My New Series Doctor Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

I think its just the light temperature on a regular bulb versus what the camera does.QUOTE]

I think that's different than the example above though, which is definitely yellow on top, and white in the windows. Your photos look like the same color, but different in intensity.

I gotta get out my season 5 dvds and find some lit scenes and see what they did.
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

Oh I was just showing how regular bulbs change, as both my lights are single bulbs, I mean the LEDs come off Blue in that Smith pic. I am just thinking the white and yellow are the same bulb just depends on how the camera takes the picture based on existing lighting etc :)
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

Work continued on the window backlight boxes today.

All seven of the remaining wood boxes are assembled now and ready for trimming and sanding.

I thought I'd show a couple photos of making the boxes.

Here's the stack of them.

DSC_1020.JPG

After cutting the boards for the boxes, the two short ones each received a pair of pocket holes for the assembly. This is the very basic Kreg pocket hole drilling jig. Very handy for the build, and quite inexpensive.

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Glue up of the boxes was pretty straight forward, using a parallel clamp to hold each end tight so they would not slip out of alignment when the screws are run in. I clamped down a framing square to use to ensure the box would go together square. I had a couple that insisted on not squaring, but that's easily fixed when the back is nailed and glued on by putting a clamp across the longer diagonal of the out of square box.

DSC_1019.JPG

I did a little work on the Pull to Open phone door acrylic, which receives applied acrylic letters. I'm using 1/16" thick black letters. This is the white acrylic piece where I've used my laser to just cut through the paper mask and into the acrylic to serve as placement guides for the applied letters. I leave the paper on to do this to ensure there's no heat residue outside the lines from the process, which can happen if you take the paper off. The second photo is the laser cutting the piece. Thanks again to Primrodo for supplying the vector graphics for the sign.

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re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

haha, we can all only wish, you're posts do worry, what if rebelscum starts doing runs, he'd have more money then he could shake a stick at, and he could use it to invent a time machine that could fin in his Tardis o_O,
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

I'll see if I can find some other pics for you real quick. I've got the episodes in iTunes, so it shouldn't take too long.

Got 'em! Two great pics in The Hungry Earth.

Shot one:
tardis_light_3.jpg


Clearly shows a yellow tint to the lamp on top during the day, with natural light.

Shot two:
tardis_light_4.jpg

Showing white illumination coming from the windows and signs, but yellow illumination coming from the lamp on top. It also shows something I had suspected; that the sign on the door is lit from the top and bottom, not just the sides.
 
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re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

One of the things that the yellow lighting proves is that the bulb in the lamp is most likely a tungsten bulb. It's won't be LED because there's no way to achieve the flashing effect that I can think of with LEDs unless it's some sort of series of LEDs that are arrayed so some or most are going on and off in a very complicated sequence to appear to dim and brighten. A simple tungsten bulb that can be dimmed is far more likely. It's going to look white when filmed inside under tungsten filtration on the camera lens. Or if they grade the color in post-production.

On the series 5 DVDs there at least one behind the scenes documentaries that shows color grading going on for the scene where Amy first comes into the TARDIS in "The Eleventh Hour" so they obviously do a lot of post production color grading.

If the TARDIS prop is filmed outside with daylight balanced cameras or daylight filtration on the lens the tungsten bulb is going to look yellow. It's also possible that the windows in a scene either have a tungsten bulb inside for those shots so everything matches, or their color is color is matched to the top beacon light to match. If the windows have LED lighting they should appear more white to greenish depending the LEDs used int he original footage under daylight filtration.

Keep in mind with so much color grading done in post, it's probably impossible to go by what colors you see in a 'final' shot in the edit of the show.
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

Calu, a single Luxeon LED could probably do the flashing just fine, and I know it's possible to do it with LEDs in general. My Flight Control TARDIS has a flashing light on the top that looks amazing, and dims/brightens as it flashes. I'd bet that it's a yellow filter around a white light, though I can't say whether it's a bulb or LED at the moment. I'll see if I can find a scene with it flashing, because the "sharpness" of the on and off when it's flashing should give it away.

Checked three shots. It's a bulb, not LEDs. LEDs will cut to off (or on) at a certain point when they're not receiving enough current, bulbs won't. They'll just dim all the way down and then back up again. All three scenes had the light dimming down, then back up, instead of cutting off and on, then increasing or decreasing in brightness.
 
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re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

I'm not certain all the things that newer LED lights can do these days, but I'd lay odds that the flasher on top is still some form of tungsten light. The 9/10th TARDIS I think had Tungsten lights behind the police box signs, probably much the way they appear in the interior reverse angle you see the signs in the 9/10th Console room. From the screen caps of the 11th prop I'd guess that they are either florescent or LED now though. I would think a lot of it depends on how it's powered on location. I think it's usually connected to whatever generator truck by cabling they are using rather than batteries.

What goes on with toys like the flight control TARDIS you mention really has no bearing on the full size prop I'd expect.

I guess what the point I was making is that if one is going to build a their own TARDIS, I'd go with a dimmable tungsten bulb and flasher circuit, of which I've seen many around on the web. I think the shot by shot defusion boxes Rebel is building here is invaluable and a stroke of genius as a guide to those of us wanting to build their own one day like me.
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

Wonderful build so far Rebelscum! It's always fun to watch good woodworkers do their thing. To echo an earlier comment you made in regards to the wood; the Matt Smith Tardis definitely looks like an open grain wood to me as well. The weathering effect you put on yours to add texture looks really cool.
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

A couple things on the lantern.

I have a sketch of the way the Eccleston prop lantern was built. It's a light bulb *under* the base of the lantern and down in the chimney. The whole assembly fits inside the larger chimney that goes through the roof.

This is how I built my lantern support, though I had not intended to put the bulb down in there. I think I'll look into that now that it's become a point of design. There's a scene at the beginning of Tennent episode "The New Earth" from the top of the Tardis that looks right down into the lantern and you can see there's a hole in the base and the light comes up from below. I took a video of it I can post if anybody wants to see it.

I'll need to get something running DC as I plan to be able to operate the Tardis on battery if required.

Thanks for the comments Seth.

E-Wan, I can hardly think about the work finishing this build, much less more doors. ;-)
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

I really prefer the 9/10th light so much better than the new one. I once found the lantern and made one, but have no Tardis to go under it. :cry

Tardis Lantern by ~DoctorWhoNC on deviantART

I did lots of research and the light was beneath the lantern and projected upward. I have a picture of how it worked.
http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/1t1mz503za8q9/ojrj1q/tardis-trans.png

The current one you can see the bulb in it as shown from the pictures above.
 
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re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

E-Wan, I can hardly think about the work finishing this build, much less more doors. ;-)

I don't blame you - I finally convinced the wife to let me build one in the garden and seeing the amount of work going into yours is terrifying me!
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

Nicely done Doctor Who!

Philip, it is from the episode the Lodger, when the Doctor is evicted from the TARDIS.
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

Philip, it is from the episode the Lodger, when the Doctor is evicted from the TARDIS.

That's that ,then. I think the light up in the lantern is the way to go. I may still go with LEDs though if I can get them warm enough in color just to make it easy to power and control.
 
re: My New Series Dr Who Tardis Build (image heavy)

I've gotten good LED effect with yellow food coloring mixed into Future acrilic floor polish.
 

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