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So here's me trying to work out how to do this opening the box thing...


Hinge on the left side, do this for all facings, resolve the corner bits by attaching appropriate components to the far side of each front panel.


Idunno about this one... seems pretty rough. I'm not inspired by how the hinge works in this position, and i'm not convinced i can make the corners of the box look good doing it this way. The double door pattern is just this twice, so probably even less readily viable.


Even if i resolve the corner bit to look nice, if you open one side, the side to the clockwise of it will have to open slightly too... dunno.



It doesn't look too bad open, but i dunno, seems like too many drawbacks.



So i think these astronauts are going to be perfect stand-ins for the survival/hazmat suits they were using in that episode with the library and the vashta nerada. The face plates are large, it should be very easy to carve the one up to get a skull in there.

Going to look into more work with the top/bottom split for the visible panels... maybe i'll make the corners such that they're attached to the panels that come off...


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Yeah... it's going to be tricky business... but i think that's the way to do it. Make the top half of each facing removable via magnets following the original plan. Put the correctly sized corner bit on each wall/frame/thing, very carefully cutting the closest thing to a 45 degree angle I can manage from the outside edge to the inside, so that adjacent wall sections will meet up with flush corners. Will probably have to do some fudging here, but i'll make it happen... Then, simply cut the whole thing in half, so there's a top and a bottom. All four bottoms will get glued around to the base of the tardis, then the tops will have magnets set both into the underlying body, and to the back of each of the removable panels.

I'm not sure if this is the ideal way to do it, but it sounds doable with enough effort. As soon as the bottom wall panels are in place, i can put on the bottom panel, the base, and once all of the magnets are set.. the top should be cake. Then I can start working out the layouts and materials for the scenes. I'm thinking I may have to try some OSL after all, the time crack scene, and quite possibly the library scene, could definitely benefit. I'd be a fool to make a creepy skeleton faced space suit thing, and not have the other one with two shadows, poor sucker.

Oh my, nice project!

I have been hesitant to buy those not-Doctor minis because of the fact that I didn't like how they were painted on the website. Looking at your pics, the 10th Doctor without the trenchcoat is just fine as with the 9th one. The 10th with a trenchcoat's face is just weird for me.

As for the girl companions, I find the ones made by Crooked dice more appealing, as well as their version of 11th.




Also I think with the right paintjob I can make her a bit more like Clara:

I liked their Rose especially, but I wanted to order from just one site due to shipping costs, and heresy had the largest concentration if what I was after.

Ok so last night I had a couple of beer-equivalents of the hard lemonade variety and decided that, given the amount of time left in the project (30 or less days!), a policy of ''glue em all, and let future grimdork sort them out'' was appropriate. Of course now that i am future grimdork... i can only agree with my past self, crap has got to get done or i'll fail my deadline. So anyway, i attached all of the plasticard backings to the foamcore walls, and then cut out the corner strips and applied them to each of the walls as well. I was going to try to cut them to fit before gluing too far ahead, but it looks like i'm going to have to trim them down slightly to make things work anyway. One of those things that, if i were a contractor or an architect, i'd have known how to measure it properly to make things fit, but i got pretty close on a guess and regret NOTHING! Ahem... So here's where we are now:


Wall sheets, ready to be temporarily set in place so I can figure out the corners.


Getting there, there will probably be gaps like that everywhere until things are glued down into place, and even then. I may have to use some filler/tape or something to make the edges nice and smooth.


So, i've still got 10 models to paint now, damn extra astronauts... and it's going to be a little harder to bust a few of them out. The scenes with the vashta nerada and the time crack are both screaming for me to try some lighting effects, i don't have a lot of time... but i think both scenes are worth it, so we'll see what i can do! I think the construction of the tardis is coming along reasonably well, the next part will be tricky, though cutting them in half once they're ready shouldn't be so hard if i'm careful... and the top and bottom parts should be simple as well. Fixing up the scenes will come after that, and shouldn't be terribly complicated, but it's all about time isn't it?

More once i have it!

Looks good!

For lighting, resort to the trusty airbrush if you're short on time. There's some good tutorials around on it, I think, and it's fairly quick once you get the hangs of it.

I may have to try that! I've kind of been meaning to anyway.


--Progress update--

Got some paint on the master and the 9th doctor, i'm not sure if its the press of time, lack of motivation, or simplicity of the models (they're nice, but they just don't have as many potentially unnecessary details as my infinity and deadzone minis)... but I think they both may be ready for dipping. I had a mikes hard lemonade before painting, and managed to get both sets of eyes pretty solid on the first try... maybe one beer-equivalent is the trick to steady hands?

I also got the astronauts trimmed up, they're of a soft, rubbery plastic... kind of like bones but probably not as nice. Going to source some skeleton heads in a bit to see if i've got a good fit for the VN dude, the other one is just gonna have a normal glace faceplate. Might dip the doctor and master too, to get it done. If they don't come out looking perfecto... i can just further highlight the black or whatever is needed.

--update--

The dipping is considered successful, though I think i'm going to go back and put some layers on the faces by hand... the minitare rugged skin turned out a little too grey after the dip. I think it may have needed another layer, but a bit warmer of a fleshtone should help as well, so i'll go ahead and do that once they're dry. Still... effectively 2/10 who minis painted, so that's a decent start!

Yeah, the Dr. Who minis I've seen, while accurate sculpts, do tend to be more on the bare-bone side in terms of detail, so they get painted up fast.

Is the one chica in the scarf/coat/skirt supposed to be an actual Dr. Who character? I had linked the model to my girl when I saw it with the caption, "Hey! I found a model version of you!"

Her being a giant Whoovian (or whatever they call themselves), that would make it all the better.

The spacemen will be fun to see what you do with them. I was thinking about doing what you're planning with the skull on another model, and I remember thinking something like 'How hard can it be! I'll just..."

And that never got done.

Yeah, that's Amy from Dr. Who. Can't find an actual screencap but this will give you an idea:

Ah! Okay.

My girl is putting me through the ringer on all of it. Just got through #9's season. I really liked him.

I did too, though apparently that puts me in the minority. The next guy is probably my favorite, though, which probably puts me in the majority

I'll post up dr 9 and the master after awhile, though i still wanna do some fixing on the faces before i seal them to take out the gloss from the dip.

9 is awesome as the Doc, I really wish he'd had another series or two. He was a great actor and the character they wrote him with is one of the best. I'm not sure it's a minority that like him, to be honest, it's more he tends to get sidelined/forgotten as he had such a short run.

Ahh, well maybe that's it, i certainly wouldn't mind if they had done more episodes with him.

Went ahead and sealed the models, i figure i can touch up the faces over the sealer, and now they're done just in case i hit a time crunch.


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Ignore that they look slightly grainy.. i'm not sure where that's coming from, they do not look like that in person... kind of weird. So, yeah, i think the faces need a bit of touching up, under the eyes, especially, where i drew the dot down into a line to make a smooth dot after cleanup.. looks like i need another pass with the flesh tone to clean up the remnants of the line.

Simple models, simple paint job, but each should look cool when put into their scenes.

Alright, got some work done, the tardis is almost finished... i think. I need to devise a light to go up top, and put in the plates across the top that declare it as a police box, a couple of handles on one of the faces... the notification paper on the front i'll just print out after it's all painted.. Oh and i need to cut out the top panels and put in the ''glass'' too... so a bit of work left, but the foamboard construction is finished.


Given that this is well out of my comfort zone and skill set... i'm reasonably happy with it!


Here you can see the open viewable scene areas. You can see the magnets/metal bits if you squint, i may try to obscure them a little bit before it's over. I need to find or fashion a good replacement for that proxied silver drum up there, the light is pretty iconic and i can't leave it off, though i won't be going for leds or anything.


The thing i love least about this is the foamcore, the edges that show, primarily. Without using tape, which will just peel up eventually, how does one obfuscate the foam edges showing? I'm going to give it some thought, maybe google around a bit.. but if i can't figure it out i'm just going to move on.

I showed you the best corner, the rest of them have some more flaws i need to try to sort out, and one is really bad... i may try to separate the corner piece there entirely and add a new one i can cut to a better fit.

Now I need to build the scenes... and paint all of the figures, just 8 to go! I've got a bit over three weeks, this is gonna be a pretty nasty crunch but we'll see what happens!

Oh, got this guy ready to paint too...


Gonna paint the skull and paint the area around it lit up like in that one episode... then i'm gonna try to cover the whole thing with 5 minute clear epoxy and hope the features show through.


If anyone was unclear as to what the skeleton space man was attempting to approximate... Speaking of... i may try a similar lighting for the scene, dark in places so the skull face can be backlit light that, with enough light to prominently display the doctor, and to have the downed space suit guy throwing two shadows...

Looks good, and the lighting plan sounds cool too, it would add a nice sense of drama to the scene and allow you to play with contrast a lot.

Yeah, though adding in things with which i am unfamiliar into a time crunch is probably foolish... but i don't care i'm gonna try to do it anyway.

That's looking great. Good luck getting it in for the time limit!

Whew.. just the 3 weekends to go, with little time/will to work during the week... gonna get close. Few more updates for you guys:


Nearly completed tardis.


Panels come off, yay magnets! Any suggestions for what to use as a base to build the light on top?


Backdrop for the library scene. I'd love to do physical stacks and such but there's neither room nor time to do so! Be critical of this step, as it's simple to adjust the background by printing another sheet and cutting it differently.

The crease is almost too off-center to the left, no?

Too glossy?

Too big?

Too lazy?

Gotta get the tardis finished and painted in the next week or two, and the rest of the figures done as well.


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Cave scene, used casting plaster to establish a base for me to go over with the hydrocal stuff. Can't work on the box at all for awhile while i let it dry, may paint daleks tonight!


10th doctor, went with classic blue suit and red sneakers, i need to bring the first two models hair into line with this, they all have a similar dark brown going on. Maybe a bit of touchups and some highlights... then the dip!


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More:


Will probably paint the time crack rather than give it a physical structure, thus paintbrush edit for emphasis... probably put it slightly above the rock jutting out on the left wall, so i can do some shadows under said rock. Gonna give this a layer of that hyrocal stuff and smooth it to look like cave walls. The floor in that scene of the show was actually dirt, but it will probably get the same treatment as the walls and just painted differently, maybe some flock here and there.


I figure this looks kind of like a dalek space ship interior... it's got a vertical wall panel with large studs in it, reminiscent of the panels on the lower half of daleks themselves, the large windows will involve a starscape behind the daleks, and the earth and stars behind 9th doctor, vaguely implying that he's protecting it. Will print something out on photo paper for the window images, considering doing an edge around the window panels, not sure, i will if there's time and i can find something suitable. Will be painted in the same brass/copper style as i'll be doing the daleks.

Might try to paint the daleks tonight, that would leave only the source lighted minis to do, and i'll have to get their scenes a bit further along before i can do them.


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I've also done a wash of a thinned down pva glue on some of the surfaces of the tardis, gonna see if i can seal the paper/foam sections to make them a bit more uniform for painting, but I will brook no peeling glue ruining the paintjob down the road... so we'll see!

Coming along nicely. It'll really start to shine once you get some paint in those panels!

Thanks! I wanna paint today but I may have too much time left on the insides. Need to do the hydrocal early today so it'll dry in time.

Are you going to include this doctor?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eak26ohx1Y8#t=164

Spray, spray, spray!

Wow... just... what the feth.... that was... stupid and terrible yet... awesome.

I mean... dr who usually doesn't fight at all... and then dalek AND cybermen? But it was still kind of hilarious too.


I think the cave will be ready but i've still got to get the scene with the master lined out before i'm comfortable spraying.

Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho

Haha!

Paint is going down folks, lots and lots of blue right now, got some left though. I've got to do the insides as well, and finish the rest of the models.. but we're moving along nicely!

Still looking for advice for the light on top.

Also, totally changed the setting for the master vs 10th doctor, it's still somewhat appropriate though.

Nice work so far, this is really coming together now.

Haha, you should have waited to say that after this next update, gimme about 3 minutes!


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A little artistic license, they were at a canyon though no sonics/lasers and they didn't actually fight. Gonna sand/gravel mix over the floor and add some shrub/flock as well.


Here you see the more or less finished cave surface with the placeholder time crack, gonna be different than i thought but i should be able to get some shadows to play with!


Wooosh...wooosh... Woot! Now we're talking about getting closer!


Still functions, the interior triangle shapes will be the colors of the scene, blue everywhere else.


How does one highlight something at this scale? Should i try to drybrush it a little, edge highlight? Do a little darker then lighter touches with the airbrush? Good enough already?

 Paradigm wrote:
Nice work so far, this is really coming together now.

I say again

I wouldn't highlight, to be honest. At this scale, light itself will do all the highlighting needed.

I like the way you think, sir, there is a greater chance i'd screw it up trying to highlight than make it look better anyway. Just need to do the interiors now.

Cave i'll try to do entirely with the airbrush, some gradient nonsense and shadows blah blah. Really, the crack in the show didn't make that much light, but what fun is that! The dalek quarter is done, only needs a spray of copper and then brass on the studs. Well, and the windows/scenes, but that's all on top of the painting. The other two scenes.. library i'm gonna see about painting the floor brown and carefully drawing lines for wood grain... maybe, the real draw will be the double shadow anyway... and the 10th/master showdown just needs the ground sprayed and then surfaced. Gonna try painting the ground orange to go with my grand canyon backdrop, and then doing the balast w/o painting it.. but we'll see.


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Hmmm...

Interiors!

Well it is certainly coming along!

Did you do the epoxy in the skelly heads yet? I'd make sure to test out what you're doing beforehand on something to make sure it dries clear enough to see the skull. And they might need to be a bit brighter than normal so they're still visible. Goopy stuff, however transparent, has weird light-bending properties sometimes.

Good call with using the photo backgrounds. I particularly like the Dalek one.

Whoa. Very cool.