TARDIS cufflinks.
August 15th, 2011Several years ago, after a job change, I decided to stop dressing like a scruffy computer geek and to start being a little more careful with what I wear. I went to more business type attire and shirts with French cuffs. Mainly so I could start wearing cufflinks. Personally, I blame John Steed and far too many hours watching The Avengers.
I started building up a small collection of cufflinks (I also have a collection of salt and old 1950/60s Gillette razors but that’s another story). Cufflinks are ridiculously overpriced in NZ (what isn’t?) so I tend to order mine from overseas. You get better quality ones at better prices if you hunt about.
Favourite cufflinks.
Above are some of my favourites. Yes, I am something of an Anglophile and a train-spotter. The Dalek ones are very cool and I always had it in my mind that the TARDIS would make a nice cufflink. It is possible to buy some but I never got around to it. The London Underground ones a friend of mine got for me when he and his wife visited London from their home in New York and I then had to wait till they visited New Zealand to bring them to me. Those are well travelled cufflinks!
One of my other (many) projects is an N scale model railway I am building to go into a dining table. That is a 1930s British themed layout and when looking around at what buildings I could get for it I discovered you can buy a tiny N scale Police Box.
Hornby Police Box.
This is one of the Hornby Lyddle End range of resin models. I bought one, as well as some buildings, online since they don’t seem available in NZ easily. Oh, if you’re a retailer in NZ (and elsewhere actually) and have an online shop here is a hint – listing products you don’t actually have in stock and not telling people until they get to the checkout is not good!
The Police Box arrived and it is very cute. Perfect for my railway but also perfect to make some cufflinks from. The model is about 22mm high.
Lyddle End Police Box model.
It looks just like another TARDIS I happen to have here at home! I didn’t want to cut up my railway one so I ordered another from the UK. I got mine from Celestial Games and Books on eBay who were excellent. It’s interesting that ordering things from the UK is much easier than ordering from the US and shipping takes far less time than getting things sent from America.
I also bought some brass cufflink bases from a local online jewellery supply shop called Beadaholic. They, by the way, have an excellent online shop!
Model and brass cufflink base.
Next I used a modelling razor saw to carefully cut the model in half. This unfortunately results in the loss of the lamp from the top of the box but that is easily fixed later. After cutting I flattened the back of each half by rubbing them on some wet and dry paper.
Model sawn in half.
To attach the model to the bases I made some small brass backing plates. These were cut and filed from 0.9mm thick brass. I first made one then used that as a template to make the second. They are a little rough but at this scale they don’t need to be perfect and I like the hand crafted look. A quick clean up with some wet and dry and a final clean with steel wool finished them off.
Brass backing plates.
I was then able to solder the cufflink bases to the backing plates and later I could glue the model onto them.
Bases soldered on.
Next I repainted the model halves. I used small tins of Humbrol enamel paint – matt number 25. I love the smell of that stuff, reminds me of childhood and making models. Unfortunately I couldn’t recreate the fine lettering that was on the original models. These were actually stickers stuck to the model. Again the loss of detail doesn’t matter too much as these will be seen from a distance usually. I didn’t have a brush fine enough so I used a toothpick to put on tiny dabs of paint. White for the “Police Box” signs and white for the “Pull to Open” sign with some black lettering.
Painting.
I also made a replacement lamp using a tiny piece of styrene plastic glued on with superglue.
Replacement lamp.
Finally I superglued the painted model to the brass backing and gave the whole lot a coating of satin varnish, Humbrol 135, and I was done!
Little TARDIS in front of big TARDIS.
TARDIS cufflinks completed and ready to wear.
Update April 2013:
Yesterday I went along to the Lords of Time event in Auckland where they had four Doctors (Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann as well as Nicholas Briggs who does the Dalek and Cyberman voices) on stage and signing autographs. I went along to get my TARDIS signed again.
It turned out that day was Peter’s birthday so at the autograph signing I asked him if he ever wore cufflinks. He said yes so I took off my TARDIS ones and gave them to him as a birthday gift.
Of course I then had to drive home shirt sleeves flapping in the breeze.
I might one day make myself another set but for now he has the only ones!
Peter was making his own film of the event it seemed.
August 19th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
[...] DIY: Doctor Who fan Simon Jansen fashioned himself a pair of dapper TARDIS cufflinks from a model train police box, and then probably said to himself, “They’re cufflinks. I [...]
August 19th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
[...] for that classy Dr. Who touch to add to your threads? Simon Jansen made TARDIS cufflinks from an N-scale model train Police Box. It just took some light metalworking (basically using a [...]
August 19th, 2011 at 5:10 pm
[...] for that classy Dr. Who touch to add to your threads? Simon Jansen made TARDIS cufflinks from an N-scale model train Police Box. It just took some light metalworking (basically using a [...]
August 20th, 2011 at 1:42 am
[...] you’ll need to look for some UK miniature train models to find a blue police box.Then read Jansen’s brief worklog to learn how to make your own TARDIS [...]
August 20th, 2011 at 8:36 am
[...] own, you’ll need to look for some UK miniature train models to find a blue police box.Then read Jansen’s brief worklog to learn how to make your own TARDIS [...]
August 20th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
[...] Genius Kiwi makes TARDIS cufflinks. [...]
August 21st, 2011 at 2:01 pm
[...] these from an N-scale police box model. If you’d like your own, head over to Asciimation for the instructions.[Make via technabob]picadService.initialize(); Tweet (function(){var [...]
August 22nd, 2011 at 11:04 am
[...] is exercising his geek chic with these Tardis cuff links. The Doctor Who inspired accessories were made from a model railroad telephone booth. Share [...]
August 22nd, 2011 at 11:24 am
[...] is exercising his geek chic with these Tardis cuff links. The Doctor Who inspired accessories were made from a model railroad telephone [...]
August 22nd, 2011 at 4:02 pm
[...] is exercising his geek chic with these Tardis cuff links. The Doctor Who inspired accessories were made from a model railroad telephone [...]
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:18 pm
[...] is exercising his geek chic with these Tardis cuff links. The Doctor Who inspired accessories were made from a model railroad telephone booth. Filed under: [...]
August 25th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Can someone just make them for me? Love them!
August 27th, 2011 at 3:33 am
[...] Cuff Links and how to make them yourself. [via Geeks Are [...]
August 27th, 2011 at 10:07 am
Yeah, you’ve gone all dapper.
How about an R2D2 cufflink next?
August 28th, 2011 at 6:56 am
[...] highlighly recommend, at the very least, skimming through the creation post. The two pictures below should be teaser temptation enough to lure you [...]
August 28th, 2011 at 9:04 am
Nice, but… http://www.nerdist.com/2011/08/tardis-corset/
August 28th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Yes, seen that one before!
September 16th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Hi Simon! Great cufflinks!
I’m currently enrolled in a CS class where we have to program a small shell on top of DOS. Any way we could use your Star Wars video as an easter egg? That’d be fantastic! We would credit you, of course.
Let me know, you’ve got my email!
January 12th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Speaking of Dr Who related things, I have been trying to contact you about your MAME cabinet, which is amazing! I am also making a 3/4 TARDIS and was wondering if you would be willing to share your blueprints. Any help or advice you could give would be smashing!
July 19th, 2012 at 11:49 pm
[...] might use the same technique I used to make the keys to make some more cufflinks. A cufflink base can be soldered to the copper setting then any picture, old stamps, labels, [...]
August 11th, 2012 at 9:04 am
Love them! Good job!! Nice Rupert scarf too.
Thanks for sharing!