Over the past week I’ve continued to lose myself in the time vortex. I’ve been quite frustrated at the time it takes me to get things done. I must admit, though, that there have been lots of little fiddly things happening with the build.
First of all I tried out blue paint and settled on a colour I like. I’m using a blue called Mystification in Dulux Weathershield. I’ve never painted with such a dark colour before. Getting it to cover is another challenge. It’s going to take at least three coats, but then the more paint that goes on, the more the wood is protected. I also painted the windows. The frames will be the last things to go on.
It’s a blue box
I decided to use wire mesh for the mail shelf. Then if rain gets in it will easily drain away, rather than sitting there, rotting wood and keeping the mail soggy. I have no doubt that the roof will be hard to completely seal so I expect it will leak, even if only a little.
The wire mesh mail shelf
We also decided to put in a mail slide from the slot to the wire shelf, mainly to reduce the size of the mail cavity. It’s a huge space and we don’t need to use it all; we certainly won’t want to be reaching all the way from the back to the front to get our letters out. The only problem with this idea is that I forgot to put the slide in until after I started putting in the supports for the roof tiers.
I had to cut the piece of ply I was using for the slide in half so I could fit it in. That was easy enough to do and it fitted nicely. I siliconed the join and the edges so there’s no risk of letters getting lost down the sides. The silicone also works to keep the slide in place.
The letter slide
Putting on the first roof tier
The second roof tier goes on
The next step was to get the lamp base built and fitted onto supports that would place it at the right height. This was quite fiddly. I had to make sure the box that makes up the base was square, that the roof supports on each side were at the right height for the proper slope, and that I placed it right in the centre of the roof space.
Then I had to measure and cut the roof panels to fit together nicely. It all went together fairly well, though a couple of the gaps are a little wider that I like. Thank goodness for wood putty and silicone sealer.
Filling the roof gaps
The roof is on and ready to paint
I’ve been looking everywhere for an appropriate lamp for the top. Over the years there have been plenty of different styles of lamp on the top of the different Tardis’. I’d like to find something similar to the current one, but haven’t found anything like it so I’ve settled for a solar yard light. I cut a hole in the top of the lamp base so the light sits in position and is stable. I’ll silicone it in place so it’s secure, but can be easily changed if I come across something I like more.
The lamp on top of the Tardis
I’ve painted the panels for the sign boxes. I want to put 2 coats of paint on the Tardis before I fix the sign boxes in place.
