Day 283 - Corners & "Flower Boxes"

Post date: Jan 06, 2014 2:59:42 AM

It's the 2013 Holiday season, so I've had more time to spend on this project. So this entry will cover the pieces that go on the corners and the "Police Box" that goes above the door. For some reason I keep thinking of the piece above the door as a flower box. Probably because it will look like one just before we place it above the door.

Now the corners are two pieces stacked and offset. But first, you'll need to place a piece on each side of the panel this will make the panels, the header piece at the top and the new side piece all be on the same surface. You can see the issue we are solving in the last post. As a result the doors now look to have insets. This piece should also extend slightly beyond the edge. Remember, eventually we will sand this down to a 45 degree angle. 

Then get the measurements for the first corner piece from the files I've posted. I highly recommend you do several sanity checks against your tissue box. I discovered that while building this one, somewhere I messed up a dimension, so my tissue box doesn't perfectly match the plan. But that's ok, the important thing is to maintain proportions. I made sure mine was shy of the top of the box by slightly more than the thickness of the balsa. Just like the above step, you need to allow for the 45 degree bevel later, so I made mine a hair wider than plan. I can always sand down.

Placing the first corner piece will be easier than placing the second corner piece. Align the edge with the edge of the door.   

Then I repeated a similar proces for the second corner piece. The trick is getting the piece uniformly offset. So to help me, I made a tool (seen above & below). I placed a piece of balsa (let's call it piece A), flat on the table. I then stood up piece B on its edge and against the length of piece A. I then glued piece C, stood it on its edge on top of piece A and pressed B & C together. So that way pieces B&C were attached to each other, but there was an offset that matched the thickness of the balsa.

After that tool dried, I then pressed it up against the first corner piece and used it to offset the second corner piece once I placed it. The picture above should show it clearer.

Helpful Tip: I made two heavy sand bags by placing gravel in ziploc bags. I use these as weights to hold pieces together while they dry over night. They've been indispensable and I don't think I mentioned them before. 

As for the "flower boxes," I had to go back to the craft store and buy a thick square stick of balsa to serve as the main piece. You can get the measurement from your plans, but subtract a little bit for the frame we are going to add. I used 1/32 craft plywood for my frame, so subtracted twice that when picking out my piece for the base. I then cut the stick into pieces the length of the window box minus the two 1/32 frame pieces. I then cut long pieces of the 1/32 craft plywood. Now their dimensions should be a little longer than the base piece (so no gaps, can always sand down) and 1/32 wider than the base piece. This will create a raised frame around the "Police Box" sign giving the TARDIS further dimension and shape. 

I then applied a thin layer of glue and pressed the pieces together. Once the glue mostly cured. I used my sandbags to keep pressure on them overnight. 

Helpful Tip: I use a scrap piece of balsa to clean up any glue excess. Painting on top of the glue is difficult and it will most likely be evident in the final product. We are going for clean lines and something that looks like a film-able model, so no sloppy work. Next, to place the side portions of the frame...

Almost done.