Dalek Build - Week One

SO it has begun, I've finally gotten around to starting my Dalek build.  Not sure if your aware but I have built one before probably 10 years ago now but I sold it before I moved to the USA.  Since then both my wife and I have said that I should build a replacement and so Allons-y......

First things first, all the help and information you need to build a Dalek can be found right here: http://www.projectdalek.com/ these guys and girls have been building Daleks for many many years and theres everything you would need to know about making a Dalek contained in their forum.

The Second thing you need to know is that you cant just go ahead and buy Dalek parts, most of the bits that make up a Dalek are sourced from various locations mostly only available in the UK, so either your goign to have to pay some silly overseas shipping costs or you make stuff yourself (or you find someone who can make it for you)

So where to start, well most people start from the bottom and work their way up so I should do that... Yeah I should probably do that but in stead I'm going to start at the top.  But first which Dalek am I going to build, well my first Dalek was a Special Weapons Dalek, so I think I wanna go that route.  However, I'm going to go with a more modern look, something thats not been on the show.  I while back I saw a very special looking Dalek called "Storm" this is a little to much but the guy who designed this, 'MechMaster' has created a comic book featuring a number of different types of Daleks. I recommend checking out the comic book.  Its not canon to the Doctor Who Daleks but it is pretty original and I love the idea of the different Daleks... http://www.mechmaster.co.uk/

Ok so back to my Heavy Weapons Dalek (Yes 'Heavy' Weapons not Special) after probably an hour of reading through the comic book I came across a Dalek that was just what I was looking for.... its got a modern look, but still obvious what it is, plus its going to have a number of design challenges that I'm kinda looking forward to tackling.

Concept Drawings:

Now what Im actually intending on doing is a mixture of this and the 2005 Dalek also known as the New Series Dalek or NSD. Im also going to honor my first Dalek but using the same colour scheme (Ivory/White and Gold).

So using the Plans for the NSD as a guild I went a head and started building my Eye.

Using some guttering parts and tubing (all from Home Depot) I got to building...

THE EYE

the white discs are from those 6" taps lights, it just so happened that we had a few days with out power to the back of the house and my wife had bought 6 of these to light up the rooms without electric, now the electric is back on and the lights are just sitting there..... well no one was really gonna miss them and they were really just in the way... anyway I used three hole saws to create 3 pairs of discs for the Eye stalk.

NOTE: something you should probably know at the start is that I dont have a bunch of tools nor do I necessarily have the right tools, I make do with what I got and so this build really isnt something that someone wanting to me an accurate replica is going to want to use as any sort of guide.  That said because this is my hybrid version of two different Daleks its probably going to be a lot of trial and error going on.

discs sanded and tidied up I'm now putting bits together and its starting to look like a Dalek Eye.  First thing that I though as I put this together was how much bigger it was that I first thought it would be.

One of the problems I had was two of the discs broke while I was attaching them to the stalk, now i did manage to glue them back together but you could see a repair.... this is not gonna be an issue though because I'm going to make this guy war torn, and battle scared. I've always preferred the weathered look to a gleaming paint job.  Both my TARDIS and K9 are weathered and I personally feel it adds so much more character.

Dome Lights

While I wait for paint to dry and what not, I decided to attempt the Dome light housings.  Using scrap wood I had laying about, and those hole saws I set about cutting the wood.

The Lenses I picked up off eBay, as you can see they arent the right ones, at least not the ones used in on the original NSD but when I saw these I knew I had to have them, they are a little bigger than the NSD lenses but I managed to modify the housing slightly so they would fit, and again IMO these look 'badass' which is what you would get if you were the Heavy Weapons Dalek.  They also look a little like my TARDIS lamp....

Back to the EYE

I bought some Rustoleum Aged Copper spray and I started to colour the eye...

Im not 100% sold on it just yet, it looks a little too glittery, but that might just be while its wet.  Ill leave it to dry over night and see how it looks tomorrow.  Its a nice colour but I'm just not 100% yet.

so thats where I am right now.... the Eye and the Dome lights.

Ill be wiring up the Eye with one of my UV LEDs and I've defused the iris using a milk bottle, Ill post pictures once its all assembled until next time...

Geronimo