I've only seen a couple of colour photos of Met boxes, and they are a dark blue, but we had one at the bottom of our road when I lived in North London, and I always remember it as being almost black.  Is my memory cheating or did the colours vary?

my dad worked in and around london in the 60s when the boxes were stilll around and he says they were of a very dark blue,as the boxes originated in london towards the end of the 1800s,they soon caught on in other parts of britain and maybe the colors for each part changed,for example in glasgow the police boxes were actually red,but as far as the met boxes around london he reckons they were of the darkest blue,the colors the tardis is in the show,doesnt reflect the true color of the met boxes cos as u can see when ya watch the show,its color changes all the time and in some episodes it looks like it has multiple colors in it but as far as your original question goes i can only comment on wot my dear old pop says and he says very dark blue

It's nice to know it's not just my memory then!  There's something about the colour blue that changes every time you take a photo of it. From what I remember, the London box I knew was probably as dark as this:

Yes definately that dark, and could almost appear black in some lighting conditions. Many many years ago I borrowed a very small paint sample from the met box at Crich and it was very very dark navy blue. It was actually taken from some overpainting on the ETAS lock on the back of the door, so unaltered by sunlight and weather, and before any new paint applications were applied at Crich.

i got some paint mixed at my local hardware store cos the colors in some of the ranges did not quite match up to wot i was looking for,so i got the guy to mix me up some dulux satinwood wit the color sample i truly wanted(cant remember the name of it cos i misplaced the sample now but would know it again when i see it)anyhoo he mixed it up and my eyebrow raised higher than roger moore in his heyday day when i seen the result,i was aghast at the color cos it turned out lookin like baby blue,i told the guy that it is no where near the color i wanted but he assured me it would darken more than it looks in the tin when it dried,i told him i would try it but would be back wit the receipt and lookin for refund if it didnt,and lo and behold he was right when i put it on it still looked baby blue but when it dried it turned into a shade darker than the color strip u have there and in the evening time when the sun was going in it turned almose black,but thats how it looked in the evening time,come morning it was back to navy blue,my build is an indoor one and i find at diff times of the day the color does indeed change but its overall color is dark navy,the color is the color but the times of day do change  how it looks, but overall im chuffed wit its color,but its deffo the way the weather is at the time that alters how the color looks,its quite mad really lol

Dark blue to match the uniform, I believe. As a child I remember many boxes in the Croydon and Thornton Heath area of South London. Met boxes were virtually black



A very early Crich picture

KB

Chris, nice photo... I am soo tempted to Repaint my Box from the Venitian Crystal to a Very dark Blue that almost looks black. Only because the B/W photos of my TARDIS look so nice and That Dark look is how you see the Brachacki box in the Show.

I am on the fence right now but giving it some serious consideration [attachid]picsay-1302091004.jpg[/attach]

Well, a second coat of paint might give it that 'weathered' look the original had in "The Daleks". And if you look at some of the color images of the Hartnell box in its original form you can see some lighter blue on spots, as if the darker blue was fading or wearing away.

Of course this would mean that you are taking something that's already perfect, and improving on that perfection... again, like you did with that new PTO sign! (I wish I had your touch, Scott!)

Now if I could convince you to "occasionally" use that simple, blank St. John logo of the original Hartnell TARDIS...

Dino.

You full-size builders, you just can't leave them alone can you!  A fiddle here, a new coat there...They're just never finished are they?

Mind you, I'd be the same.

Orig met box colour is royal blue gloss.

[Father Ted] You see, Dougal, Metropolitan Police Boxes look like they're painted with black paint, but if you look closely, you'll see that they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue. [/Father Ted]

Quote from: galacticprobe on Apr 17, 2011, 08:04 am
Well, a second coat of paint might give it that 'weathered' look the original had in "The Daleks". And if you look at some of the color images of the Hartnell box in its original form you can see some lighter blue on spots, as if the darker blue was fading or wearing away.

Of course this would mean that you are taking something that's already perfect, and improving on that perfection... again, like you did with that new PTO sign! (I wish I had your touch, Scott!)

Now if I could convince you to "occasionally" use that simple, blank St. John logo of the original Hartnell TARDIS...

Dino

Well I hardly think my box is any where near perfection.  I still agonize over thoughts that I should take a jigsaw to the sign boxes and cut them down an inch or two. Honestly I get neruotic at times thinking about it.

But Dino just for you, I will print out that Blank St John badge and take some shots with it just for you. After I put the New Lighted PTO sign and redo my doors.

Also on the New PTO sign I cannot take credit for that as PhillipW had a buddy with a laser cutter and he applied it to a cut piece of acrylic also Bill Rudloff did the Font work on PDF. I must give credit where credit is due. My Tardis Build was International with Original PTO sign from Justin Monk in Canada via Dr IZ in Erie, PA. My Locks and Handles courtesy of Chris Kingbees in UK. And all the advice of course.

I haven't watched it for a while, but the 1953 film "Genevieve" has a few police boxes in the backround when the race moves through London towards Westminster Bridge.  It is in Technicolor, and I can remember thinking that the boxes looked like the blue on the Yardley Jones prop.  I'll dig out my dvd and see if I can do some screenshots.

And talking of Genevieve how about this for a lost Tardis crew.  The nth Doctor and his companion Rosalind with their canine sidekick Suzy.

There you go

KB

Sorry, not really adding anything to the conversation here, but, I just wanted to say to Geminitimelord, if ou want to go darker, go for it! I think your box would look fantastic in a darker colour, I'd even go so far as to say it's look far better than it does now (and that's worrying, because is it stands your box is one of the best I have even seen lol)