Competition Time

COMPETITION TIME

My friends at TeeVillian.com have very kindly given me the opportunity to giveaway one of my “Hard Dalek, Cold Dalek” shirts this week leading up to the shirt being available for purchase on Monday (14th Oct)….

So what should we do in ways of a competition…. Well heres how you can enter.

I want you to record yourself singing (yes… singing) the “Hard Dalek, Cold Dalek” song.  I need for you to upload the video to either Facebook, Twitter or even YouTube and post the link on my Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/paulbradfordghi) now you can just sit in front of your webcam and recite the poem or you can get creative, make it stand out.  I want you to use your imagination, no holds barred….

Competition starts NOW, all videos MUST be uploaded and posted to my Facebook by Midnight Friday EST. The Winner will be picked and notified on Sunday.

Now go make some magic…. And Good Luck 

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

Egg-sterminate... Happy Easter!

Last Easter I decided to attempt a very simple Dalek egg, using oven bake clay for the appendages I picked out one of the eggs my daughter had dyed and began converting it....

Very simply drawing the details on with Sharpie then gluing the attachment...

 
This year I decided to attempt a very simple Cyberman egg, it took maybe 15-20mins to actually do everything and being so simple pretty much anyone can do it.

Much like the Dalek I made the additions out of oven bake clay, molding them to the egg to give a good fit.

Baked the clay for 15mins - 225°F

While the clay was baking I sprayed the egg silver

Once the clay had cooled I simply glued them to the egg then sprayed again with the silver

With a Sharpie I drew on the simple face details

Done

Like I said, its a very simple version. I could add more maybe some blue about the mouth maybe even using the oven bake clay sculpt the face but all in all you know what it is and that's what I was aiming for...

With that, I wish you all a fantastic and safe Easter.

What the Cool Geeks are wearing: CAFFEINATE! by APSketches

Todays $10 t-shirt deal of the day over at http://riptapparel.com/ is this Dalek/Starbucks themed design - themed shirt called “Caffinate" by APSketches

The sale began this morning at 00.01 EST and will continue until midnight tonight where this design will no longer be available on this site.  And like most DW themed shirts its already become a 'Popular Item' based on only the sales of the past few hours.

What the cool Geeks are wearing: Sock em Who-Bots

Todays $10 t-shirt deal of the day over at Teefury is this Sock em Who-Bots designed by jkilpatrick

The sale began at 00.01 EST and will continue until midnight tonight where this design will no longer be available on this site.  

Unlike in the Doctor Who series it appears Cybermen may have finally found there only way to beat the Daleks


Ive ordered mine already...

What has season 7 of Doctor Who got in store for us?

It looks like the Doctor is getting a little creative, I just found out about a new line of toys from Character that'll be coming out later this year.  Apparently there was quite the Doctor Who collection at the London toy fair this year. I did managed to get hold of some photos, which I think  could also be quite a good clue as far as whats to come in season 7.

The first is called the Dalek/Cyberman Anti Time device which looks to be a combination of canibalised Dalek and Cyberman parts:

In addition to this pretty neat looking contraption there's also a 'Personal TARDIS', what happens to the TARDIS??

Now this looks like something that's worn on the wrist, much like Captain Jacks Vortex Manipulator, but seeing as River used in 'Big Bang 2' there's got to be more to it. Something I particularly like is just how Steampunk'd everything is. 

Lastly I want to show you the new Trans Temporal Sonic Screwdriver...

with all these new toys giving us some sort of hint as to whats going to happen there seems to me that something is going to happen to the TARDIS maybe it breaks down, gets lost or even stolen.  I'm also guessing that we will be seeing the Daleks and the Cybermen based on the Anti Time Device. Also note the the Dalek eye is from the older style Daleks and not the newer style...

What ever is going to happen its gonna force the Doctor to come up with some new gadget...

Who knows?  All I can say is its gonna be interesting and fun to find out

Doctor Who Papercraft projects

In addition to the cyberman cubies I found a few other papercraft projects that I wanted to share, figured it could be something fun to do with the kids and such...

If you do happen to make some of these, be sure to send me a photo and Ill post it on the blog

A little piece of Skaro, my Dalek Collection

So last week I read a story about a guy who is now in the Guiness book of records for having a collection of 571 Daleks (http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2011-09-15/huge-dalek-collection-wins-guinness-world-record), and it got me wondering....

How many Daleks do I have???

My daughter made me this Dalek for Christmas, its one of my favorites

To be honest once the entire collection was put together I couldnt help but wonder if I really had everything. I mean I was sure there was more but alas I couldnt find any more figures and after counting them all I figure I got a long way to go to beat any world records.....

So the grand total is a mere 45... yeah, I was a little disappointed actually.  But I figure I got years to work on the collection, I'd like to get more of the 5" figures from the classic Doctor Who episodes as well as the 12" RC models.  Theres actually a couple of 18" Daleks that I really want to get a hold of but they range in price up from $250 to $599 on eBay.  Until then I have my own little Sanctuary of Daleks, of which you can add yours to also.

Do you have a Dalek thats just warn out, tired of being defeated by the Doctor? Then you can send him (or her) to my Asylum for Daleks where he will live out his days in comfort and surrounded by others his own kind....

Paul Bradford, Dalek Sanctuary, P O Box 22336 Tucson, Az 85734 USA

Now something to take note of is this is in no way my entire Doctor Who collection, just Daleks.  Tomorrow Im going to go through my other stuff to see just how much I really have... but for now, I have to clear all these from the living room and put them in their rightful places (ie where ever they'll fit)

Geronimo

My Doctor Who T-Shirt Collection

I just wanted to share some of my Doctor Who T-Shirt collection, most of these I got from teefury.com or riptapparel.com with the odd exception of store.glennz.com and obviously the official BBC releases... But I particularly like Tee Fury and RIPT Apparel as they offer one off Ts for $10, the only thing is they are only available for 24hours so I have to check them everyday.  Also of late Ive noticed there's been a couple of not so good shirts being offered, its like quantity instead of quality but still now and again you get a real gem...

When I put them all out on the page I feel like I have more... Im sure I do... and if I do Ill update this page so anyway, just sharing my collection...