How to Build a Tiny TARDIS

If you are a fan of Doctor Who, a BBC television series that has been around longer than I have, you know that The Doctor’s vessel is, at least on the outside, a blue box. This little ornament is a tiny version made completely out of duct tape (plus the string for hanging, if you want to get technical.

If you want to make one for yourself, you’ll need a good self-healing cutting mat and a rotary cutter, a pair of scissors, a sturdy metal ruler, and string.

Oh, you’re going to need duct tape, too. I used several different colors to show contrast between layers, but really the only color that matters is dark blue. The windows are made of a strip of glow-in-the-dark tape, but if you can’t find that, white will do. It won’t be as interesting, but it’ll do.

Begin by laying down strips of tape. Each strip ought to be just a bit longer than 3 inches. The excess will get trimmed down later. Each layer gets three strips, and begins about 1/4″ in from the previous layer. The multiple layers make the walls more rigid and less prone to collapse.

Line the first strip up with a grid line.
Each successive strip touches the previous strip, but does not overlap.
The second layer should begin a little bit in from the first edge.
As before, the strips touch, but do not overlap.
Third layer. Note that it’s also inset.
Fourth and final layer.

Once you’ve laid down four layers, it’s time to trim the top and bottom edges. I use a ruler and rotary cutter to get a precise line, and I use the grid lines on the cutting mat as a guide. The excess is removed and discarded.

Trim the top and bottom edges at the grid lines.
The end result is 3″ tall by a little over 6″ wide.

From this point on, the color of the tape matters, since we’re working on what’s going to become the exterior. Take a strip of blue tape, about 6″ long, and line the top edge with the first line on the grid to cover the lower 2/3. At this point, you might notice that a strip of duct tape is not exactly 2″ wide. It’s actually closer to 1 and 7/8 inches, which makes it fairly easy to divide a strip into three 5/8″ pieces. We’ll need a 5/8″ strip of glow tape, slightly longer than 4″. I only use one 5/8″ strip, and put the other two aside for use in another project, or two more tiny TARDIS models.

A strip of blue goes on the bottom.
A strip of 5/8″ glow tape goes on top.

Don’t worry about the top and bottom edges not being blue. it will be covered up or trimmed off later.

Next, we’re going to take a strip of blue tape and line it up on the cutting mat. It should be a little bit longer than 6″ and be divided up into six 1/4″ and three 1/8″ strips. The last strip won’t be exactly 1/8″, but it will be close enough.

Those 1/8″ marks on the mat really come in handy, don’t they?

The strips are going to become the frame of the blue box. The first three 1/4″ strips become part of the vertical frame. Each strip is long enough to form two verticals, so place the first one carefully and cut off the excess to form the next vertical. The last half of the third strip appears to be an extra, but it will get used later, so save it.

The strips should each be centered on the vertical grid lines.
Cut off the excess and use it for the second strip.
A second strip forms the third and fourth frame.
Save that extra piece from the third strip. It will be needed later.

The next three 1/4″ strips will form the horizontals. Use the grid lines as a guide for the top and bottom strips, and center the middle one between them both.

The bottom edge of the top strip lines up with the grid line.
The top edge of the bottom strip lines up also. The middle strip gets centered between.

The two 1/8″ strips become the remaining verticals. Just as before, each long strip creates two verticals. The final strip, the one that might not be exact, gets saved for later. Keep it secret. Keep it safe.

No grid lines to go by this time. Just keep it centered.
Okay, it’s starting to look like something.

Now it’s time to start cutting out the panels. Using the vertical lines on the mat as guides for the ruler, cut the whole assembly into the four panels and two end pieces. Leave the panels on the mat for now, but stack the end pieces together to make a thick slab. Cut out two 1″ squares and discard the rest.

Cut the slab along the verticals.
Stack the end pieces together to make a thick 1″ slab.
Cut out two 1″ squares. The rest is scrap.

Next, we’re going to form the top and base. To do this, we need a couple of thick slabs. We form them by layering tape in 2.5″ lengths on the mat and cutting the resulting slab in half. Then we’ll center one of those blue squares on each slab. It doesn’t matter that the slab is too large; we’ll trim it down later.

It takes about six layers of tape to get a nice thick base. Cut this in half.
Center the blue squares over the backs. Set these aside for now.

Now we can go back to the panels. Carefully peel them off the mat and lay them upside-down on the mat. Try to keep the same edges together when you position them. Make sure they stay lined up with the grid as you take two 4″ pieces of tape and place them across the back of the panels. Leave a flap on one end to allow the panels to seal together…

Peel off the panels carefully.
Line them back up properly. They’ll hold together.
Cut two 4″ pieces of tape. Color doesn’t matter.
Make sure the panels line up with the grid before you apply the tape.
You’re going to trim the top and bottom.

Using the ruler and cutter, trim 1/4″ off the top and bottom edges. discard the scraps. Fold the panel with the excess tape over, then fold the opposite end over onto the flap. The result will be similar to a tube with corners.

trim the panel assembly down.
The flap is so the ends will seal.
When the right end folds over the left, it seals.
Look… a box! Well, almost.

It’s starting to look very boxy now. to stiffen it up, we attach the base and the top and trim the excess off to make a sealed box.

It doesn’t matter which part goes on first.
A blue box sandwich!
After trimming the crust, it’s now a proper box.

It’s really starting to take shape, now. We’re going to need another long piece of blue tape, cut into strips as follows: one 1/8″, one 3/8″, one 5/8″, one 3/8″, one 1/8″, and one close to 1/8″. The order is important, as the 5/8″ strip will get cut down to 1″ tabs, and we want to make sure there aren’t any neighboring strips left on the mat when it happens.

One 8″-long piece gets cut into strips.

The two 3/8″ strips will go from the top, down one corner, across the bottom to the diagonal opposite corner, and back up to the top. They should cross each other at the bottom, making an “X”. The two 1/8″ strips wrap around the top and bottom, building up the ends.

3/8″ strip goes from one corner at the top…
…down across the bottom…
…and up the other side.
flatten the tape along the edges, and repeat with the other 3/8″ strip on the two remaining corners.
the two 1/8″ strips go around the top and bottom, covering the cap seams.
Almost there.

The 5/8″ strip should now be far enough away from any neighbor that it can safely be cut down to eight 1″ tabs. Four of the tabs are going to cover the base, with the remaining strip wrapping the base to finish the bottom end.

The wide strip gets cut now into eight 1″ tabs.
Each bottom edge gets one tab, which gets folded in like a box top.
The base is almost finished.
Now take the remaining strip and wrap the base.
We’re ready for the final stretch.

Remember those extra strips from way back? It’s time to retrieve them. First, though, we need to make a loop of string. The length is entirely up to you, but it needs to be long enough to loop around a branch, or hook, or whatever. Knot the loop. Now take the shorter of the two strips and cut it in half. loop the string around one of the strips and attach it to the top. the short pieces form an “X”, which centers the string loop. Then we use the four tabs to cover the top as we did the bottom, and use the final strip to wrap around the top.