Dalek Build Week Three

its update time...

I was away for the weekend attending Phoenix ComiCon and so wasnt able to get any building done, but I did manage to get a day off this week so I decided that I would give my build another attack...

So I started work on the skirt section...

I used chip board (Particleboard) for the frame, which was great initially BUT for some reason when I went to attach the panels I found that the top section of the frame had moved about an inch to the left, and what had actually happened was the front support had warped.  This was probably something to do with the heat here in Tucson and the holes I had cut out of it attempting to reduce the weight a little. 

Whatever the reason was I had to take off all the panels I had already attached, realign the top part of the frame and reattach everything, I suspect that attaching, detaching and reattaching is going to be a common theme for this build...

the thing I like about a custom build is the little additions and the customising of parts, you cant really get it wrong....  You'll also notice the holes int he back panel for the vents, I liked the way the MK6 Daleks looked with those additions so I wanted to add them to my NSD hybrid.

with just a few hours left before it gets dark I decided to make start on a few more things.... and with not much else to do I decided to start on the Hemis.  I wanted to approach this whole project with a patient and when I get the time type of thing but as Im sure most of you have experienced, when you start to see it coming together you want to use any spare time to do a little more....  Right now my back is killing me so I'm taking it easy but hoping that it feels better later so i can get out there and continue to put the hemis together.

Im sure you've noticed from the photos I dont have a workshop nor a shed or garage to work in, so Im working in the shade of a Pomegranate tree and it gets really hot here and the bugs.... wow

but anyway.... heres the latest update.

for the Hemi surrounds I used quart lids purchased from Home Depot 55c each

while these dried I made start on the vents (on the back panel) using scraps of MDF left over from the skirt panels.

Back to the Hemis.... (as you can see I rabbit trail..... bouncing from one thing to the other then back again).  Again using scraps of MDF I cut 54 3 1/2inch circles these are then glued in to the hemis with a nut and spacer keeping it in place.

a hole cut in the centre of the quart lid and you have a hemi and surround.

left these overnight to allow the glue to dry..... now this next bit I think pretty much every Dalek builder has done at around this point of their builds.....

I wanted to see how the skirt looked with some of the hemis attached....

the only thing Im questioning right now is the black surround, being that Im building this to imperial colours Im wondering if I should make the surround the same colour as the hemi.  The skirt will be an Ivory colour and Im worried that the black surround with be to much....

what do you guys think???

This Happened..... @PhoenixComiCon

So I got to meet and hang out a little with none other than Captain Jack Harkness himself, John Barrowman. What a showman.... played to the crowds and really just seemed to have an endless energy throughout his appearance at Phoenix ComiCon.

Definitely one of my highlights to the weekend,

John was also very kind enough to sign K9 for me..... I was hoping to take my Dalek Dome but with everything else I was taking there was just no room for it..... none the less having K9 signed and the time I was able to spend talking with John was just fantastic.

Why does River Song divide Doctor Who fans?

As if there wasn't enough Doctor Who anniversary fun this year, today we reach another milestone. It's five years since we first met Alex Kingston's lovelorn archaeologist River Song, and the phrases "Hello sweetie" and "Spoilers" became instant catchphrases. The show's official Twitter feed has declared it #RiverSongDay and there's a flurry of activity going down at the BBC's Doctor Who site.

River has been more divisive than almost any other character in Doctor Who history. Regular visitors to this blog will know that my love for her is unending. Her combination of lavish camp, gun-toting badassery and desolate heartbreak makes her my perfect woman.

Not everyone agrees. Some fans find River too smug and theatrical. Kingston has attracted criticism for vamping it up just a bit too much – something that was becoming a problem around the time of Let's Kill Hitler, and has, thankfully, been dialled down since. In addition to this, her story was at the centre of the divisive season six/32. The ongoing plot that would reveal her as Amy and Rory's daughter, kidnapped and brainwashed to kill our hero, was a bold and intricate development, but it gave rise to accusations that the show was becoming too complicated, which in turn became a stick haters used to gleefully beat the show.

But most of all, River's detractors are the people still clinging to the notion of a sexless Doctor, a noble hero above such human fripperies as love. That seems to me the most curious argument of all. At every stage, his reaction to every advance has been one of awkward confusion. The relationship was never tenable, and not just because she could drive the Tardis better than him. Around her, he became impish and petulant. "When one's in love with a lonely god," she told Amy last year, "one does one's best to hide the damage." And there is precedent for romantic involvements. Back in the old days, the Doctor was devastated when Jo Grant left in The Green Death, and the 10th Doctor's relationship with Rose became a romantic tragedy by the end. Yet even though River has been doing all the chasing, and the Doctor she "married" was actually the Tesselactor robot, she has been the most obvious conduit for the character's steady shift towards love.

In the stunning recent series finale, everything changed again. The River we met this time was post-Library, a manifestation of her consciousness brought to life through Vastra's "conference call". When faced with the question of why he never went back to the Library, the Doctor said: "I thought it would hurt too much." A trembling River replied: "I believe I would have coped." But that was not what he meant. "I thought it would hurt me," said the Doctor, "and I was right."

Quite apart from the big John Hurt revelation, that devastating send-off was something else completely new. The Doctor publicly declared love for a woman, and initiated the kiss himself. It's a development that has led many people to predict that this was Kingston's final appearance, their romance given its tragic end. The BBC, of course, will reveal nothing, and while there are plenty of ways to bring River back, at whatever point in her timeline, the poetry of it would suggest that scene could well have been her swansong.

So, this #RiverSongDay, let's take the chance to salute this precocious buccaneer. Let us know where you stand in The Great River Debate. Tell us your favourite moments. And what do you think really happened that night they met Jim The Fish?

[source]

Latest Doctor Who shirts via Redbubble

As well as work, and building my Dalek I've had a lot of fun designing Doctor Who themes Parody shirts.  Over the past month or so I think I've designed a couple of really cool looking tees....

Check them out:

Just click the image and it will take you tot he Redbubble site where you can purchase any of these Tees

Allons-y

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