Tom Baker sonic screwdriver plans?

[Jamesbeat]

I'm planning on making a 4th Doctor sonic screwdriver, and I'm looking for the most accurate plans.

I understand that the original prop is MIA, but is there a concensus about which drawings are most accurate?

I have been searching extensively, but most threads are old and have missing pictures etc.

I know that the technical manual is generally not considered to be accurate.

 

[19narvik40]

Jamesbeat.

I did what I believe to be a reasonably accurate scale drawing of the 4th Doctor's sonic screwdriver. I jives pretty well with the Character Options one that is/was available through the BBC. I can scan it for you if you are interested, just let me know.

Don

 

[Skippy2k]

I was building a 3d model based off of some plans from the tardis builders forum but looking at it the ring at least appears to be larger so since I've been looking at a lot images lately I was going to try and judge as best as possible. I did see a graphic that showed dimensions of each section but not sure at the moment if it's accurate or not. If you come across any decent one's though I would be interested to see them as well.

 

[Jamesbeat]

Jamesbeat.

I did what I believe to be a reasonably accurate scale drawing of the 4th Doctor's sonic screwdriver. I jives pretty well with the Character Options one that is/was available through the BBC. I can scan it for you if you are interested, just let me know.

Don

Hi Don, yes I'm definitely interested, thanks!

 

[19narvik40]

Jamesbeat,

A small disclaimer here, I did the drawing about twenty years ago. I still believe it is a good basis from which to start. I had originally planned to have it made out of aluminium with a spring action, never quite worked out how I could work in the sound though. The second image is of the 5th Doctor's sonic screwdriver and the main differences are easy to spot. Baker's sonic screwdriver did not have any coloured bands on it. I hope this help you.

Don

 

[Jamesbeat]

Don, those drawings are great, thanks so much!

One question: I see that the handle on the 5th Doctor's sonic looks very fat.
When I first started researching this, I had assumed that the toys had fat handles because they needed room for batteries, sound board etc, but then I noticed that the sixteen 12 version appears to have a very fat handle too.

See this thread:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=59377&page=9

To me, that handle looks way too fat.
Your drawings appear to have a thinner handle, much more like I expected it to be.

Your drawings look a lot like the Russrep version, but I have seen a lot of posts by people saying that the sixteen 12 version is more accurate than the Russrep.

You have obviously done a lot of research and work on this prop, plus you also have the 5th Doctor toy to examine so I'd love to hear your opinion?

 

[Skippy2k]

The CO toys handles are fatter, this is a pic of them compared to the Russ Rep sonic's.


These are some plans I started going by from the tardis builders that I liked overall but then I thought the activation ring looked a bit wide so was going to go back and adjust some things.


And though it doesn't look as pronounced as Davidson's as it looks repainted the band/ring on Bakers does seem to be chipping away to a degree with some color variation there, this is a color where I was trying to figure out the classic color's for a run that's going on on them. Thanks to Terrasolo for some really good references and back and forth!

 

[19narvik40]

The 'toy' sonic screwdrivers are too fat. That is so they can cram in the batteries, electronics and speakers to allow for the sound. It is like the original Star Wars toy light sabers, they were too big because that was the size needed to accommodate the plastic blade inserts. Neither of these, the screwdriver or the saber, were meant to anything more than a reasonable likeness of the original. They were marketed as toys, very nice toys, but toys none the less.

I am obviously missing some essential detail as has been shown in Skippy2K's post. Screen capture on a VHS tape, recorded from a analog TV was iffy at best twenty years ago.
Thank you Skippy2K for sharing those here.

 

[Skippy2k]

Yeah the toys aren't bad, they achieve what they need to. As for the old screen captures in some cases that's about all I was able to find searching on my own but fortunately I was provided some better caps to pick out some details...in some cases trying to decide if it was paint or just shadow so have been doing a lot of looking.

 

[Jamesbeat]

Thanks for those plans, I've seen them before.
They are actually what I based my first build on, and I agree about the activation ring being too wide.
I changed that and a couple of other things, but I don't feel like I have quite got it right yet, hence this thread.

The wide handles on those toys makes sense, but why is the handle on the sixteen 12 one so wide?

People were raving about it on various forums and saying that it was more accurate than the Russrep version, but to me the handle looks just as wide as the toys.

 

[Skippy2k]

Not really in "plan" form yet but I started trying to model it based off the Thunderbirds screencap, overlayed it and compared it to the other just to see how it held up. Only a WIP trying to get the proportions right at the moment but I don't think it's TOO far off. Where the "activation ring' on the old plans above appeared to large it seems to me to just be the same size as the lower collar with the grooves but I'm not for certain what the right size is. I've seen right around 8" suggested and I guess that's pretty close to the CO version.