Building a Better Police Box (Part 3)

It's been awhile since I last posted an update but I have made some progress on this weekend worth talking about.  I want to backup a bit and talk about why I am doing this first though.

What I want to do is build a small display diorama with the Doctor and his TARDIS which I could potentially exhibit at ReaperCon in April.  There are actually a couple of different pre-made versions that I've seen but I really don't like either one.

There's this one, which looks completely wrong to me:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/234409?browseid=7009747

Then there's this one:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/331987?browseid=7009747

The first one (from Fenris Games) has the right overall dimensions, but the panel details are completely wrong.  It may be possible to rework the panels but I would rather not do that.  The second (from Ainsty Castings) looks more correct but it has a number of dimensional issues.  The size in general is too wide, the columns are too wide, the panels are slightly off, and the roof is pitched too steep.  I know, I'm picky...

Interestingly enough, Reaper is adding a police box to their Bones line-up in their latest Kickstarter campaign and it actually looks pretty close to what I want.  Unfortunately that won't be out until around this time next year and that's too late.  With little else out on the market, I have to build this one from scratch.

So here's what I have done so far.  The basic box  was relatively easy to put together.  I started by cutting out four 45.25mm x 18mm rectangles measured precisely with digital calipers:

 

 

Each of those were then glued to one of the 3mm square rods using plastic cement:

 

 

Finally those bits were assembled with a 21mm square base at the bottom and an 18mm square at the top to seal the box:

 

 

I went through a lot of trial, error, and frustration on this next pat but I finally made a breakthrough that made this work.  I was originally thinking I could cut out the 6mm x 7.5mm rectangles for the panels but this proved to be far more difficult to execute than I had anticipated.  Typically what would happen is I would get close and then wind-up going over the target measurement.

 

So back to the drawing board, I decided to make some compromises to the measurements and the execution of the panels.  I decided that I would get better results if I reduced the amount of fractional measurements and use precut strips.  I had actually tried this approach last year but I had issues with adhering the pieces to the model.  Plastic cement couldn't be used because it would melt and distort the strips.  That left super glue which wouldn't distort the pieces but I didn't have a whole lot work time either.  The pieces would have to be placed in a matter of seconds before the glue would set.  Not good when you are trying to get a precise placement which can take... several minutes.

 

What I didn't know at the time was I actually had a 3rd option for an adhesive: gloss varnish.  Using VMC gloss varnish I was able to place the strips fairly close to where I wanted them.  Then I painted over the piece with  more varnish to seal it into position.

 

This approach took me 4 hours to complete the panels (1 hour for each side).  Here is the result of last night's work:

What I will need to do next is clean-up work on the panels.  While this looks much better than what I did before I still need to fix the following issues:

1. The precision of the strip placement is a bit off on some of the sides, making the top rectangular areas for the windows much larger than what they should be (1mm+).  This looks bad and I will probably just need to redo the slat placement.  I can kind of see it in the side shown above but it's not the worst offender.
2. There are multiple gaps that will need to be filled in with putty.  Most of these are at the bottom.  In the photo above, there's a rather large one on the top left slat that would be directly below the window.  I have to decide if the slat gaps can be filled or if I should remove the slats and replace them with tighter fitting ones.
3. The 20mm square on top should line-up perfectly with the extra 0.5mm added around the outside of the box and it doesn't.  Putty should clean this up.

After I get those clean-up issues resolved, I will need to add the trim, which will be additional plastic strips glued on with the gloss varnish.  The headers will be the next major step and at that point it will look a lot more like the target object.  I was originally planning on constructing them with the sign inset into the bar, but I am probably going to make another compromise with the design and go with solid rods for simplicity.

Anyway, it may be awhile before I have another update on this.  I have a Shadowrun game to prepare for and I probably won't have much time for this project again until November.  That's ok, though because I have plenty of time and the figure that I want to use for the Doctor isn't going to be released until November anyway.