How to do a few things, ofcourse to keep on top of what we're doing follow our blog. More pictures and instructions, you can follow projects as they happen.
Support the Little Encyclopedia at our book store. There's a pattern drafting book so you can make your own full size patterns for any doll out there and books with full sized patterns for Littles including your time traveler.
Little Doctors need a Little TARDIS. I've been through 2 1/2, the "paper" TARDIS, the Woodsie TARDIS, and now the Duck Tape TARDIS made from the remains of the Woodsie TARDIS. There is a printable paper TARDIS out there if you have a big enough printer to use it for a base. When I started I scaled down the plans from a full size prop used for the frost 13 seasons, also on the internet, and eyeballed the rest. The design did change a bit throughout the years.
The paper TARDIS requires 2 full sheets of foam core. It comes in blue but white is a better start so you an see what you're doing.
Three sides and roof details fit on sheet one. Roughly the sides are 16" tall by 8" wide, give or take. The rest of the details were eyeballed. The idea is to fit a Doctor and at least one companion inside. And yes, the sign on mine read 'If this TARDIS is rocking don't come knocking'.
Sheet 2 has the fourth wall, floor, and sub roof supports. Scraps are kept to built up the sides of the roof. What I didn't do was take in to account the front doors should be split in half. Then again I have about as much budget as the BBC did.
Assembled with tape and hope, the foamcore started to warp immediately.
Detail of the roof, the cracks were filled in with Modeling Paste, spackle could work, and the whole thing was painted with a pre treated for wood and paper.
Two shades of blue were used, bright police box and a dark indigo. A wash was made of the indigo to give the TARDIS a look of having been to Casterberous and back
Drying after the final details were painted in, and before the cat got to it. RIP Paper TARDIS
These little slats are called Woodsies, at some stores, others have a store brand name for them. Somewhere along the line the idea of a Duck Tape TARDIS came to me, but not after messing around with these things for awhile.
Nine slats are used on each side, two on the top and bottom. For the doors use two slats and make up the extra space with craft sticks. Use black tape to hold the inside together and blue on the outside.
The Duck Tape TARDIS in all it's kludgey glory.
My first success, a true 1/6 scale Hofner violin bass modeled after Paul McCartney's 1963 model, it's the 1961 "Cavern Bass" in the picture. Made out of pieces of foam core and a popsicle stick neck when I needed a Gibson 1275 for my little Jimmy Page I tried the same method, but I wasn't happy.
Online I was able to find someone who sells wooden guitar shapes, if you're skilled enough you can make your own. At 5" long these are in scale with the 1/8 scale guitars I already have thus in the pictures above it fits in.
You will need 3 guitar shapes to make a duo neck guitar with 12 and 6 strings. This design is based on Jimmy Page's custom Gibson 1275, it was made specially for him with social necks and other non factory specifications.
The shapes I used have a Les Paul body shape with one cut out. A second cut out is made and then the bodies are cut strait down from the middle of the cut out.
Keep the pieces that were cut off to use later, the guitar will be guide together along the strait edge. Line up the top of the cut.
Cu the head off a third guitar to make the 12 string. Note that both heads have been trimmed flat where they will be joined together. The headless guitar can be glued to the back of another guitar shape or further cut down in to a Steinberger shape.
The spare head is glued to the top of the 12 string head. This is the face of the guitar as this is a right handed model so the 12 string is on top of the 6 string, but at the moment the guitar can go either way.
The pieces that had been cut off are glued to the back of the guitar.
An air dry clay has been used to fill in the body and build up the base of the necks. Do not build up the necks themselves as the dolls will need to hold them, Jimmy is also known for having the necks of his guitars shaved down. If you want to have the heads tilted back you will need to score the base of the head on the front/face side and gently tilt the heads back. Fill the space in the necks in with air dry clay.
What about using modeling paste to fill in the spaces? Previous ventures have shown the paste tends to crack when applied thickly. Where it may work for a tiny space like where the heads have been built back you really need a clay, a doll making clay or Apoxie Sculpt will do, to build up the base of the necks. You can optionally build up the fronts of the guitars, like the necks and knobs, but again if the neck is too thick the doll can't hold it.
Here you can see where the space at the base of the necks, and on the 12 string head, have been filled in. The space between the bodies has yet to be patched. Guide lines for the pick guard and some of the hardware have been lightly penciled in. Use a very hard pencil that makes faint lines as there's a good chance these might show through paint. I have sealed my guitar with a prep sealer specifically for wood and paper.
The base paint job, the guitar is a dark red, the pick guard and heads are black, the neck dark brown. The knobs, pick ups, and other hardware are painted black as well in preparation for the next step. If you wish you can lightly pencil strings on to the red part but not the neck.
Metallic silver was used to finish, the fingerboard and tuning knobs might be pearl white IRL but it's difficult to tell in the pictures I have and I've never seen the real thing or an authorized copy. The pick ups of the 12 string are silvery, the 6 string are black but I added a hint of reflection. The silver dot in the lover middle of the pick guard is a switch, the silver dot by the knobs is the jack.
Story that isn't the least bit funny because it took 4 months of my life I'll never get back this is actually Roger #2 as the first one had to be turned in to glue. Seriously I learned a lot and used the knowledge gained to start work on a Yoshida style ball joint doll.
This is the well basically way of doing things, full details are on the blog, link at the top of the page, just look for entries titled Roger. And no, I don't know if the real Roger Daltrey has seen this yet.
Two toilet paper tubes, four straws, tape, and stuff called Rigid Wrap to start with
Wrap like a mummy just thick enough to get a good stiff skin on him.
He was done with air dry clay, Paperclay and Prang DAS on the horse half. I researched some horse patties and decided to base him on a Suffolk Punch which is a small draft horse from England. He needed to be a heavy horse to match his personality. The back legs weren't set right to balance.
One of the back legs was broken at the ankle and reset. This made the joints have to be bit more knobby but it works.
The human half of the body wasn't sitting right and had to be sawed off.
The new human body was built up with LaDoll, I should have put armatures in his arms but I was holping I could joint them and use straws, but that didn't work I finally got to a point where I wanted to finish him.
Building up Roger's human half. Part of me wishes I could have rooted his he'd but I wouldn't have been able to get small enough curls.
How to make a curly tail. Left over doll rooting hair was braided then wrapped in a knot. It's placed in boiling water for 30 seconds, or until air bubbles stop coming out of the hair, then removed and left to dry and cool. Do not rush this, the hair must cool gradually to keep its texture.
I didn't use the curly doll hair found at craft stores because the texture is wrong, I've used this before, and the curls are just too big. The braided hair would have worked except it wasn't available in the correct shade to match Roger. There are My Little Pony replacement tails but they're not the right kind of hair. I was able to get this left over hair from someone who does doll rooting. While not enough to do a doll head there was plenty for a tail.
The tail wasn't glued in to place until all the painting was done. White glue was put on the tush end of the tail to hold it together then more glue was put on the tail and inside the tush.
Roger's friend Eloise playing with Roger's tail.
