4rMdyd6SvU
Cheers, may take you up on the offer once I've got the initial thing working.

Hehe, well, it wasn't quite that one, but to be honest, that's just as good

Okay, the frame is starting to take shape:


Quick mock-up to show how the frames will fit together to form the main structure:


And this is the front frame (upside down) where the doors will go hence it has a lowered "step":


Have to say I'm very impressed with a work colleague's idea of gluing the edges together, securing them with a metal plate with wood screws and leaving it for at least 24 hours. It's really strong once the glue has set!  

Nice job Wayne. I love to see how people make creative solutions to arrive at a desired result.

It will be interesting to see how the scrap build turns out!

Looks like your build is progressing nicely and quickly! Well done and good luck

Right, been really busy recently as all the old VW Campers around here seem to be having small electrical fires so I've been snowed under with work!

Anyway, I've started constructing the side panel details:


Not sure what I'm going to do for the window glass yet. Probably going to be perspex-based whatever I decide.

That's looking great, Wayne! If you haven't guessed already I'm a huge fan of this build because of the reasons behind it and the way you are building it, and it seems to be going abseloutly great! For the windows, I think the most "kid friendly" option would be to get some translucent white perspex, and either draw or feltip the window frames onto it. Or perhaps use some blue (or whatever colour you are doing) card to make out the shape of the window frames, that way there is nothing sharp of fiddly that could get broken in the flurry of excitement on the special day lol
out of interest, when is your daughters birthday? My build is planned to be finished by Oct 2nd, which is my birthday, so essentially I'm building myself a giant £600 birthday present lol

Cheers! 

Yeah, I'd been considering using perspex and masking off the shape of the window frames and spraying the blue over that. Translucent white perspex sounds good! Probably going to put some white LEDs in the corners to illuminate the windows.
I know the panels aren't 100% accurate but the size of the wood and hardboard I had lying around pretty much dictated what size I could make this. That said, some of it seems to be following scaled-down dimensions of the Patrick Troughton 1966 TARDIS.

Her Birthday is on the 29th of September so only a few days before your's! So far the cost of this TARDIS is about £8 although the paint will probably be the most expensive thing. Not sure if I'll get a chance to do the console but at the very least it'll have lights and a car stereo hidden in the roof so it'll play TARDIS sound effects and the Doctor Who theme tune.

Could always give the console as a Christmas present! 

Quote from: wayne venomous on Sep 01, 2010, 09:25 am
Right, been really busy recently as all the old VW Campers around here seem to be having small electrical fires so I've been snowed under with work!

I can see this now being on the next series of Top Gear.  They hate campers (well, maybe not so much Richard Hammond as he has some redneck tendancies).
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

Quote from: DoctorWho8 on Sep 01, 2010, 04:13 pm

Quote from: wayne venomous on Sep 01, 2010, 09:25 am
Right, been really busy recently as all the old VW Campers around here seem to be having small electrical fires so I've been snowed under with work!

I can see this now being on the next series of Top Gear.  They hate campers (well, maybe not so much Richard Hammond as he has some redneck tendancies).
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

That is, if we ever get Top gear back. With all this about The Stig being unmasked and fired and there being problems with the studio we may be kept waiting for a new series of Top Gear.
Do you agree Crispin (Scarfwearer Crispin, not Crispin, Crispin) is the Stig of this website? The ultimate prop builder and never shows him face lol Good for him!

Quote from: DoctorWho8 on Sep 01, 2010, 04:13 pm

Quote from: wayne venomous on Sep 01, 2010, 09:25 am
Right, been really busy recently as all the old VW Campers around here seem to be having small electrical fires so I've been snowed under with work!

I can see this now being on the next series of Top Gear.  They hate campers (well, maybe not so much Richard Hammond as he has some redneck tendancies).
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

It's caravans they really hate. Not too bothered about camper vans/motor homes. When they did the amphibious vehicles Richard Hammond used an 80's VW Camper as they're a lot cheaper and less desirable than the 60's/70's VW Campers. In fact the original Stig took Jamie Oliver's early 60's VW Camper around the track (it had a heavily modified 2.4 litre engine!)

Quote from: superrichi1a on Sep 01, 2010, 05:20 pm
Do you agree Crispin (Scarfwearer Crispin, not Crispin, Crispin) is the Stig of this website? The ultimate prop builder and never shows him face lol Good for him!

"Some say that he has a sonic screwdriver for a ........
and that he once ate an entire Star Trek convention. All we know is, he's called the Scarfwearer!"

Quote from: wayne venomous on Sep 03, 2010, 07:00 pm

Quote from: superrichi1a on Sep 01, 2010, 05:20 pm
Do you agree Crispin (Scarfwearer Crispin, not Crispin, Crispin) is the Stig of this website? The ultimate prop builder and never shows him face lol Good for him!

"Some say that he has a sonic screwdriver for a ........
and that he once ate an entire Star Trek convention. All we know is, he's called the Scarfwearer!"

Hahaha, lol, yes, that may be true. Some say the the first Scarfwearer was thrown out of the TARDIS when his identity was revealed, and that the producers are now planning something evil for his current incarnation now that he- wait, no, perhaps that's getting a little to close to the actual Stig for this website. I went to the Top Gear World in Pourtsmouth recently, and was very surprised to actually see a TARDIS on display there. So I'm alowed to talk about it here lol. Wasn't very good though, horribly oversized, I don't think it was anything to do with the TG exhibit, but it was on display near the cafe.