Custom TARDIS Build

[LightStreak]

Hi,
Been on this forum a while now but I've never really gotten that involved, something which I'm trying to change! I just wanted to slowly start showing my builds over here, beginning with my "flagship" build, that of my TARDIS. The full build diary can be found on TARDIS Builders, but here's the run down on the first stage of it's life .
This was originally envisioned as a 2005-2010 "Tennant" Build, started in 2009. When I started I was not aware of the vast online resources there ere for this sort of thing, and as such I just had some plans which were "about right". As it turnd out, the plans were crucially off in a number of ways, being closer to the 1996 Hudolin build if anything. I didn't actually realise this until part-way through the build, so realising that it would not be a pure-blood NST, I decided to forge ahead with making a design that I thought would marry details of the NST with some characteristics of classic boxes, so what I've ended up with is a build that's not specifically accurate to any prop, and has my own artistic liscense (and a deal of idiocy) integral to it.
As more filming pictures of the 2010 Smith box emerged, I grew to like the design and so ended up decorating my build to look like his, but again with a few changes, such as the thick SJA plate on the front which I liked more than just simply a painted or printed version. I spent a lot of time on the windows, so that they could be convincingly opaque in the day and still ligh up at night, an effect I'm happy with and that more recently the BBC have started using themselves! (so one thing that can be said for the acuracy of this thing.. it pre-empted the BBC on one count!).
Anyways thats a brief history of the thing, here are a couple of pictures of how it looked on completion in 2011. It's been through a couple of revisions in it's time, which I'll cover in more detail. Thanks

 

[LightStreak]

OK so I had another spare minute to continue documenting the life of this build.
It's been through two major "regenerations" in its life, the first presented here was completed in November 2013, just a cosmetic facelift and a repaint to add a bit of weather protection.
Firstly it was painted in an emulsion paint matching the stuff used on the series 7B Smith prop, and the first picture shows how it looked with that paint. I did really love it as it looked like this, but I decided unfortunately I would have to make sure the paint didn't run (it was an indoor paint) by covering it with a varnish. For this, I used satin yacht varnish, this hid the wood grain somewhat, changed the colour, and gave the box a slightly glossy look in some lights, but in all I really liked how it looked. On a cold day frost would settle more on certain areas of the varnish, giving the box a deeply contrasted colour palate which I tried to capture on film.
Hope you all like it! The final picture shows a practical joke on this era of my build just before it was redressed the second time!

 

[MattMunson]

Looks great man!

how is it holding up outdoors? Any problems with warping or paint damage?

 

[LightStreak]

Thanks man! That means a lot coming from someone who has built such a fantastic TARDIS, and that's not even getting into the other stuff! Here's to many happy builds in the future.
With regards to how it's faring... well yeah that's where I come to revision 3. Last summer I took a look at how my build was faring, and the news wasn't brilliant. Not bad, and certainly salvageable. There's damage to the roof, and the doors are warping slightly, as is common with most outdoor builds, whilst I also made the mistake of using MDF and that expended slightly in areas. I toyed with the idea for a while of refurbing into a full McGann build, dimensionally it's 80% Hudolin anyway, but ultimately decided against it, instead, I hope to build a full-blood NST, perhaps selling this one off to fund it. It's a sad thought, but I'd really love to try again with all my experience with a new build, and actually it may be for the best, as I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it in its current location, so a second build designed to be easier to disassemble frequently would really help.
On the back of that, for the third revision I used a darker blue paint, and they added (very) heavy weathering, the concept at the time being that this could look like it had been through the Time War. At first it seemed a bit much, but it really grew on me, and seeing the actual model used in the Time War, perhaps this one got off light! I then varnished it again.
After that I got bored, so in search of something to fill the void I decided to take a look at the inside :rolleyes. I got a bit OCD on it, trying to get it done in 2 days, but eventually I finished the interior off with a backdrop of the 2013 console room, Gallifreyan archway to enter, and power conduits running along the sides recreating the "tunnel" into the console room, the same way the BBC did on their prop. Finally I added more "white" lights, 3 100W bulbs, which finally satisfied me! And that's how it currently stands. Hope you enjoy the pictures guys, tiring job, relating the whole of a build's life story in a few posts Happy to be back on here posting again and hopefully in the next few days or weeks I'll add more of my builds and update several hanging threads.