Another day, another bout of sanding, scraping (of obvious blunders), air compressor dust removal, and painting. It’s starting to look the piece.
Second coat of blue
First coat of blue
Well, the excitement builds as some blue goes on. Carefully selected by Anna, there are so many shades of blue the TARDIS has been over its time on tele. from a dirty sort in the old black & white ones to a dull dark one in the 70s to the moody mid 200os one to the in-your-face bright blue one at present.
We’ve gone for a colorbond blue which is sort of a grey-blue but it depends on the light that your looking at it with, of course.
Left over paint
After much spraying of udnercoat, I started to come to grips with the variability of a sprayed finish based on the weather (temperature & humidity), the diltuion of acrylic used (I diluted by about 15%), the pressure on the trigger applied, and the rate of spray itself. Yeesh. Still, I am progressively happier with the finish achieved.
I had some leftover so decided to give the window frames another going over.
I’m dreaming of a white TARDIS
Well, I can see why painters go barmy now. There is so much preparation involved that even with the decision to go with a spray application, the time involved in sanding, and preparing, and sanding (in between coats), and preparing, and sanding makes one go “aaarrrggghhh!!!”
It’s not so much the flat bits, but now that I’m working so intimately on each bit, I have discovered that there are so many detailed fiddly bits. Still, I went with a Wagner branded airless spray gun from Bunnies Warehouse. The first was a W450 at $200 which worked for about 20 minutes then died. During the its meagrely short life, it spattered and splatted unsatisfactorily leaving big and small blobs alike all over the place.
After its demise, I exchanged it with the good people of Bunnies for the $80 less W560. Whereas the W450 has a piston type mechanism, the W560 has a small hair drier type power unit to pressurise and propel the paint. I struggled for a while but then discovered that unlike the W450, the W560 has no inlet valve strainer, so chunks of paint bristles, chipboard, dried acrylic and other assorted floaties had made their way into and blocked the nozzle.
A quick clean, some fresh paint and we were underway again. I must say that, having seen the TARDIS in raw timber for so long, a coat of paint drastically changes the appearance of the construction.
TARDIS positioned for painting
We shifted the TARDIS on its new wheely base into position for sanding, compressed air cleaning & painting. Much preparation. There’s only about 5mm clearance between the base kickboards & the wheels touching the ground, so uneven surfaces really show up.
TARDIS upright again
Heading towards the finish now. The base was almost a perfect fit with the kickboard sitting slightly proud by a few millimetres. Some quick planing and sanding later, and all is right. Such a pity to have to paint it, I’ll now complete bogging the few nail & screw holes on the outer surfaces, as well as complete sanding both for a smooth finish & in readiness for painting.
After 2 years of construction, Teacher Pete asked if the TARDIS will fit through my shed door at home.
Yes of course it will, why do you ask…
Kingston SE
Not to be especially confused, but there are apparently 2 (if not more) towns called Kingston. The one we want is Kingston SE, home of the big lobster. We were initially sad as the lobster season was over a month away, however as it turned out, they’d started early so we had a delicious seafood lunch from the little shop by the pier.
Cape Jaffa was a revelation as the last time we were down that way, there was no marina as such (just wee scale models, and posters of happy families pointing skywards to the future). Stage 1 looked completed, but were it not for Cape Jaffa being so far from practically anything (and possibly also the economic downturn), it would otherwise be a booming place.
Having found the beaches of Little Dip, we thought we’d make a return visit to get some proper sunset pics.
Little Dip Conservation Park
It’s with a little irony that the conservation park around the corner from our accomodation is protected from all things, except for 4WD vehicles. We noticed on a walk that the erosional damage in some places was almost a metre deep. Still, we have to draw arbitrary lines somewhere…
Our (my) concern was getting back in the dark after some sunset photography, particularly as the clouds looked especially rainy.
Robe Holiday
We find Robe the perfect place to go for a break, it’s nicely far away but not too far & usually bereft of the fordes that make holidaying a bit unbearable. A stop at Penola was a revelation as the town was buzzing. Partly due to a long weekend, but also the anniversary of Mary McKillop. The town’s a lot more alive than I remembered from previous visits.
Robe itself is fairly central to Kingston (mmm Lobsters), Mt Gambier, Coonawarra (mmm wine), and the Limestone Coast (mmm more wine). I also find it an ironic place for a person of Chinese descent to go given its goldrush era history.
TARDIS sides finishing touches
Watching an old episode, I suddenly noticed that each of the 3 sides of the TARDIS bears an architrave feature running down the middle of the panel, mirroring the door-stop architrave on the doors.
Bum! A quick visit to hardware for what I hope is my last purchase of timber for this project, and away. I agonised over whether to make the thickness 8mm so as to match the first step of the horizontal skirting under the lightbox, or to step it to bring it in level with the third ‘step’.
At this late stage, I decided to do the least amount of mucking around, so went for the flat design. I noticed in random viewings of the Baker (2), Pertwee and Hartnell Tardises that both cases are true, so it was a coin toss anyway!
