English Phone Box Domed Roof Help

[JustAShadow]

Greetings All,
I am currently working on a K2 English Phone Box for a production and have run into a slight hiccup with the roof. My new plan to create the dome is to cut strips of 1/8" ply perhaps 2" wide and layer them over the roof frame to achieve the needed curve. Any other suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time.



Edit to add: The roof of the phone box measures 37" square, the face pieces have a radius of 30" and the top of the dome has a radius of 36" and the peak of the dome is 4 7/8" above the peak of the face.

 

[Van]

If I were attempting this feat. < which I might have to for one of my geeky friends who wants a "Tardis looking Bookcase"...> I would cut a square of 1/8th" then scribe a 2" crircle in the very center. The fromceneter point of each side I would make a lign to the center point of the opposite side. Using a skill saw or a bandsaw with a wide kerf blade I would cut those center lines to the point where they intersect the center circle. Now line up the center lines < of the square> with the center line of your two large arches and tack down the center circle of the square. The kerf lines will act as relief cuts as you proceed to tack down the plywood to the exterior frame. there is going to be overlap when you are done at which point I would grind down the excess luan and sand/fill finish the seams. You could repeat theis process a couple times if need for thickness. Alternatively you could do the math and calculate the diameter of each 'arch'. Figure out the distance of each string < I think that is the right term... "section of an Arc"> you are using. Then cut out four individual peices with the appropriatly curved edges......
Either way you might want to steal a steamer from the costume shop < if you don't have one in the wood shop> to heat up the ply to make it more plyable.

 

[Van]

Or you could hang the box upside down tck some muslin to the center then treat it as an upohlstery project. let Gravity provide the proper bulge. then when all tacked treat the muslin with Fiberglass resin or even and old dope mixture.

 

[FatherMurphy]

Model railroaders often staple or glue strips of cardboard together into a basket-weave sort of mesh to make various hill shapes, and then drape paper towels dipped in plaster (or just-add-water plaster bandages) over the cardboard grid. Once the shell is hard, then they add more plaster as free-hand sculpture or latex shape castings. You could do something like that here, if weight/durability isn't a issue.

Or, layer up some extruded styrofoam, and start shaping it with a surfoam tool (open-toothed rasp). Some sort of sandable filler to smooth it out before painting, or some glue-dipped muslin, and you'd be there.

Wonder if anyone has a vacuform mold for these? If you had time and money, they're taking these out of service in the UK, and there's yards full of them waiting to be scrapped or sold.

 

[ravenfan91]

which I might have to for one of my geeky friends who wants a "Tardis looking Bookcase"...>.

Van, what your friend is looking for is actually a British police box, not phone booth.

 

[JustAShadow]

Update on the phone booth dome: I ended up going with a combination of wire mesh, stretched muslin, Foam-Coat, Featherweight joint compound and another layer of muslin. It turned out very nicely overall I think. Thanks again for the help.