Countdown to Christmas
It just about says it all for 2023, really – one of the few projects I actually did complete during the year, I put away for December and then totally forget to post. Here we have a rebuild of the 2003 Countdown set, in what I hope you’ll agree is a significant improvement on my last attempt from way back in 2016.
And what’s more, this one’s done up all nice and camp for Christmas… 2007. At that time, the show was hosted by Des O’Connor and Carol Vorderman, both blissfully unaware that they were soon to be effectively booted out (along with the set, as it happens) for cheaper models.
It was late March and into April when I made this, so you can forgive the memory lapse. But yes, with the exception of the clock, everything was modelled from scratch, working with dozens of reference pictures and clips. The overall scale looks much better than the last attempt, though perhaps the “wall” behind the letters board should be slightly longer. That’ll be covered in the 2030 attempt, I suppose.
Something I did quite enjoy was working with the reflective star stencils dotted all over the place, and not just for the camp. Setting the reflection channel to a spectrum of colour with a strength over 100% worked quite well, with different appearances from different angles. Still a satisfying feature of 3D modelling for me.
Even the big ole clock itself, mentioned previously, has been tweaked a fair amount beyond the festive decoration. The biggest improvement? Probably going to the trouble of varying each bulb’s brightness so that some are dimmer than others. A relic from the show’s inception in 1982, I believe it used incandescent bulbs, hence individual segments wearing out was often noticeable. Thanks to one Adam Beach, fellow Countdown Set Enthusiast, for the suggestion.
And here’s the clock running, showing off the set from multiple camera angles. As if you need telling, the clock is ticking, the countdown to Christmas almost over…
jaywalks 
Beautiful. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2024 Jacob. With love from Holland
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Hi Geke! Nice to see you here! My best wishes for Christmas and the New Year back to you.
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Thank you Jacob
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Good show – glad you remembered to post it. I had a WordPress post sat in the Draft folder for nearly a year getting dusty and forgotten about. The stupidest part was that I didn’t have anything more to add to it, I’d just forgotten to hit the appropriate button (Publish or Delete, Publish or Delete, can’t decide).
The fading of some light bulbs is very effective. If I’m aiming for realism then I nearly always have to “sh1t it up a bit” to use a reference from Friday Night Dinner.
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Oh, I’ve definitely pressed the wrong button before so you’re not alone there. I almost drafted and scheduled it ages ago, but thought nah, I’ll remember. Wrong!!!
Yes, definitely adds realism. I imagine most game show sets are a bit sh1t close up so that’s good advice for these builds.
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Hi there, it is 3D builds like this that remind me I need to continue improving my builds – this looks spectacular. I can however say that I’m now quite adept at using the Schedule button – during the whole month of March I was away on holiday in New Zealand but still posted every week!
And back to light bulbs, I used to be a roadie for a cabaret act and we played a lot of clubs and pubs with Mobile Discos – the type that had two record decks and some cabinets filled with a display of light bulbs (usually the DJ’s name) and there was always dim or blown light bulbs in those displays!
Hope you have a peaceful and joyous time with your family and friends….and all the best for 2024!
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Thanks, FT. It’s certainly a huge step up from my last attempt, which is reassuring.
You are more adept than I! There have definitely been times where I think I’ve strategically scheduled something, only to log in and… where’s the post? Oh, there it is languishing in the draft folder. These things happen, I guess.
You too! All the best!
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Great job, this is miles better than your last attempt. Your work never fails to amaze me! I gave this set a go too in august (https://imgur.com/a/P1rbyOO) as you can see I never really got far and havent touched the project file since then. I’m hoping to start posting more Countdown stuff once I get my own blog set up, stopped doing youtube as people were just constantly harassing me to release all my projects, got a bit overwhelming and annoying to say the least.
Anyways, I remember Adam mentioning the light bulbs, im pretty sure I saw somewhere (most likely from your comment sections) that at one point during the pink set era that the lights wouldnt come on and they had to do a few rounds without them, would be interesting to see that episode if it shows up.
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Thanks so much! Sorry to hear that about YouTube, but I do understand. Looking forward to seeing more of your work, it’s getting so good!
Yes, an old post on the C4Countdown forum mentioned the lights not coming on. I don’t remember seeing that, but I do recall a light (think it was around the 5 second mark) going out; they just used the zoomed in numbers shot during rounds from then on.
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No problem! likewise and thank you 🙂
Ah thats where I saw it too, found the link for it (http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=144861#p144861) Seems like the pink era was when the clock started giving them problems, it was over 20 years old by that point so i can understand that the amount of use probably just wore it down, im surprised they didnt get it fixed or replaced earlier.
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That’s the one. Yeah, it probably played up now and again but became less and less reliable as time went on. A post above that mentions it being moved around a lot at MediaCity causing problems. I guess it must have been in bad shape for them to build a whole new model instead of just replacing the mechanism.
At least the new one looks pretty much the same – we could so easily have ended up with something like the Celebrity Letters and Numbers. 😲
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⭐☃️༶･･ᗰદ૨૨ʏ ᘓમ૨ıડτന੨ડ･･༶☃️⭐
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Thanks again, Cindy. Merry Christmas!
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Brilliant as usual Jay – your builds look better every time! The clock lights being lit up at different intensities also gives it a nice touch. Yeah, those lights supposedly went out a lot and still do even on the new clock. In fact, the old clock has now suffered even more damage this year as the handle is now hanging off as well as some parts peeling away. I’ve got a photo of it if you’re interested – I suspect that they might remove the clock from public display. Nicely enough MediaCity is only a 15 minute drive away from me.
I did the 2009 clock too if you want to have a quick look: https://imgur.com/a/6n0aNBe
Amyway, Merry Christmas and have a happy new year, wishing you all the best.
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Thanks, Jack! Yeah, the new clock will have the same problem, but the LED lights should last longer, at least in theory.
It’s a shame to hear the old one is falling apart. If it’s that bad, maybe they will just get rid of it.
That 2009 attempt looks fab!
Merry Christmas to you too. Thanks for all your nice comments!
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Here’s the image showing the broken handle: https://imgur.com/a/7K8Ca8x
Now it’s hard to notice but if you look close enough you can see it. I should’ve got a better angle when I took it. Personally, it looks to me like someone has deliberately pulled the handle to cause that.
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Most probably yeah. Hopefully it can be fixed.
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