In my last post I explained the basis behind my planned Doctor Who mini-diorama and how I planned to use the Peco 7mm scale Police Box kit to represent the TARDIS. Wishing to create something as close to a TV prop as I could from the kit I first had to identify which era I wanted to represent. My heart wanted to go for the late 1980s, a 'Remembrance of the Daleks' scene would be nice but I had doubts I could conjure up suitable figures. In the end I settled for the 2005 TARDIS as I had a better chance of success with the figures.
Looking at the kit parts the first big difference was in the size and recessed depth of the 'Police Public Call Box' panel, the kit has this narrow and deeply recessed, whereas the TV prop has a wider, almost flush panel. I therefore filled the kit panels with 20 thou styrene infills to bring them almost flush. The other major surgery at this stage was to carefully cut out the right-hand door to allow it to be modelled open, adding 10 thou styrene strips around the edges of the removed piece to bring it back up to size.
Milliput was then added to the infilled lettering panels and around the edges of the door piece, and once dry smoothed back flush. An Olfa-style cutter was then used to scribe new surrounds for the panels, the same height as before but almost the full width of the panel. The new strips around the door were then carefully sanded down in size to fit the opening.
Assembly could now begin, ignoring the instructions supplied to build roof-down with the windows stuck in place before assembly! As my door was to be part-open I needed a floor, added using 40 thou styrene 29 x 29 mm, located in a convenient groove in the base of the sides. Each side was added in turn ensuring 90 degree corners using a square. A length of Plastruct hex rod was added along the hinge edge of the door to act as a re-enforcement for the join.
With the walls assembled some filling was required along the joins. Unfortunately in the process of this act I did loose some of the moulded detail, however examination of the TV prop reveals that it is not there anyway, phew! The roof is placed on loose in this picture and will remain so during painting. I have added the little cap piece to the roof light, still on it's sprue, and also added some extra hidden pieces behind the door, to butt up to the wall and ensure the inwardly-open door cannot budge.
Everything was now ready for a final scrub up and then off to the paintshop. Even without the modifications I've made I would not have retained the the blue plastic colour, it is an odd shade and actually quite tricky to deal with during the build.
More on the painting in the next post, however what I didn't realise at this time was that I had missed something which is now rather too obvious (and it isn't the windows and panels being too small, I can live with that)...
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