10th Doctor Sonic

[johnny5676]

Good morning everyone (it's morning in my time zone)

I have decided to undertake the modelling and making the 10th Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

To start off with, I have the wand company universal remote which is fairly accurate. During my rewatch of the show in preparation for the 60th, I found it lacking.
Due to its accuracy, I Dusted it off and pulled out the good ol' vernier callipers and came out with this (picture attached or below)

I want this to have lights and sounds, I'm not good with electronics so if anyone is able to give me pointers that would be fantastic. but so far my plan is to pick up a couple of toys and harvest the hardware from those and adjust my model accordingly. To do that I am wondering if there are other batteries I can use aside from the LR-44 with the Character Options/Underground Toys electronics. I haven't decided if I want to make a Janky drill-lathe or find somewhere to machine the parts.

i want to make at least five of these, one screen "hero prop" only lights, one accurate with lights and sounds, and three/four custom ones (paint and emitter lenses) for Christmas gifts for family.

Once I have my initial model I will update this. If anyone has ideas or tips I would love to hear them.

 

[masterjedi322]

Your best bet for electronics would probably be to purchase one of the sonic screwdriver toys and repurpose those.

They work fairly well - lights and sounds, are compactly packaged to fit inside a screwdriver, and are cheaper than having someone design you something custom.

Good luck with the build! Looking forward to seeing it!

Sean

 

[phez]

Good morning everyone (it's morning in my time zone)

I have decided to undertake the modelling and making the 10th Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

To start off with, I have the wand company universal remote which is fairly accurate. During my rewatch of the show in preparation for the 60th, I found it lacking.
Due to its accuracy, I Dusted it off and pulled out the good ol' vernier callipers and came out with this (picture attached or below)

I want this to have lights and sounds, I'm not good with electronics so if anyone is able to give me pointers that would be fantastic. but so far my plan is to pick up a couple of toys and harvest the hardware from those and adjust my model accordingly. To do that I am wondering if there are other batteries I can use aside from the LR-44 with the Character Options/Underground Toys electronics. I haven't decided if I want to make a Janky drill-lathe or find somewhere to machine the parts.

i want to make at least five of these, one screen "hero prop" only lights, one accurate with lights and sounds, and three/four custom ones (paint and emitter lenses) for Christmas gifts for family.

Once I have my initial model I will update this. If anyone has ideas or tips I would love to hear them.

On thing you can fix since you are building a fresh model is the window cutout corner radius in the head of the sonic (that is one part that is wrong on the WC sonic). The corners need to be tightened up. Here is a pic of both the Tennet sonic that WC scanned and the WC sonic sitting next to the Rubbertoe version so you can see what mean (all photos, even there prototype rendering show the tighter corners).

Maybe you were already going to do this, if so disregard ~

 

[johnny5676]

I'll deffinitly keep that in mind Phez, I didn't notice that before.

It's been about 13 years since I modeled anying in 3D, so I thought I would tackle the body first.

I't took me a while to find a ridge configuration that i really liked, so i make up with this!

i'm going to have the bottom portion threaded and the top collar held in place with a set screw.

 

[johnny5676]

I did some more work on it this weekend, I had to re-model the body because the way I had made it kept causing Blender to crash and I now have 3 options for the ridges
1)

2)

3)

Let me know which one has the most athstetically pleaseing profile and we will go from there

The rear "Tube" and end cap i got modled yesterday. the blue strip will be a "sunken" channel that i will be filling this a nice metalic blue resin.

the next to be modled is the emitter and emiter fitting.

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

This is exciting! 10's screwdriver is one of my favorite props! Can't wait to see more progress.

 

[johnny5676]

This is exciting! 10's screwdriver is one of my favorite props! Can't wait to see more progress.

i'll hopefully have a slight update tomorrow, can you point me in any direction for electronics? (that aren't the toys)

 

[Ned Figglehorn]

i'll hopefully have a slight update tomorrow, can you point me in any direction for electronics? (that aren't the toys)

I can't think of anything that would be small enough to fit inside that's available off the shelf. Might want to look into designing a custom board that would fit your sonic.

 

[johnny5676]

ANOTHER SUNDAY ANOTHER UPDATE!!!!

To start i made the head

the collar i have yet to hollow out but i have added two notches for the slider so that if i turn this into a kit people will have the option to offset the head 45 degrees so the bars on the head will be centered with the slider. the way i made the teeth for somereason don't take well to being ofset.

 

[johnny5676]

basic renders:

 

[johnny5676]

So I am still waiting for my donor parts to get to Canada, and I am wondering if there is a preference for the material, a high grade aluminum, or stainless steel?

Looking for a higher durability for the sonic, something that can take a beating.

 

[13doctorwho]

It's all a mater of preference, and purpose. If it's going to be on display 6061 Aluminum would be fine. If you plan to carry it in your pocket all the time stainless steel will get less dings and scratches. Aluminum is pretty sturdy, the thing that's going to wear a lot is the crackle paint finish,

 

[johnny5676]

It's all a mater of preference, and purpose. If it's going to be on display 6061 Aluminum would be fine. If you plan to carry it in your pocket all the time stainless steel will get less dings and scratches. Aluminum is pretty sturdy, the thing that's going to wear a lot is the crackle paint finish,

I'm planning on using an extremely heavy duty automotive clear coat over the crackle

 

[SL4118]

Late to the Dr Who game here but my wife got me hooked! I'm loving your build so far! Any updates?

 

[johnny5676]

None lately, I started a new job so all of my energy was going to that, but I am planning on picking it up in the new year!

 

[SL4118]

Understand that completely! Just curious the dimensions in your first pic off the wand company screwdriver, is that in inches or Millimeters? I. Trying to get the size right for a resin print prototype. Then if everything fits, doing CNC aluminum. Thanks!