The Calgary Comic Expo was coming and my son wanted to go in costume this year. I only had two weeks to work on this prior to the Expo so I had to come up with something quick. When I asked him if he wanted to go as the Tardis from Dr. Who I got a huge YES!!!
This costume only took me 2 days to make and another day to paint.
I started this costume by first figuring out some proportions. This involved me looking for every picture of a Tardis from the show I could find on the internet. I came up some percentages on the width of the Tardis, and from there made up my own numbers to build it to the size I wanted. The main body of the Tardis should be about 75% or your planned width with each corner panel being about 12.5% of the width. See my diagram for details.
This costume only took me 2 days to make and another day to paint.
I started this costume by first figuring out some proportions. This involved me looking for every picture of a Tardis from the show I could find on the internet. I came up some percentages on the width of the Tardis, and from there made up my own numbers to build it to the size I wanted. The main body of the Tardis should be about 75% or your planned width with each corner panel being about 12.5% of the width. See my diagram for details.
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This costume is about 98% cardboard. I got myself 8 large flat screen TV boxes by going to my local TV / electronics dealer (In my case it was 'Future Shop') and ask for empty boxes. I lucked out and they had just thrown out a bunch of boxes and was able to get all that I needed in one trip. These stores normally throw out or recycle their boxes early so you'll need to catch them early or make arrangements for them to save them for you. You need large uncut, not bent or crushed cardboard. The larger you want to build the costume the larger the boxes will need to be.
You will also need:
-Carpenters glue (white glue doesn’t dry fast enough or is strong enough)
-Four 1x1 strips of wood
-Four 1x1/2 strips of wood
I made a box with the 1/2 inch strips and then used the 1x1's to create the 'legs'. I made this simple frame so that I would have something to attach all the cardboard to.
Sorry about switching units of measure, but to calculate my sizes and proportions quickly I switched to metric.
I based the size of the Tardis on my son. In my case the top square was 64 cm by 64 cm and I made it 103.5 cm tall.
You will also need:
-Carpenters glue (white glue doesn’t dry fast enough or is strong enough)
-Four 1x1 strips of wood
-Four 1x1/2 strips of wood
I made a box with the 1/2 inch strips and then used the 1x1's to create the 'legs'. I made this simple frame so that I would have something to attach all the cardboard to.
Sorry about switching units of measure, but to calculate my sizes and proportions quickly I switched to metric.
I based the size of the Tardis on my son. In my case the top square was 64 cm by 64 cm and I made it 103.5 cm tall.
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I voted for you in the contest :D
From one cardboard-jockey to another. When my son outgrows Optimus Prime and learns to appreciate D.W. I imagine this'll be the next project for me.
-Dork Daddy
www.dorkdaddy.com
came out really well :)