Like to have a go at being Davros? For sale to a good home (read on. . .)
Mtlsclpt
as wood, paint, foamcore, plexiglas and Skarosian genetic material?
You got $50??? ($55 outside the US???)
Well do I have a deal for you!!!
FOR SALE TO A GOOD HOME -- the SACRED DALEK BALLS!!!!!!
(and now that I fully have your attention. . .) Quite Some Time Ago I had
the intention of building my very own Dalek -- something with which to decorate
the living room, trundle around and display proudly at SF cons and scare the
neighborhood cat. So I started to gather materials, do research and draw up
plans. However during the course of the past 9 years I've found myself somewhat
otherwise occupied -- graduating from an American Art College with a BFA in
sculpture and becoming an artist. Consequently I now have 500 years worth of
art to do, and since I don't have a Tardis like our good Gallifreyan hero, some
things sadly have to be given up. So I've decided to pass on these particular
parts to someone in the hope that they'll use them to do what I wished to do,
namely, create a really fantastic looking, authentic, prop-quality (or better)
Dalek.
About the parts: These if you think about it are the most difficult parts to
obtain, although it would seem simple at first. But to find perfect
half-spheres of the right size and in quantity is actually very tough -- so
after months of keeping my mind and eyes open, and looking everywhere -- auto
parts shops, art supply stores, kitchen gadget catalogs etc., I finally found
the perfect items at a professional store fixture and sales display shop. (One
really impressive Dalek I saw some time ago at an SF con in Texas used a vast
quantity of large metal soup ladle ends, this proved to be incredibly expensive
-- and heavy as well -- and for some reason they were attached with a screw on
each end to a length of wooden dowel, which didn't look right of course.) But
these domes are really ideal: they are made from an EXTREMELY high-quality
clear acrylic plastic that is not only very strong but also flexible, you can
give them a sharp jab with your finger and they simply pop back into shape.
They also seem to be reasonably resistant to scratching. Best of all they are
made with a 1/16th inch wide flange at the base, which means all you have to do
is cut a hole the right diameter in a suitable thin material (easily done with
an adjustable hole saw that fits in a hand drill) and attach them from the
inside with no visible glue or fasteners. And since they are clear plastic,
they can be easily painted from the inside for a perfectly beautiful and smooth
finish. Working from photographs and using my best guess as to size, I decided
on 4 1/4 inches diameter (about 10.8cm.) This as far as I could tell is just
slightly undersize -- but then I intended to make my Dalek about 96% full size
so it would fit through most doorways, no sense in making something you can't
get in and out of a building. (the big flange on the Dale's base also had a
panel that folded in to help with this, but that's another story.) At any rate
the size differece is so slight that they'll look superb in any event.
These are high-quality moldings -- the plastic is of excellent clarity and
uniform thickness, and the joint where the flange meets the edge of the sphere
is sharp 90 degrees, not curved, so that there will be little if an visible gap
between the dome and whatever sheet material they are mounted in, as long as
the material is not excessively thick. But this quality doesn't come cheap -- I
paid $1.60 EACH for them back then, not including tax, and there are 60 of
them, so you can add it up yourself. The price DOES include shipping in the US,
outside the US depends on where they go. Probably no more than $60 U.S. to the
UK, for example.
Daleks have 64 balls (well I guess that explains a lot -- that would make a
good bumper sticker or Tshirt!), four of them were used in another project. The
four extras can be easily cast using epoxy or any number of other materials,
but doing 64 of them would be an incredible pain. . .)
BTW -- the only other part of the Dalek that would be difficult to make --
the very large dome-shape for the top of the head -- can easily be made cutting
down an appropriately sized Wok, dirt cheap and available in practically any
size! or you could make a mold and cast it, or fabricate in paper mache using
the wok as a pattern. . .)
Let me know it you'd like them -- you CAN make your own Dalek! BTW--being an
artist I planned on being creative and including small details that weren't
readily visible on the originals, and I also wanted to include one feature that
was only seen in the Dalek's first appearances that made them incredibly
lifelike -- the dilating/constricting eye pupil. For this I found a camera lens
at a used photo supply show that is PERFECT -- it's from an autoexposure camera
and the diaphragm moves by just giving the slightest touch to a pin on the back
of the lens, it needs to move only a slight amount. Be very easy to make a
short pendulum sort of thing that would swing back and forth as you moved,
pushing on the pin and making the Dalek eye constrict and dilate constantly. .
.anyway since I have no real use for this, I'll include it with the rest.
Email me at mtls...@hotmail.com -- serious inquiries only! And don't wait
too long, I may finally figure out something to use them for! :) $50 FIRM for
all, $55 overseas and THIS INCLUDES SHIPPING -- much cheaper than soup ladles.
Cashier's check or International Postal Money Order ONLY. I'd really love for
some bright, totally enthusiastic Whovian to create a really fantastic,
brilliant and awesome Dalek with these bits, so if you think you're (at least)
as smart and as evil as Davros, you really need to take this project on!
Thanks!!!
Tivolikw
thought. . . :)