My First Dalek.

One reasonably accurate 1963 Mk1 Dalek (with a few minor modifications).

The Dome

The dome itself is supposed to be made out of fiberglass. All the materials are readily available at Home Depot and aren't that expensive. While it doesn't look that difficult, I've never done it before and just don't feel comfortable experimenting with that on my own. Also, as I think I've mentioned before, I'm building this thing in my tiny studio apartment. There's just no way I could do that in here anyway.

So I needed an alternative material that didn't involve using toxic chemicals near where I sleep. I decided to give it a try with paper mache. I've had quite a bit of experience making large and ridiculous things out of paper mache, and have gotten pretty good at it. I was pretty confident that with enough layers, I could make the dome strong and smooth enough, and that it would at least work as a temporary solution until I work up the nerve (and have the space) to do a fiberglass version.

two copies of LA Weekly

a light coat of watered down spackling paste, and then sanded

a coat of Elmer's Wood Glue

a hole cut to run the eye stalk through



The Dome Mould

Here's how I made the mould for the dome. I started by drawing out a template for the shape and arc of the dome from the Dalek plans.

I cut out the dome shape from the posterboard. Then I measured out the number and sizes of plywood discs I would need to cut to build up the structure of the mould.

I cut discs out of plywood and glued them together to get pretty close to the shape it is supposed to be and then mounted them on a plywood plank with a screw in the middle so I could rotate it.

I mounted a piece of MDF with half of the dome arc cut into it on the side.

The I used spackling paste to fill out the rest of the shape of dome. As I spun the plywood disc part, the board on the side would scrape away the excess paste, leaving the correct shape of the dome behind.

I let it dry out for a few days, then lightly sanded it to smooth it out a bit more and then gave it a coat of paint.



The Neck Rings

Since I didn't have a any good way of cutting the rings out of single pieces of plywood or MDF at the right thickness (nevermind routing a 45 degree angle on the outside of each), I had to come up with an alternative method.

I decided to build them up in layers of thin MDF and foam core board. This also had the advantage of making them much lighter than plywood or solid MDF would have been.

I solved the 45 degree angled edge problem by making the top layer of each ring the diameter it would have been had I cut the angle in later. I then filled the space with spackling paste, and painted them.

I made the MK1 clover shaped struts by gluing together 3 1/4" wooden dowls and painting them silver.

Dome Lights

I started with the same kind of parts I used for the eye light. Instead of blue, I used two white LED's mounted in bolts and ran those through burnt out tea light holders. I used ping pong balls for the covers, since that's what the originals looked like. Rather than the dimmer switch I used for the eye light, I connected an on/off switch that I'll mount somewhere inside so the Dalek operator can make the lights blink while it speaks.