Pete’s Dalek – Head and Neck
Back to Pete’s Dalek.
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Starting off the process, the dome plug is made from plaster shaped with a piece of chipboard cut into the half-profile of the dome. This is spun around the central shaft, adding extra plaster to end up with a smooth finish. I did a pretty bodgy job of it with lots of little dimples and rough edges but it was more or less OK. |
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Because I had so many surface imperfections I had lots of smoothing out to do. The plaster plug was sealed with PVA and then primed with auto-paint primer. Then I sprayed on lots of spray putty and sanded back. This was done repeatedly till the surface was more even. You can see from the photo that sanding back the different coloured putty and primer leads to some cool patterns. Looks almost like a planet with topographic relief shown in colours. |
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Here is the fibreglass mould. What a bodgy job! I learnt some lessons here, like that you can never wax a mould too much. The dome came out OK and I was ready to go to the next stage. |
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The dome turned out OK considering it was my first try at fibreglassing but next time I know I could do better.This photo shows me priming the finished dome after removing from the mould and trimming the excess bits off the bottom. Actually I’m just pretending to spray paint it – there’s no way I’d use that paint without a spray mask – it’s toxic. |
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Here I am finishing off the eye-stalk discs and eye-pivot block. I cut the discs out of 6mm MDF. To get the edges perfect I drilled a hole in the centre and put a bolt through and inserted the bolt into the drill chuck so I could spin the disc against sandpaper. Then I coated the discs in high-build wood primer and sanded them smooth. Then it is auto primer and shade of blue I thought was “close enough for government work”. |
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There are some very involved ways of making the hemispheres that sit around the skirt of a dalek. There are 56 hemispheres needed in total. I have gone for the cheats option and am using perfectly sized Christmas baubles. These were on special and I got more than enough for 60 hemispheres for $50. The baubles are also used for the back of the eyeball. This photo shows me cutting the bauble in half with a box knife heated by my metho camp stove. When hot, the knife cuts through like butter and the mould line gives you a perfect line to cut on. Smells a bit manky though. How do you like my apron! |
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A shot of the bits so far. You can see the basic stage of the eyeball with a bauble and a sanded block of MDF sheets making up the eyeball. The discs are coloured and on the aluminium shaft.The shaft goes over a length of threaded bar. Once all the bits are on you do up the ends with nuts and the eye-stalk is done. Also note the mini side lights I picked up from a wreckers for $5 each. |
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Here is the dome with eyestalk in place. You can see how the eyeball came up after priming, sanding and painting with 2-pac black paint and clear coat. Fine sanding with 2000 grit wet and dry and then rubbing with compounding paste gives a great glossy finish. The eye slot is cut and the eye pivot is in place. The eye pivot sits on a simple ply support ring inside the dome. |
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Now for the neck rings. I tried making a jig to hold the cheap and nasty jigsaw to cut at 45 degrees but it kept running off line. The saw later died, but then it did cost $15. I found the best way was to just hand cut the disc and then sand the outer edge manually. |
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I pinned the centre of the neck ring disk to some chipboard with a piece of dowel. Now I could spin the disc around against a 45 degree block with coarse sand paper to shave the edges down to a perfect angle and in a perfect circle. It worked really well but took a while and gave me a sore arm. You have to wear dust mask and eye protection here as MDF dust is horrible, horrible stuff. |
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Here’s one of the neck ring disks primed with wood paint. The next step will involve sanding and priming with auto primer. All this will be done with the disc intact. Only when I’m happy with the finish do I drill the neck strut holes and cut the inside of the discs. I had to cut a groove into the side of the disc to get the jigsaw started and this will need filling with car body filler. |
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While the neck ring disc paint is drying I made the clover-leaf neck struts from three 6mm dowels glued together. Lots of high build wood primer is layered on to allow them to be sanded to a smooth finish. Then its auto paint primer. The dome, neck ring and other main parts are all to be painted in Rover Tempest Grey auto colour. I got this mixed at an auto paint supplier. This will be one of the last jobs to do. Hopefully none of the bits will look like they’re made of wood, but rather from space age materials designed for use in the Mark III Travel Machine. |
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After priming the neckring disc with wood primer, I sprayed on auto primer and spray putty. Then it was time to sand it back with fine wet and dry 1500 grit to get a nice smooth finish |
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Here are two of the neck rings with the centres cut out with the jigsaw. I’ve also drilled the holes for the neck ring struts. You can also see the neck struts cut to lenght and primed and sanded ready for the final coat of paint. You will also notice an old can of beetroot. I like beetroot. |
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I was never very happy with the finish of the dome, and I still think I could do a better job if I started again, but I decided to fix it up a bit. I used quite a bit of car body filler and spray putty to help smooth it out some more and also to straighten up the line along the side where the dome profile goes from straight to curved (if you know what I mean). I think I made a good job of improving it. |
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Here we go starting to assemble the neck rings onto the struts. There are some gaps around the struts where they go into the drill holes and I will have to fill these later to get a neat finish. |
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I was very pleasantly surprised at how easily this all came together. The fit was good and everything is pretty straight. A couple of the struts were a little off perpendicular, but not too bad. the most exciting thing is how it is actually starting to look like a Dalek. |
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Here is a pic of a very exciting looking bit of woodwork. It is the neck bin. This sits inside the neck ring cage and has the mesh covering that enables the operator to see out as he drives around exterminating people. This shot shows the bin in its raw state. I will paint it black, but as it is behind the mesh there is no need to give it any sort of fine finish. |
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Here is the neck bin covered in black voile cloth and flyscreen. I think it looks a little light which will mean you’d be able to see my head whilst I’m driving the Dalek. I might need to add some more voile cloth to make it darker. |
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This photo shows the little Lego wheels I used to make the dome support disc spin on the top of the neck bin. I felt bad about buying the cool little truck toy and then dismembering it to get the wheels. The tyres are soft rubber which helps to keep the noise down when rotating the dome. |
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Here’s a shot of the head and neck so far. I’ve attached the mini lights “ears’ but one of the mounting rubbers is a bit loose and old (second hand) and if I don’t replace it I can see the ear lamp falling off and breaking. Back to the shop again. I have yet to put in the control for the dome but I’ll do that once I’ve done the shoulders. |
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Copyright©2006 Rob Baskerville – All Rights Reserved
http://www.chillibob.com/chillibob@chillibob.com/last revised 23 April 2006
January 3, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Hi Great looking dalek and thanks for posting your builders blog,my friend built his genesis dalek about a year ago ,good news for me is that he has a spare dome for me to build a dalek of my own ,i think that daleks will make the ultimate halloween costume,,instead of saying ”Trick or Treat” ,but the commands are now ”TREAT OR EXTERMINATE!!!!