Tuesday 23 December 2014

From EdwinK - 28mm Daleks (50 Points)

Well, it's been a time coming, but here is my first 'proper' submission to the Challenge (I did submit my Stalin lookee-likee to the Cold round).




These, I sure most will recognise as Daleks.  They are 28mm figs from Black Tree Designs Dr Who range - a patrol of six, a Special Weapons Dalek, two destroyed Daleks, and Davros: making a total of ten.

I had read that the casting of the Daleks didn't live up to BTD's usual standards, and sadly this was true.  I shall go into more detail about this on my own blog!  It's a shame really.  If there was a ready supply of better-cast reasonably-priced Daleks, I'd be happy painting hundreds of the buggers in their different permutations.


The Special Weapons Dalek is a particularly bad sculpt (I'm going to blame the sculpt rather than casting here).  However, in The Canon SWDs are supposed to be particularly bonkers Daleks and consequently grimy and run-down (because, y'know, normal Daleks care about their appearance and keep trim!).  This, I think, allows me to get away with some wonkiness.



I've spoken elsewhere about my colour choices (basically those of my childhood introduction to the beasties).  To compensate for settling on the most boring Dalek livery of all time, I've given them a Supreme Dalek, resplendent in gold and black, as leader.  And I could leave Davros out, could I?



For the destroyed Daleks I've again gone for the classic look (the squidgy bits of modern Daleks appear to be pink rather than green).  Having said that, I haven't replicated the dyed Fairy Liquid that I associate with wounded Daleks...


I had something of a disaster with the bases (the glue attaching them to the Jenga sticks proving stronger than the plastic), so as a consequence some will have to be re-done.

From Curt:

I have to make an embarrassing admission:  I've never really watched any 'Dr. Who'. You see, when I was a kid living waaay up in the North we only had two TV channels and neither carried the program (they barely carried anything except Hinterlands Whos Who and Hockey Night In Canada). By the time I had a TV in my apartment in my 20s I thought the series as rather, well, quaint and dorky and so instead stuck to watching re-runs of 'Space 1999'  (Barbara Bain was sooo hot...) .
So suffice it to say that my cultural savvy regarding Daleks is pretty limited. So when I saw these I thought, 'Hmm, I'll check Daleks out on Wikipedia so I can get a frame of reference.'   
Holy smokes! I had no idea...
The wiki page goes on and on and with an incredible amount of detail regarding the history, legends and lore of these creatures - it's amazing. It almost makes me want to watch the series, well, sort of.
Anyway, from my position of ignorance these look pretty darn cool. Of course I particularly like the Supreme Dalek with its bling carapace, and Davros looks suitably nefarious fiddling with his dials, knobs and buttons.  Can I ask what the various pointy things are supposed to do? Are they different types of beam weapons? And what about the bumpy bits? (Cringes, awaiting the scorn of Brit-TV Nerds around the world...)
A wonderful entry Edwin!  I thank you for an hour well-spent reading about Kaleds and the stair controversy. :)

26 comments:

  1. Thank you. If you think the Wikipedia entry is detailed, you want to see what else in on the internet! Should you want to build your own full-sized or want to know the detailed history of the individual Daleks used in the show, it's all there.

    Most of the bits of the Dalek are only explained retrospectively by fandom. Sometimes these explanations have become 'Canon'.

    The short sticky out bits is a weapon (variously firing bullets, flames, gas or some sort of electrical discharge).

    The longer is the 'plunger', used for manipulation. Is fairly useless, leading to the knowing joke in an early episode of the 'new' Dr Who - "What are you going to do with that - suck me to death!?' (Dalek proceeds to do just that). Variants ('Engineers') in the Peter Cushing movies have pincers.

    The bumpy bits ('hemispheres' or 'hemis') are apparently some kind of sensor and have also served as self-destruct mechanisms.

    I hate myself for knowing all this ;-)

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    1. No-one else has had to sit an exam on their subjects ("Tamsin, when did the Mongols cross the Great Wall?"). Surely this arcane knowledge is worth an extra point or two?

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  2. Lovely .... my trouble with Daleks is the Spike Milligan Sketch ... the Pakistani Daleks,
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0n88tZQc4Q

    I really cant take them in anyway seriously after that!

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    1. Ah, the Pakistani Daleks. I kid you not, but "Dalek Seven-2 fulfilled the role and [this] was the last time the original Dalek Two's skirt would be seen on television".

      http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/genesis-of-the-daleks.htm

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  3. Nice work Edwin. Shame about the quality of the models. BTD have so many nice figs but I've never had ANY luck trying to buy from them so I've given up entirely. At least that saved me from poor product I guess...

    @DaveD you beat me to the Spike sketch! One of the funniest things ever made if you are a Who fan.

    @Curt you made my day with the Space 1999 comment! I was hooked on it since day one and have only just finished re-watching the whole thing for about the tenth time. BB was indeed hot, never mind Catherine Schell...

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    1. Catherine Schell! The origin of my abiding interest in redheads.

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  4. EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! Awesome to see this Daleks. They look really good and complete with Davros. EXTERMINATE! Two thumbs up and also a Dalek Plunger up. cheers

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    1. The Davros figure is quite nice really - shows what could have been done with the Daleks...

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  5. As they are old style Daleks I'm making straight for the stairs. Being the BBC in the 60's I think they were based on a salt shaker and armed with a whisk and a plunger. Even so they are the most iconic of all British Sci Fi monsters and Davros was especially creepy - think evil Stephen Hawking.
    Great submission

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  6. Edwin

    Great job with dodgy figures.
    EPIC FAIL Curt - I get the point about two channels and early vintage Who shows, but the the reboots are well done and freely available in Netflicks, YouTube and off the back of a TARDIS.
    Cheers
    PD

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, but I only have so much time budgeted for TV and Dr Who just doesn't make the cut. I know, heresy, but there you have it. I'll have to live vicariously through others like Edwin and your good self. :)

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  7. The daleks look really good, Edwin! My kids love the show and watch it often in the Summer.
    @Curt- I cannot mock you for lack of knowledge of Dr Who, as I had at least 5 extra channels with UHF and Chicago and Detroit in range! Besides, you mentioned Space 1999! I'll take an Eagle over the Enterprise any day of the week! ;)

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  8. Always a shame to receive bad sculpts/miscasts but you've made a cracking job of them Edwin :)

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  9. Love them, Daleks are the coolest anyway but you made them even cooler

    Ian

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    Replies
    1. No. The supreme jumps out, the greys look dull - I've done something wrong!

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  10. Terry Nation would be proud of them. And he would also no doubt be proud of you.

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    1. He'd think "I spent ten minutes on these in 1964. It's 2014 and you haven't hover cars?! Why?!!!"

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  11. Great work Edwin. Gluing figures to paint sticks has never worked for me. I also inherited some 6mm guys super glued to popsicle sticks. Now I want to seek out episodes of Space 1999. I haven't seen that in ages.

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  12. Why do you like so much these daleks? This is something curious for me.
    Great painting work, by the way.

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    Replies
    1. It's a British thing. Born between 1950 and and 1975 thing...

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    2. I was born in 1981 and as a child, when I watched Dr. Who, I was more of a fan of the Cybermen.

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  13. Looking good. Painting up poor sculpts can be a real pain and can seriously deflate motivation, I find.

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