Finished Dr. Who Props -- Opinions Please!

G

GatorMomtoTwo

New Member
Ok, after bopping around and lurking these forums for a while, I finally finished my various Dr. Who props for River Song's costumes. As everything I've seen on this site is rather good, I'd like to get your opinions on my work.

Please keep in mind that I sew, I have never made props before (with the exception of large tombstones for our house at Halloween). It's also my first time working with leather, so I definitely learned quite a few things. Well... here they are:

River's Journal:
Stamped leather, dyed with two colors of dye and antiqued slightly. I will probably make this again with thinner leather, a guide underneath and a curved binding... plus I'd actually like to make the pages real instead of the pages from a history book I consumed.

River's Flashlight:
I know the original is a Fenix TK10, but it's impossible to find and I wasn't thrilled with spending $70 for a flashlight. This one is a Rayovac I found at Lowes for $14.99. It's not a bad replica -- same length and width -- but it is missing the tac grip at the back end and a belt clip. I added a belt clip, painted and distressed it.

Vortex Manipulator:
I purchased the faceplate from Shapeways and wired the electronics with a microswitch and a coin battery. I don't have a leather sewing machine, so I just sewed two pieces of leather together for each piece. I couldn't find snaps in the right color, but the entire piece is made to scale.

Alpha Meson Blaster:
This one was the beast. It was my first time working with Syntra and I don't have a table saw, so I used my dremel a lot. I converted the Nerf Scout and built most from scratch. The dimensions on everything but the bottom tac light (I so screwed that one up) are to scale.

The rest was just the gun belt, holster, leg strap and pouch. Yes, that is the actual All Saints dress, boots and belt.

Finally, the finished costume. What do you all think?
 
I love it. Great River costume. I just finished my first few leather projects as well, and it is hard to get nice straight lines for the edges of bigger projects. I try to use an exacto knife to try and clean the edges up. Very good job.
 
SWEET!!!
My wife will be River at the next con we hit, and I've got a VM faceplate for her on the way. DId you take a pic of the back of the VM's wiring? I barely believe in electricity (you can't hit it with a hammer) so the wiring will be be my nightmare!
Good stuff!!
Jeff
 
It looks like everything is well done here. my only comment is that the gun looks a little rough but other than that everything looks great.
 
Thatoneguy said:
It looks like everything is well done here. my only comment is that the gun looks a little rough but other than that everything looks great.
Click to expand...

I totally understand. It was my first time working with a lot of new materials -- Syntra and Apoxy -- and I don't have the widest variety of tools. I hate that my lines aren't straight, but the only decent saw I have (besides a humungous saw for moulding) is a dremel.

Any thanks everyone for the great comments! I'm really excited to work on some more props -- maybe this will be the impetuous to work on my lightsaber.

About the electricity on the Vortex Manipulator... Honestly, this is my first time working with a soldering gun and electricity. It took a lot of trial and error in wiring up the LEDs for the gun. I didn't take pictures of the electrical workings of the VM because it's really shoddy. Essentially it's a coin battery (liek CR2025) that is wired (by electrical tape, as I could not find a battery holder for the darn thing locally) to a microswith. That microswitch is soldered to two LEDS in parallel (solder the led nodes together, then solder it to the microswitch... which is amazingly frustrating as the node is like 1/8" long). Then the LEDS are run back to the battery (again by electrical tape). I positioned the microswitch under one of the black buttons and carefully glued it in place.

The only negative I have with the front plate is how shallow it is, though this wiring fits in well.

I don't know if it's the way more experienced people would wire... but it works. :)

Thanks again, everyone! :)

Jen
 
Thanks Jen!
My VM leather is ready to sew, but I'll try to hunt down a micro switch tomorrow. The VM does look a bit thin, I was going to add a thin plastic board to the back of it, maybe mount the batt/swich stuff to it. WIsh me luck!
Jeff
 
that looks fantastic. i ordered my wife the future sonic screwdriver, the book, and a kit for the blaster for christmas (almost forcing her to make a costume).
what pattern did you use for the dress?
and i hate to say it... but i have that flashlight, the fenix... i'm in the army (in afghanistan right now), which means that when i get home... my wife has that flashlight, at least it's not the surefire version.
It all looks great though, in my opinion.
 
GatorMomtoTwo said:
Ok, after bopping around and lurking these forums for a while, I finally finished my various Dr. Who props for River Song's costumes. As everything I've seen on this site is rather good, I'd like to get your opinions on my work.

Please keep in mind that I sew, I have never made props before (with the exception of large tombstones for our house at Halloween). It's also my first time working with leather, so I definitely learned quite a few things. Well... here they are:

River's Journal:
Stamped leather, dyed with two colors of dye and antiqued slightly. I will probably make this again with thinner leather, a guide underneath and a curved binding... plus I'd actually like to make the pages real instead of the pages from a history book I consumed.

River's Flashlight:
I know the original is a Fenix TK10, but it's impossible to find and I wasn't thrilled with spending $70 for a flashlight. This one is a Rayovac I found at Lowes for $14.99. It's not a bad replica -- same length and width -- but it is missing the tac grip at the back end and a belt clip. I added a belt clip, painted and distressed it.

Vortex Manipulator:
I purchased the faceplate from Shapeways and wired the electronics with a microswitch and a coin battery. I don't have a leather sewing machine, so I just sewed two pieces of leather together for each piece. I couldn't find snaps in the right color, but the entire piece is made to scale.

Alpha Meson Blaster:
This one was the beast. It was my first time working with Syntra and I don't have a table saw, so I used my dremel a lot. I converted the Nerf Scout and built most from scratch. The dimensions on everything but the bottom tac light (I so screwed that one up) are to scale.

The rest was just the gun belt, holster, leg strap and pouch. Yes, that is the actual All Saints dress, boots and belt.

Finally, the finished costume. What do you all think?
Click to expand...

Very nice work!

By the way, there is this related thread - http://www.therpf.com/f9/show-your-dr-who-props-4088/index25.html

I started collecting Doctor Who-inspired LARP props back in 2003, shortly before the recommissioning of the TV series; coincidentally.

One of these days I will have to take some photos of the props I have collected.

Next year, I hope to be adding a 7th Dr pocket watch to the collection, as a prop builder will hopefully be helping me convert the pocket watch case and Casio AE-21W Twin Graph ii watch. Additionally, I want to convert a Zoids toy Saicurtis into a 7th Dr very valuable piece of beetle coinage!

Here's some of the stuff I have...

LARP props - The Doctor’s affects

  • 3-D movie glasses (3-D movie glasses, as worn in a cinema whilst watching a 3-D film. The Doctor uses these to observe alternate-dimension residue as well as other time-space phenomena that are not usually visible to the naked eye. Several pairs).
  • Abacus (Chinese counting device consisting of beads on a frame; one small, pocket-sized brass Abacus two dark green Jade Abacus, and one larger-size, wooden Abacus).
  • ACME whistle with the inscription "TITANIC" (a replica of a whistle used aboard the "Titanic").
  • Alien translator (a replica of the Alien translator from the Sarah Jane Adventures)
  • Banana (Bananas are a good source of potassium. This one is from the groves of Villengard. Bananas are good!)
  • Bosuns call (a ship’s whistle. It makes a piercing noise that can be useful for distracting guards or for attracting attention from a distance away).
  • Calling card (a homemade replica of the 7th Doctor’s calling card; not entirely screen-accurate, but suitable until I get around to making my own one).
  • Communicator (a replica of the Star Trek original series communicator; I thought it could pass off as some futuristic alien gadget).
  • Compass (a brass coloured compass with an aiming wire in the lid and a retractable magnifying lens).
  • Cricket ball (high quality, red English cricket ball).
  • Crystal minerals (assorted uncut and umpolished crystal minerals, such as Rose Quartz, Citrine, and Amethyst).
  • Dosimeter (a dosimeter is a personnel Geiger counter. When charged, it can be used to detect levels of gamma radiation. This dosimeter is calibrated to register between 0 to 150 Roentgens. It is shaped like a pen and has a magnifying lens inside it, allowing the user to view the radiation reading. The dosimeter has a clip, allowing it to be attached to a jacket or shirt pocket).
  • Emergency energy rations (emergency food supplements in tablet form. These food supplements contain the daily requirement of essential vitamins and minerals. The tablets are wrapped in polythene and encased in plastic tubes. 2 tubes containing seven tablets in each; 14 altogether).
  • Everlasting matches (waterproof/windproof matches and strikers, being used to mimic the everlasting matches used by the Doctor in some of the novels).
  • “Fire Steel” firelighter (a processed flint with a steel striker. When struck with the steel striker, the flint produces a spark that is as hot as 3000o / 5,500oF. It will light fires in the harshest of weather conditions, even when the flint itself is wet. It lasts approximately 12,000 strikes. The perfect tool for placating cold and angry cavemen in 100,000 BC!).
  • Flavoured food bars (I obtained several of these from old Royal Air Force and Royal Navy survival packs. They are packets of 8 qty cubes of flavoured carbohydrate food, such as chocolate and fruit flavours. Vacuum sealed in laminate foil packets, they closely resemble the TARDIS Food Machine food blocks).
  • Handkerchief (fancy-looking, cotton handkerchief, in a Paisley style that is remarkably similar to the one carried by the 7th Dr).
  • Harmonica (two Horner Harmonicas, each with a nice, bluesy, mournful tone!).
  • Jacks (the classic children’s game; metal jacks are useful to sprinkle on the ground and trip up enemies).
  • Jammie Dodgers (2 replica Jammie Dodgers).
  • Jelly babies (several bags of the confectionary that is much favoured by The Doctor, as well as a pack of small paper bags).
  • Juggling balls (multi-coloured juggling balls).
  • Loupes (jewellers loupes of varying magnifications, such as 2.5x, 5x, 10x and 12x).
  • Magnifying glasses (replicas of 1941 Hughes and Son magnifying glasses; two large and two small. They come in their own leather pouches).
  • Marbles (a bag of glass marbles, various colours).
  • Mini telescope-microscope (children's mini telescope-microscope, shaped like a pen).
  • Money in drawstring bags and/or wallets (various methods of making payment including coins of varying currencies and eras, inter-planetary credit chips, gold coins, silver coins, gold dust, uncut diamonds, cut diamonds, gold rings, gold rings encrusted with gemstones, gold pendants, gold pendants encrusted with gemstones, precious cut gemstones, astral diamonds, and Alliance credits; inside various drawstring bags).
  • Monocular (similar in style and design as the Opera glasses, except the Monocular has only one lens and not two. It comes in its own leather pouch).
  • Nano Recorder (replica of the gun-type Nano Recorder as seen in the recent series).
  • Newspapers (complete, replica newspapers from various historic dates such as VE day, D day, eve of world war 2, the first men landing on the moon, death of JFK, etc).
  • Notepad (hand-made, hand-stitched and leather-bound, with a long piece of lace attached to wrap around the pad and keep it closed. It has a lovely old fashioned look).
  • Opera glasses, three types:
  • 9th Doctor style Opera Glasses (three pairs; 1800s Fords Theater replica pair, 1941 W Ottway and Sons pair, and another pair of an unknown European origin),
  • 11th Doctor style Opera Glasses (one pair; late 1800s / early 1900s French pair by La Mignonne), Non-specific type (Different in style from the others, a 1960s pair that were manufactured in Japan).
  • Playing cards (playing cards).
  • Pocket watch on a chain (several pocket watches; three plain gold-coloured pocket watches with gold chains, one patterned gold-coloured pocket watch with chain, three “Victoria Penny” silver and copper coloured pocket watches, and several other silver-coloured pocket watches of differing styles).
  • Psychic paper inside a black passport wallet (a leather replica of the Doctor’s black passport wallet, containing a piece of psychic paper).
  • Recorder (a replica of the 2nd Doctor's recorder).
  • Spinning top (child’s old fashioned, wooden spinning top; could be used by the Doctor to take simple gravity readings or similar).
  • Stethoscope (medical instrument, commonly used to listen to heart and lungs, but equally useful for listening to other quiet sounds).
  • Sonic Screwdrivers, several types:
    2nd Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (i.e., pen torches).
    4th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (metal replica with working spring mechanism, but no sound),
    8th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (metal replica with working spring mechanism, but no sound),
    9th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (professionally produced replica),
    9th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (several toy replicas, extendable, light and sound effects, etc),
    11th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (several toy replicas, extendable, light and sound effects, etc),
    Several of the build your own Sonic Screwdriver sets,
    Several of the Trans-Temporal Sonic Screwdriver.
  • TARDIS key on a chain , three types:
    3rd / 8th Dr type,
    7th Dr type,
    Yale-style type, as used by the 9th, 10th and 11th Drs.
  • Telescope (extendable, brass telescope, bound in leather).
  • Tooth brush (tooth brush for brushing teeth).
  • Torches (a wind up, waterproof, three LED torch and a 1th Dr sonic screwdriver style LED torch).
  • UNIT ID cards (replica 3rd and 4th Dr UNIT ID cards).
  • Voltmeter (an old Voltmeter, which was used for measuring Direct Current)
  • Yo-Yo (A Yo-Yo is a toy that was used by the 4th Doctor to take “…a simple gravity reading”).

* * * * *

Other relevant items:

Casio AE-21W Twin Graph ii digital watch (the same make and model as used by SFX designer Mike Tucker for the 7th Doctor's pocket watch).

"Zoids" toy - Saicurtis (the same toy used for the construction of the 7th Doctor's very valuable piece of coin collection in "Battlefield". One toy built and two still in kit form and in their original boxes. And when I have the patience, I'll convert and repaint one of them).
 
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