Thus revealed, the creature buried its nose in the tire-tilled soil...
July 11, 2006
Those wacky Daleks...
Category: Art … Linkage

I know, I know -- enough with the Daleks, right? WELL, I happened to find this link -- The Ultimate Dalek Factory -- yesterday evening and just about lost my mind. A BONA-FIDE PATTERN FOR CONSTRUCTING A HOMEMADE DALEK!!! Perfect. I haven't made one yet, though, since the pattern was kind of crude-looking and needed a bit of fixing up IMHO... so after spending hours and hours and hours and hours with my nose several millimeters away from the LCD screen, I ended up with this -- note that I've mirrored it so that the plans can be glued back to back, such that one ends up with a "pure" surface without losing the necessary information for putting the blasted thing together. You will note from the filename, by the way, that this set of plans has been designated "9b", suggesting (rightly, I might add) that I have made a whole bunch of sets of plans for Daleks with different color schemes. I haven't actually constructed any of them yet -- at some point this week I'm thinking I'll go buy some of that glossy photo paper for the occasion, though I may try making a test one beforehand to see how it goes. In the meantime, you're welcome to try your hand at this standard one. 🙂

Ultimately, however, I think the best homemade Dalek will result from a combination of this and previous methods. A la my second homemade Dalek -- at least for certain color schemes -- brass fasteners (or brass fasteners colored black with a sharpie) can be used for the Dalek bumps on the body. The limbs and eyestalk should be made of something less flat in order to preserve the more 3D qualities of the model. (As you can tell, I'm quite fond of using screws for the eyestalk.) Hey, speaking of 3D Daleks, check out these Lego designs.

Yes, I am totally in the grip of the Daleks' power at the moment. And why shouldn't I be? These things are badass! There should be Dalek-flavored ice cream.

I bet it would taste like pistachio.

-posted by Wes | 1:22 am | Comments (6)
6 Comments »
  • De Baisch says:

    You should build a full-size Dalek. You can climb into it and scoot down the street, scaring all manner of passersby.

  • Mickey says:

    You are cracking me up with this Dalek-making binge!! =) They've both come out quite nicely and I think De Baisch has the right idea for your next Dalek project. Do Daleks talk or make any type of noise? Can they be imitated easily?

  • njwt says:

    You madman. You're going to get us all killed!

  • Wes says:

    De: A full-sized Dalek would be a cool project, but also way too involved and expensive for my liking (although I could see making a full-sized cardboard Dalek for a Halloween outfit or something). Hell, I wouldn't even be making these Daleks if the toys hadn't been so costly on eBay et alia -- I would've just ordered my toy Dalek(s) and that would've been that! These guys could probably be made of better materials, too, but the sewing needles and ornamental tacks required to construct a more convincing homemade Dalek would combine to cost as much as the official product! As it is, I'll probably end up ordering one (no rush; they're not particularly rare or on sale) and supplementing my Dalek army with cardboard versions, much like several of the old Doctor Who episodes. 🙂

    Mickey: Daleks do indeed talk (click here for a short video of them doing just that, recorded from the DOS game Dalek Attack)! They're quite famous for screeching, "EXTERMINATE!!!" -- which is I guess one of the reasons that they're so expensive, seeing as how the toy companies can't envision releasing a Dalek figure these days that doesn't also talk (or come with a remote control feature, for that matter). I'd be fine with a standard, stationary 5" Dalek that doesn't do anything!

    Dave: I doubt that an army of tiny cardboard Daleks would be all that menacing -- BUT WE SHALL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH!!! EXTERMINATE!!!

  • davros says:

    how come e bay has no life size daleks

  • Chong McBong says:

    Keep up the good work dudes...

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