A Box by any other name

Done it ! ,finished "MY" 80s box aka TARDIS 
Yes sir mine  remnants of the store bought version stripped and total rebuild and custom lengthy paint job and weathering unique to the model ,kinda like you do with some props
I really enjoyed this ,sometimes,painful other times not
took a LOT of figuring out and trial error and a ton of research 

For me i like to know how a object works ins and outs of the cats bum way i am
If its clothes its nice to know where seams are and stitching fasteners etc and so on your model or replica or miniature you can replicate this ,
How was it built ? material ? techniques ? , if you know this you can apply it and get a even more realistic looking model and really ramp it up 
that bit is  wood so make yours look like it was made out of wood they used a sponge to paint it so ,use a sponge to paint it  
weathering conditions if any that may effect the object ,The props useual home is a Muddy sandy dusty coal slate quarry of some kind,
the TARDIS is exposed to lots of inclement weather and soaking wet muddy ground or partly buried mostly to hide the wheels and knackered base ,so this needs to be taken in account   
a prop doing a ten year long duty used again and again flat packed and assembled constantly
by people who realy do not care about the prop ,and have neither the money or time to spend on it looking after it ,it traveled abroad,importantly its been broken repaired a lot ,from changes in sign graphics new doors swapping parts with its sister build later on 
It was around for a decade saw four lead actors play the Doctor , 8 companions a robot dog numerous guest stars crammed in her and went on many numerous photographic and advertising promotion  skits being treated with little to no care 

On location rumour is abound of the mistreatment of the prop from a rubbish bin to other uses  
Constantly retouched with paint dont forget and it is fiberglass and that can split crack and wear it is not the strongest of materials 
It at one point was abused by having squibs explode on her and was even shot with a arrow ,all in a days work ,these things must be taken in consideration the realism depends on this 
more you can play with and get in ,better the end result 

Best example here i can give you is this
The police box signs on the prop there perspex you know like you see on shop signs just plastic maybe hand painted lettering ,so to recreate this look knowing what that looks like ,printed on acetate then back painted by hand and then cut applied done now as light bounces off and the blues change color just like  the prop did ,i can match shots and screen grabs off the DVD 

Exception is if it is gonna look real naff eg Daleks brush painting (I kid you not and a roller in emulsion) a Dalek not good especially in mini form 
something people forget a lot and i did to, is ,yes common place to have 47/60  inch TV plus size in living room Hi Def pictures can see stitching in the actors buttons on his shirt the works ,erm no such thing when this was out and on,
TVs were 18 inch 24 i think was one in our lounge it certainly was big and not flat screen either,
its shot on videotape by a camera that's used for outside broadcasting or at best in studio a camera used for recording the news , so your not going to notice a huge amount of things, like a hand brush painted Dalek do that in real world and people will be asking you "what did you paint your Dalek with?,a Fox tail?

 ,so think common sense, research research research DVDs remastered espcially now on these big super TVs really do show the old props up ,having recently watched Death to Daleks on the new remastered DVD ,It was like watching a episode id never seen ,despite owning VHS and watched a million times half the TARDIS Control room set is missing its so dark before i never realized and thats not exactly fine detail ,every crack lump dent crinkle wrinkle brush stroke on the Dalek props there to see ,and i can zoom in on it !

for me this is beyond model it is a miniature good enough to be filmed really I'm that proud

filled sanded smoothed

 This shows lengths i went to completely stripped and the doors like walls filled for the fiberglass smooth finish texture later from paint and ever so slight texture that is evident in the fiberglass,here
 removed the phone panel cubby hole ,rebuilt the phone, new plastic in the windows left frosted ones on the doors new base, re clad first step add wall divides to roof rebuild roof top ,remove lamp ,base and top of roof to access wires ,add new base ,lamp,struts,cap  total re wire this thing is not made very well at all in fact very cheap make wires like cotton so my advice
rip it all out start again 
using a proper fresnal from a money box on and on we go sort the covering of speaker grill change battery cover to be less conspicuous 

built now first coat

it was filler primer yellow, industrial ,then grey primer than black now a nice rich dark blue this gos on and on layer brushed stippled dry stroked and cloth rubbing and rub off on and on and on

under coats and pre shading

Now were at washes stage and on they went black blue /black /blue .brush paint to blend on and on
then i got to tidy up with a wild water shade of paint on top dry brush layer on layer pre shadowing under making sure thats visible
then pastels then charcoal and chalk to make dust , some mistakes so start again ,on what i was doing removing stuff gently with paint thinners ,ever tried removing charcoal mistake?,Nightmare

 I love weathering! Weathering does not just add realism to a model, but is very much a personal statement of the modeler; it is arguably the most personally interpretive and creative process of model making. It is the aspect of model making I look forward to the most!,
so damn good job to here ,weathering is fun and creative ,gets the juices going i even used indian ink for running in crevices and did some rust runs under handles and locks with burnt umber

  Take some .0000 steel wool and rub down the entire model ,trust me ,rub weathering away from high areas and vary the hue of the paint from raised panels.
 You can vary the subtlety with the amount of rubbing.be gentle go very slow i took a entire wet sunday and most of monday,
 This also where that primer/ under painting comes in very handy, scrubbing will expose the undercoat  as an ,well, a undercoat. the steel wool also smooths the overall surface so be careful NOT for the faint harted ,i also take my scalpel and scrape pieces away exposing many layers of paint finish it off finalise it
 and then quick spray of semi laqour and matt finish aptly called top coat ..........you get  

80s Tardis

THIS

The Season 18-20 front or back doors

Tardis planet land

A five minete play in Photoshop came up with this to illustrate my point 
a gem if not the crown jewel in my collection,i made it
it is as accurate as can be and not that is seen by others a lot ,everyone who has seen it has genuinely been impressed and liked it 
Including Sophie Aldred who played Ace the seventh Dr's companion and Nicola Bryant who played Peri the sixth Dr's companion ,so they used the actual prop this is based on copy from
it is also on the base signed by them and a tough crowd while in que to meet them of die hard who fans and some prop builders
and best of all one my best friends a dedicated prop builder TARDIS enthusiast likes it that for me is the seal of approval he dont know it yet ,but he is signing it to