Bigger On the Inside

You'll have to click to enlarge that diagram.  In this assembly, in order to keep the body actually square, you have to mind the thickness of the panels we have built.  With that in mind, the right way to assemble the parts are with the corners overlapped as in the diagram -- so that on the front side, the fixed panel is glued in front of the left side panel, and the door is assembled with its outside edge touching the inside of the right side panel.

The other thing which is critical as you assemble this step is that all the bottom edges are on the same plane.  If your bottom line is uneven, the box won't stand up straight, or worse: your door won't open and close.

The right thing to do, I think, is to assemble the hinge joint first -- which is essentially a piece of Tesa tape covered on the inside by fabric or flexible plastic.  Join the corner as noted in the diagram.

As you assemble the fixed corners, super glue will be useful, but to maintain the structure, I found that using some scrap pieces cut as corner braces worked very well.

Simply assemble the box and stand it up, and test the door.  It should open easily, and when you close it the magnetic tape should pull gently in the last 5-6mm and draw the door closed.

After you have the walls assembled, this is the right time to add the corner details to the box.  You need to cut 8 strips of mat board 10mm x 220mm, and join them in an "L" shape using super glue.  This operation is a little tricky, but not impossible.  The key is to make the joint fully square and as tight to the edge of the vertical piece as possible.  If you simply can't join the pieces in corners, you can cheat by cutting 4 pieces at 20mm x 220 mm and scoring the wide pieces down the center so that they will fold but not separate.  When you have them formed in an "L" shape, PRIME and PAINT them before adding them to the box.

Be extremely careful when adding the corner where the door hinge is that you only glue the side on the FIXED wall and not the side where the door swings -- otherwise all your hard work to have a door which really swings in will be lost.

Last thing today, which is an important note going forward: because the dimensions of the main body of the TARDIS are going to be variable based on the thickness of the materials you have used (even some mat boards are thicker than others; if you used balsa or some other material, there's no telling what you'll get for final dimensions).  Because of that it will be critical for you to MEASURE THE MODEL YOU HAVE instead of using my dimensions by rote to complete the upper section of the TARDIS.  My dimensions are based on the thicknesses I have planned into the drawing, but yours will vary.  Measure twice, cut once, and assembly carefully the first time, and you'll find your final product will turn out best.

Next time: we do some math and build the angled roof assembly.