Doctor Who - Gadgets and Contraptions: The Mirror Matcher

[Risu]

Wow! I lost track of how many times I said to myself "huh, that's interesting". Thanks so much for these pictures!

So now we even have the patent number for the hub device, but I'm still having no luck finding the dang thing. Does anybody know where you can find a complete list of patents?

 

[davidnagel]

Well, I gave in and bought the same gas mask hose you have Risu, out of sheer budget-cut-ness that I can't afford the aviation hose (though am still convinced its that stuff - but who cares really!)

Found an even cheaper seller of the brass pipe clips on ebay here 99p each! so I'm pleased I waited out!!

EDIT: I bought a bunch yesterday and they arrived today - sweet!

Now to get something that represents the body. I'll be mocking up most of it, including the Cambridge Instrument marked dial. The barometer's insert I will mockup in Photoshop and print on acetate sheet.

The weird LED surrounds enclosed by the bigger brass clips, I'm sure are antique winch reels but again, I'll be mocking these up with bits and pieces here and there.

If I get a moment today, I will be stopping by the bike shop over the road to see if they have any old and used and broken handle bars that I can salvage.

And now I've discovered our local bus service depot is right next door to be at home, so might see if they have one of these older mirrors.

 

[Risu]

If you can get your hands on a second mirror I'd gladly pay cost and shipping.

Thanks for the ebay link, does that guy do combined shipping?

I'm waiting on my sister in Colorado to cut up and mail me a sheet of the pink foam, then I can sculpt and mold the central hub. I found a similarly proportioned mirror on the side of a Ford truck in a junkyard yesterday that was really cheap, so for now it's my placeholder mirror.

As foir the aviation hose, I still don't get it. The ribs are WAY too narrow on that stuff, and they've got wire running through them. The ribs aren't actually even ribs, they're a spiral. My gas mask hoses aren't exact, but I can tell you for sure that the aviation hose is farther from it. I'm pretty sure the real deal are WWII German gas mask hoses.

 

[davidnagel]

Thanks for the ebay link, does that guy do combined shipping?

He does yes, saved on abit myself!

 

[Risu]

Well, just waiting on a response from him about international shipping. Hopefully he'll say yes.

 

[Risu]

Dying the hoses worked out pretty well. They're slightly different shades of green for whatever reason, but it's not so different that it's noticeable in person, the picture shows the difference better than the eye can see it.

All in all, I'm really happy with these.

 

[davidnagel]

Looking good. Might dye my ones too.

Putting my clips on my hose, they slide quite loosely. I might see about adding something to the clip so it holds the hose alittle better - but it might not matter when the clips are on the body itself.

 

[Risu]

I don't think it'll matter much because the ends of the hoses will be glued on and the curve in the hose will make it hold its shape.

 

[Risu]

OK, as it turns out the 28 mm clips were too small. They hold the hose snugly, but don't quite match up to my scaling for the hub itself. I've ordered a set of the 35 mm ones, if anybody wants my 7 28mm clips, please PM me. I don't want them to go to waste.

 

[WarMachine]

Dang, I go away for 2 months and you guys seem to have IDed a load of the stuff. Gonna be watching this one now I'm back. It was definitely one of the cooler S5 props.

 

[Risu]

Hey man, welcome back!

 

[Risu]

I was in an antique stroe today and noticed that a really old (like with the megaphone) record player had a crank handle almost identical to this one, size and shape, except that the bulbous part was wood instead of brass. Food for thought.

 

[Risu]

Sorry for the triple post, but I've got a status update. I roughed out the center hub in pink foam and styrene. I glued the layers of foam together, but I still have to file off some of the excess around the edges before I can glue the styrene plates on and stick them all together. The plan is to then use bondo to fill in the spaces between the styrene sheets. I'll have to prime the whole thing first with a few good coats so that the bondo doesn't eat the pink foam. (I added one more sheet of foam to the back than was probably necessary, to get the proper thickness I'll just pour the resin to the correct height in the mold.)

It'll probably be a few days before I make any more progress on this, as I've got about 15 projects going at once right now and I've got to work on some stuff for other people first thing tomorrow.

 

[Risu]

A few coats of elmer's, some dremel work, super glue, and a couple good coats of primer, and here it is. Ready for bondo tomorrow.

 

[srspicer]

Looking forward to see your progress.

Nice reference Kingpin!

Scott

 

[Kingpin]

No problem, depending on how things go I may end up with some more pictures at some point in the future, before the exhibition leaves London.

 

[Risu]

Bondo step 1 complete.

With some luck I'll get the sides totally smoothed out with glazing putty tomorrow, then I can do the angled part on Thursday.

 

[E-Wan]

This is looking extremely nice Dan, great work!

 

[Hogosha]

Risu,
That is really coming together nicely! Can't wait to see more progress pics!

 

[Risu]

Waiting for a couple coats of filler primer to dry. It's been slow going. Must have put about 7 coats of glazing putty on the thing before giving up on the stuff. Now I've done a few coats of filler primer and I've still got some imperfections. It may look better after I sand down the primer.

I also dropped into a huge local antique store to see if I could find any of the other bits. Despite a very large shelf covered in sink knobs, I didn't find anything close enough to warrant a purchase. I did get some ideas though. I saw a lot of stuff with crank handles, and I figured that it might help to find something close if we listed everything we can think of with such a handle here. I'll put up what I've got, if anybody thinks of anything else, add it to the list.

Record players
Egg beaters
Can openers
Pencil sharpeners
Fishing reels