Doctor Who 1/13 Scale Hartnell TARDIS/dematerializing TARDIS WIP

Hey everyone! With the twitch marathon of Classic Who that's going on right now, I felt inspired to make a TARDIS— which I have a surprising lack of in my apartment, so it's about time— specifically modeled after the first appearance of the TARDIS.



A couple days ago, I decided I wanted to try a few things with this (including making the model half transparent to look like its dematerializing, maybe cold casting) so I'll be making a mold of it.

I didn't want to start posting about this until either I got to a point that I felt like I'd DEFINITELY follow through and finish this (as I have a nasty tendency to start a build thread then drop off the side of the earth) or until I needed some help. I'm posting with a little bit of both.

To start out, I went over to tardisbuilders and found the dimensions of the Hartnell TARDIS, scaled it down to match some styrene pieces I already had (and that scale was around 1/13 scale) and drew some cutting templates in photoshop. I used spray adhesive to adhere the templates to the styrene sheets, and started by cutting out the side paneling. I then glued it to a backing of styrene, though I should have probably also put some backing where the windows were since I now plan on making a mold. Took me a couple times to get it right.

Then I started working on the posts, which took longer than expected, as I had to order some more styrene quarter rounds, then re-order it as I bought the wrong size by mistake.

And while waiting for the extra pieces, I decided to tape the panels to the posts just to see how I was doing so far.


I thought it looked quite nice, BUT I wasn't completely satisfied. Because I'm a self destructive, persnickety perfectionist, I decided to re-do the side panels. Cutting and filing the rectangles individually ended up with slightly rounded, uneven edges that don't look so good with the windows. So instead, I cut the entire section vertically first, then cut the vertical planks and lined them up with the cut out rectangles, and glued them to the main body of the panel. Its a nice, angular result, and is sort of assembled like the actual wooden box.

Old panel on top, new panel on bottom. Will clean the bits of paper/sand down lifted edges later.
This weekend, I'll be making the lamp on a lathe (I'm opting to go with season 1's lamp design instead of the easy tubular ones from the rest of the season), and I'll be making custom designs for the St. John's ambulance and the various signs on the TARDIS.

What's nice about the Hartnell TARDIS is that it has no handles on the door or pull to open sign, so that makes molding a lot easier— But my question is: should I include the windows on the main body of the TARDIS when I mold it (and add the "glass" section separate), or should I mold it separately with the glass portion, and attach later?

Also debating how I'm going to paint the phone panel, since it was originally painted white in the pilot, then painted blue for "An Unearthly Child" but it looks a bit sloppily re-painted, like they only used one coat. So I'm trying to decide between a blue panel, or a white panel with some messy blue paint over it. Painting's a long way off, but the thought is still in my head.

Let me know your thoughts and advice!

You are doing a really good job of it so far. Much appreciate the build log descriptions and what your plans are.

About painting the TRDIS, I would always go with what most people know and expect, and that would be, in this case, blue.

Finished re-making the side panels. I think they came out much better this time around.

Also decided to mold the windows separately, cast it in clear resin, then paint the windows white. Now the question is whether to mold only one, and cast each one individually, or mold several and cast all at once. The first option has less work before molding, but more of a wait post molding. Second option has the opposite.
Realized I can make a decent pebble texture on the window by poking the reverse side of the sheet with a pen.


When I became too tired to cut accurately, I started working on the St. John's ambulance logo. Used the color photo of the First Doctor and his TARDIS as reference.

Yowie said:

About painting the TRDIS, I would always go with what most people know and expect, and that would be, in this case, blue.

Click to expand...

I guess it's then a question of expectation vs accuracy. For example, people expect the normal St. John's ambulance symbol, with the animals and writing— but I know that the original TARDIS only had the cross, and nothing else.