- Build Diary Main Menu
- Head & dome lights
- Neck
- Mid section
- Skirt
- Fender
- Inside Minty
- Painting
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Head dome
The head dome section is made up of several different parts, the head dome, the eye stalk and the dome lights. The dome is a fibre glass dome. You can make a dome but there is a reasonable amount of work, as you need to make a former and then with it, shape a huge blob of plaster. Then dry it off and coat it with release gel, then fibre glass it up to make a negative which will become the mould. Having made the negative mould, coat the inside with release agent and fibre glass your dome. When cured release it from the mould and finish it off. I knew from information read and conversations had, it was not always as easy as it sounds. I had no fibre glass skills and did not think it worth making one, when I could obtain a good one for £30.
I read the guild plans (to visit the Dalek Builders Guild, see the links page) for the dome movement, I opted for a circle of wood with four holes cut out and the eye stalk supports mounted on it (as per diagram left).
It is important to test fit the and ensure it is positioned correctly and is level. If not, your dome will never swing in a level line !
I attached the turning circle with 4 x 40mm fixing angles bent to match the dome angle.
The eye stalk assembly was attached to this assembly and the eye stalk movement was added to the dome turning circle prior to the head dome being attached.
Cutting the eye stalk slot in the Dalek dome was not easy and was quite nerve racking. You could only guess how much room the slot needed to be able to raise and lower the eye stalk.
It was achieved by trimming a pilot hole and then enlarging it slowly to increase the size to try and achieve the desired 
effect.
Much later in the build, almost at the end (after painting) the light bolt holes were drilled into the dome. The whole eye movement needed to be tested and checked. I then bolted them to the turning circle and glued them into the dome.
Lastly I drilled a hole in the centre of this to ensure that the locating bolt would make the dome turn from the centre each time.
The Eye stalk
The eye stalk circles are made from MDF padded with two smaller thinner circles, one each side and filled and smoothed to provide a chamfered outline. The four discs are different sizes, measurements were obtained from photos and other reliable sources of information.
Tthe eyeball itself is made from the a modified stainless steel sugar bowl ! A disc of MDF was carefully cut to size and fitted to the end with another disc ontop, to create the different levels.
Drilling the hole in the end to secure the bowl to the eye slak was really tricky as stainless steel is quite tricky to drill through. When assembled, filled and carefully sanded it was ready to bolt onto the eye stalk tube.
Dome Lights
The lights were made with two slices of tube, two dished domes and two perspex or 
acrylic rings cut to size with polished edges.To built the dome lights, I began by carefully cutting two 20mm slices of tube with a hand saw and then lightly sanding any rough edges. Next I made two MDF rings to go inside them so I could anchor the tube to the dome. I then cut and polished two rings of 6mm perspex. When complete they looked like large clear polo mints. I then added the domed dishes bought from EMA model supplies (see links page).
Originally Minty had 12v 21w lights but I have changed to super bright white LED's as I melted my domes due to the heat output of the lamps in a confined space.
This was one of the most tricky parts of Minty to build and required precision and lots of patience with the sanding and polishing of the perspex rings.
The last photo shown in this section is of a completed dome light. You can see the bolts that will be used to fix the light assembly to the head dome.
The wiring for the lights is first attached to the head ome and the bulbs are then pushed through thte opeing in the bottom of the dome light as it is lowered into position and bolted on. Take care to ensure that is you use LED's that the correct voltage is used in the dome light circuit or you could blow up your LED's.
Neck
In the same way as I produced the completed head dome, I followed the Dalek Builder's Guild plans to make the neck section.
The neck section is made up of two parts, the outer 'neck rings' and the inner 'neck bin' which provides the frame work onto which the inner part of the neck section is attached.
Neck rings.
However you should and cut out the three circles with a router. To be honest, I had no experience with a router. My wife owned one and she cut the first ring out. 
She showed me how to use the router and I completed the second and third.
It was very exciting and I enjoyed making this part.
(see first photo of us cutting out the neck rings.)
This was actually the first complete part of the Dalek I totally produced.
This is for me, where the project began at the beginning of October 2004.
Imperial Daleks differ from the 'standard' design in several different ways. I had to adapt the plans whilst making the neck section to incorporate these differences. There are two main differences. The first is that the top half of the ring is chamfered. The next way the Imperial Daleks differ is that they have struts between the neck rings which are part chamfered. These struts replaced the 'traditional' Dalek design of a clover leaf shaped rod between the neck rings.
Once the rings were cut I chamfered the edges.
Each ring is divided into two halves, along the thickness.
If you imagine two half thickness polo mints stacked on top of each other. The top polo then has its edges chamfered and the bottom one does not. Once glued together they would then be the same thickness as your average polo mint.
I chamfered the top ends of the struts where they would meet the head dome.
There are eight struts between the rings running from the head dome down to the mid section on Minty my Dalek. All the rings then needed to be rebated to 
allow the struts to hold the rings. I badly misjudged a couple of the rebates, but my trusty tube of filler took care of the gaps !
I have seen some wobbly rings on other Daleks and wanted mine to be child proof ! I decided that I would glue and screw my struts onto the rings.
To support the weight of the rings while they were glued into position, I used piles of cassettes to achieve the correct gap between the rings. It looked strange all sat on my dining room table while the glue dried. After it dried I was able to screw the struts to the rings for increased strength.
Neck bin
I then used the waste from the middle of the two largest rings to make the neck bin. I cut six struts and fixed the neck bin rings together. Plenty of sanding later I had my neck bin. I found it tricky as I had to cut angled rebates into both rings. You want a slightly angled shape. If you do not cut an angled rebate for the struts to sit in then they will 
automatically default to 90°.
This I found hard as I did not immediately realise what I had done and had to take it all apart and correct this mistake.
Finally I was ready to test fit all the parts of the neck cage and neck bins .It fitted, but only just so I had to make the neck bin slightly smaller !
It was important that there was enough room. I needed to put the clear plastic and sequin waste onto the neck bin. If there was not enough room, or it was too tight at this point then it would not fit later on.
If I am honest I found this section of the Dalek a real PAIN IN THE BUTT to make, but it was worth putting up with the head aches !!
Inside the neck bin, note the gap between struts at the top is larger than the sides. This is to provide best vision for seeing out of the Dalek !
The MDF ring is used to join the neck bin and neck rings together so they move as one piece.
Next I had to source the clear plastic to wrap around the outside of the neck bin. The Imperial Daleks were designed with gold sequin waste and gold film under the sequin waste. To achieve this I noted on another build diary that clear flexible plastic was first wrapped around the neck bin. This was then covered with the gold film and then two layers of sequin waste were added “offset” to give a kind of Mercedes car badge pattern.
I found the flexible plastic at a very good Ironmongers called Isaac Lord in High Wycombe.
I attached this to the neck bin with help from my older lad, who was just 4 at the time.
I wrapped the plastic around, marked up where one of the struts was positioned and cut out the plastic. I then wrapped it around again and ensured that I had marked top and bottom of the neck bin. It was necessary to trim the plastic top and bottom, since it made a kind of cone shape on the neck bin and no straight edges were
available to prevent less trimming.
I then obtained one way gold and silver window film from a local chap in yellow pages. I stuck this to the inside of the neck bin plastic as I did not want to risk the sequin waste adhesive affecting the window film.
I attached the neck bin plastic, to the neck bin with an upholstery staple gun. Keeping the tension is important as I did not want to have any less than a glass like finish.
For the final layer sequin waste was purchased and added to the neck bin. I used Display mount 'spray' glue purchased from Staples to stick it on. Sequin waste only comes about 10 -12 cm wide. However that is just wide enough to fit between the rings. Due to the fact that most folk don't know what they are looking at as they won't see 'sequin waste' just the Dalek it does not matter that it joins at the rings.
Two layers worked well and made an interesting propeller like shape on the neck bin.
The neck bin now covered in sequin waste and gold window film. The wheels have also been added to the top.
Finally I attached a ring of 6mm MDF to the base of the neck rings and neck bin to join them together. This is positioned so that it also located the neck section onto the shoulders or mid section of the Dalek.
Lastly the five wheels were added to the top. This is what the head dome spins on. I also added a triangular piece of wood which is bolted to the neck bin. Through this I have a piece of threaded rod. This is to ensure that the dome spins from the centre each time.
This section took a couple of months to make in my spare time. It was bitterly cold and I remember standing in my garage in coat hat and gloves shivering.
However it turned out OK in the end !
Mid Section
Just like the head dome, the mid section is also fibre glass. I wanted to make a Dalek with as much of a fibre glass body as possibel to ensure that I would have the maximum amount of space inside the Dalek. Being 6’5” I knew I needed to avoid internal structures that a wooden build would require.
The first job was to attach plywood rings to the top and bottom of the mid section inside. This was to strengthen the fibre glass section and also support it where the neck and head would sit on it.
The Imperial Dalek's design varies quite alot on the mid section. I took the basic fibre glass mid section and removed the ‘standard’ Dalek gun boxes.
I then made two new gun boxes from 3mm MDF glued together with small struts in the corners to act as anchor points. I did not want any trace of screws or nails in the exterior of the gun boxes.
I made the holes in the mid section larger to accept the new gun boxes and fibre glassed them in. Not having accurate dimensions to work from I positioned them too high. This mistake caused untold problems later in the build.
The traditional oval shape between the Dalek’s gun / plunger boxes is replaced with a diamond shape on the Imperial Daleks.
I cut a template using some of the waste from the plastic I covered the neck bin with.
I attached this in the 
correct position on the Dalek.
Where ever this overlapped outside my new diamond shape, I then trimmed the oval shape away.
I then fibre glassed the inside to bridge the holes in the body and used car body filler on the outside to give a nice smooth finish.
On paper this sounds simple. However it was my first time using fibre glass resin and matting and I was not as good at it as I would have imagined I would be. I imagined fibre glassing would be similar to paper mache.
It was but a whole lot stickier !
Eventually it was finished and after curing the resin and the filler I sanded it down. Being a novice I had applied way too much filler and it was like sanding down a mountain !
The bands and slats around this part of the Dalek differed from the more traditional Dalek design. Imperial Daleks have solid bands and slats, where traditionally they had mesh and thin metal slats positioned on it. I opted for 9mm MDF cut into sections. I knew I’d need to apply the wood in sections since 9mm MDF would not bend and the Dalek body is rounded. I cut the pieces and made supports as I knew I’d need to support the MDF while the glue hardened or it’d all slip out of place. I glued all the bands and slats onto the Dalek and positioned the supports, it went well and next morning I filled the “v” shaped gaps between them. It was when I sat the neck, and dome on the mid section I realised the bands and slats at the front did not look correct. They were almost square, far too small. I measured available space. I had none. I did not know what to do with it, so I left it and carried on with another part.
Crunch Time
Eventually one evening I sat pondering the front appearance of the Dalek when it was sat on the almost finished skirt. I was still unhappy and still did not know how to resolve my problem.
I considered building up the top of the mid section but that was not good as it would radically alter the proportions of the Dalek.
I also tried sitting the front bands and slats slightly higher. I made some larger, temporary bands and slats out of off cuts of wood and stuck them on with double sided tape.
It looked much better with the larger bands and slats but it was too crowded.
Everything was bunched up and jostling for space.
At this point I still did not know what to do. I had measured up on photo where the gun boxes were located and also used the other dimensional information I had.
I had considered that they were positioned correctly.
I was so unhappy with it and contemplated selling the entire project.
My wife liked this idea and suggested that I bought a half size Dalek with the money from the sale !!
I desperately did not want to sell up as :
A) I did not want to be beaten by my project,
B) I did not want to give up my dream of owning a full size and swap it for a half size
C) you could not buy a good authentic half size Imperial Dalek, complete with the correct lights and plunger.
D) I could not afford a full size Dalek from This Planet Earth Ltd.
I decided I had to “destroy to create”.
I got some more fibreglass resin , matting and car body filler.
I had also a new hobby tool with a flexible shaft that had a mini angle grinder disc. I chiseled off the front bands and slats and carefully removed the gun boxes. I tidied them up 
a bit and made the holes lower. I reattached them and made the diamond shape lower also. I filled the holes and finished off. I remember my wife coming into the garage about 9:30pm while I was part way through saying “…what ARE you doing ? I thought you’d done that bit ?” (She was not happy.)
I finished about 11:30pm, it took me ages but was well worth it.
I fitted the larger bands and slats to the front and suddenly it all worked.
The last thing to do was to cut the holes in the gun boxes and fit the circles that Imperial Daleks have edging the gun and plunger. They were made with a ring of chamfered MDF, with a piece of plastic tube in the centre protruding through the hole.
Originally I used plastic tube but I changed it for aluminum parts, made by a good friend of mine. They are fabulous and should never break the way the plastic did.
I lined the inside of them with cream felt and that'll prevent the balls used for the gun and plunger scratching on the Dalek casing.
This section has taken much text but I have written it comprehensively to illustrate that I had serious problems that were caused by many factors.
The solution was simple but quite radical !
The skirt
I was lucky enough to be able to obtain a fibre glass skirt. It was pretty much straight from the mould, so I had to trim and finish it off. I spent what seemed like weeks filling and then sanding it with wet and dry paper.
Every time I thought it was just about finished I’d notice more defects that needed filling and sanding.
I knew from my experiences with smaller models that it was important to fill in almost every defect no matter how big or small. When the final paint colour is applied the defects would be very visible due to the shine of the paint and the large flat surfaces that make up the skirt shape.
I placed the fibre glass on a sheet of plywood and ensured it was the correct shape, I then drew around it. Having cut it out, I measured around the inside of my plywood to form a border around the edge of the wood. I cut it out so I was left with a 10cm wide piece of plywood in the shape of the skirt. I turned the skirt over and repeated the process for the top side of the skirt.
Having cut that piece out, I then attached them to the skirt with fibre glass matting and resin. It was 
an easy job, but I knew from previous experiences with the resin that drips would be my biggest problem. I put the skirt on blocks so any excess resin simply ran out and did not make a puddle around the skirt, which would need to be trimmed off.
This went well and after sanding one or two areas I was ready to finish off the filling and sanding to make the skirt flat on the top and bottom where it would join the other sections of the Dalek.
Having measured the skirt and my doors I knew if I ever needed to get it through a narrow door I’d need a split skirt.
I knew where it should be split but not how to do it. The Dalek Builders Guild supplied the answer. I cut two pieces of wood and glassed them into the skirt section, one each side where I would make the cut. It was simple but took a steady hand and straight eye to saw down the Dalek skirt. It was a strange feeling, somehow it felt like vandalism sawing down my Dalek skirt.
Eventually after what seemed hours of filling and sanding to iron out all the imperfections the skirt section was complete.
Fitting the hempispheres
Now it needed the balls or more correctly the hemispheres. (Here after known as hemi’s).
I obtained a set of 56 hemi’s 
from a contact I had who I saw at Collectormania.
When they arrived they needed trimming and sanding.
Then I had to attach them to the skirt section.
There are three different ways to attach hemi’s to a Dalek skirt.
1. Bolt them to the skirt section so they can be removed if necessary.
2. Glue them to the skirt section
3. Cut holes in the skirt section and push the hemi’s through and fibre glass them in.
As I wanted to make the painting and upkeep of the Dalek as easy as possible I chose the first option.
I cut a prototype plywood disc which fitted exactly into the underside of the hemi’s.
I drilled a hole in the centre to take a bolt and then all I needed to do was fill the hemi with some foam filled and wait for it to expand and glue the disc and the hemi together.
I cut 58 more discs and arranged them all on a board. I bolted them to the board and foam filled them all in turn and applied them to the board.
I pushed them down where necessary to ensure a good fit. The small molding hole in the top of the hemi was ideal as it allowed the expanding gas to escape.
When they were well cured, I removed them from the board and trimmed any 
excess foam filler. Lastly I filled and sand the molding hole in the centre of each of the hemi’s.
I had been recommended to use a laser level to position the hemis.
I borrowed a laser level and placed an ‘x’ on the skirt where ever I needed to drill a hole for a hemi.
I drilled all the holes very gently and attached the hemis. As the hemi’s were being bolted on what was essentially a piece of moulded fibre glass, it began to change before my eyes, suddenly I was looking at a real Dalek skirt !!
I researched fender designs on many different Dalek builds shown 'on line'. I knew that this would be the ‘bumper’ that would take many of the knocks, bumps and scuffs as the Dalek was being used. I placed the skirt section on a piece of ply wood and drew around it leaving a 10cm edge. I cut that out and then turned it upside down and put it on a sheet of 9mm MDF, the edge of the fender is stepped. I made an edge of 9mm MDF cut to the width I wanted the side of the fender and then cut a second piece half the width of the first piece. I glued the two pieces together and then cut a piece of 15mm square baton to use to attach the sides to the base.
I cut out the 9mm MDF with a lip of 20mm, so I position the edges under the top to prevent the side joins showing from
above.
When the sides were dry I started to edge the fender. I used the 15mm x 15mm wood to attach the sides to the base and glued and screwed them onto the base. It was a slow process working out all the angles and cutting the sides pieces to fit but I really enjoyed it.
Once the construction was complete I fibre glassed the sides onto the base and fibre glassed the joins to give added strength to these areas. I knew how much damage could be caused if I hit something and also how much weight would be placed on this section. It needed to be as strong as possible.
When the fibre glass resin had cured, I positioned the wheels on the base, I knew that I needed the wheels as far apart as possible and as close to the edges as possible for maximum stability.
I used 100mm polypropylene wheels, two fixed on the back and two swivel ones on the front. Having worked out where I wanted the wheels I bolted them to the base. I had to reposition the swivel wheels as I did not allow enough space to turn them but after a minor adjustment I had a Dalek skateboard ! Lastly I needed to cut a hole in the bottom to give me access to the floor. I put the skirt unit on top and drew around that. I knew I had to join that first, before I could cut the hole in the base. I positioned and bolted on the skirt unit. It was a really hard task, due to the angle of the skirt I
could not get the drill inside. I had to draw around the outside of the skirt and then inside of the skirt. I then drilled some pilot holes in the base between the guide lines.
Then I turned the skirt upside down and positioned the fender on top of it using the lines I had drawn. With and extra pair of hands holding the skirt I drilled through the skirt using the pilot holes already drilled. I then separated the skirt and fender and drilled holes to take M8 bolts. I used wing nuts to make it as easy as possible to bolt the sections together.
It looked good but took some minor filling to make it a really good fit.
I remember thinking how many hours had been spent already. I knew that when it had been painted cream every hole, join or imperfection would be so obvious.
Once the final filling was completed I drew a line around the inside and cut out a section to allow me access to the ground. This was essential as I could not push the Dalek along without it.
Lastly I painted the bottom side ivory white. I did not want any reflections other than white if I was running over a shiny floor. Also if the Dalek was up turned for any reason it would look neater to have it all the same colour. It was excellent to have done that at that point as I later added lights to the bottom of the Dalek to give the 'stair climbing' effect that is used at the end of part one of Remembrance of the Daleks.
After Minty’s first outing it was apparent that I had not got enough gap between the floor and fender to prevent it being scraped. Also I did not have enough room to push him around with. I repositioned the wheels which gave him more height. I also cut away all the excess I could to give the maximum area inside open to the floor. Inside Minty
The controls and available equipment inside Minty have to be self sufficient, he has to be totally self contained. He has no back up team, no CGI team, no floor manager or cast and crew to support him whilst he is out and about.
However 
he does usually have an excellent body guard to make sure enthusiastic children do not pull too many trophies off of his bodywork !!
Minty has a voice modulator to ensure he sounds like a Dalek and he has light controls to give the hover effect seen at the end of episode one of Remembrance of the Daleks.
He has exterminator gun controls and sound effect controls.
He also has a red eye control for when he's really mad ! These are all built into the exterminator gun handle.
Minty has two plungers. He has the classic rubber one for general use as kids like to pull and push their faces onto it these days. ( "... what are you going to do , sucker me to death..." is the usual quote Minty hears !)
He also has the correct Imperial Dalek plunger which is cone shaped.
Controlling the plunger is reasonably simple as it's two tubes one inside the other.
Minty also has two cooling fans to the front and two above inside the head dome. An essential piece of kit when trundling about for an hour or two on a warm day !
Minty also has a nice padded cushion on his seat so the Dalek operator does not get a numb bum !
Underneath Minty's seat 
and fender are lots more wires.
If you look at the photos in the fender section, you can see the lights used for the light effect. The hole cut in the floor, to enable the Dalek to be pushed along and the wheels .
You can also see both battery holders.
Minty is powered with two 12v 4.2ah rechargeable batteries.
One powers the voice modulator and the other powers everything else except the exterminator gun and dome lights.
The speakers you can see mounted under the seat (on the fender page) are for the gun effect sound.
.
This is just a brief insight into the workings of Minty, I do hope you've enjoyed seeing inside him. It's not often you get to see a Dalek's insides !!
I spent quite a long period of time researching what to paint Minty with and how to do it. In the end it became evident that I needed two pack car paint. This could not be a home painting job as I did not possess any of the equipment or any of the personal protective equipment required to undertake and carryout the task.
I was recommended to contact 'Smooth Classics' by a family member who is a mad 'land crab' enthusiast. When I rang Smooth Classics up, to ask for a quote he thought I was winding him up! I guess it's not everyday that a bloke phones up out of the blue and asks you to quote for painting a Dalek.
I took Minty to him and after careful checking of the colours required he did a superb job.
I would recommend him to anyone who needs an item painting. He did such a good job and was really careful and very tidy. He has been very patient with me and as parts have been damaged or modified, he's repainted them all to their former brilliance. Below is a 'BEFORE' and 'AFTER' picture !
