Monday 11 March 2013

Dalek custom trio

Finished the whole lot of em

So take one of these add some paint and..




And you can make one of these , month of work later and three Daleks done 

 

the latest edition to the ranks the red commander or saucer commander as i said in my daleks hierarchy i said earlier in a other post 
 Red Daleks were a type of Dalek bred for intermediate roles between the  intelligent Blue Daleks (commanders of the science corps) and the Daleks that served as their immediate superiors, the Black Daleks. like Black  Daleks, they were capable of independent thought, allowing some measure of independent action and also commanded most vehicles,saucers walkers etc etc


In several annuals and stories the Red Daleks seem to also be the Spaceship commanders, but only of the large "mother-ship" type saucers, as the ships in the series are usually commanded by Warrior Daleks. In some novelizations and annuals they are also depicted as second-in-command under the Black Daleks.

ok that aside its a Dalek seen in  books comics and annuals. In the first film, "Doctor Who and the Daleks" one is seen on Skaro acting as a second-in-command to the Black Dalek. In "Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD" the Red Dalek is second under the Gold Dalek and in charge of the Dalek saucer. toys merchandise dapol (what i based mine on) but never on the tv until the new series
so there you go red Dalek

so simply 
RED DALEK:(' Captain' )second in command and commander of Mother ship

Black ,Gold,Silver Chief Supreme Dalek ('General') ,Remembrance Drone warrior Dalek 
that is my three customs

spray painted then hand painted ,based on a 1985 prop with mix of parts like 70s eye gun and arm shawcraft/movie skirt shoulders goon neck and dome
which coincidentally original model was a mix of parts


this is my model prop pool these parts are what made my red commander
stage 2 and spray paint going on well ive chosen a newer shade of red released in 1989,hence the name ,i hop this can go back together ok unlike grey that dosent


oh dont spray paint in your kitchen,no matter how much sheeting i used old shower curtain newspaper etc i got a red paint over spray on my floor, in trying to remove it ,it spread ,my kitchen floor was pink turpintine mopping time 
and one very unhappy GF 
so here's my line up
my Daleks
  now as i have said before im concentrating on my Doctor Who i have little interest in outside of it ,i know some people are completest 
So whats left of the five inchers?

Genesis of the Daleks set i need that Davros will put on Birthday list and that will complete my 70s Daleks one will be gun metal so 
2 grey one gold one gun metal = 70s 
60s Done ,were getting movie drone so that will be done but 2 from Dalek invasion Earth 2 troughton and a dead planet, yeah there done

 80s i await the Dr Dalek two packs, i think ,i need a Davison Grey one more to go with 5 Drs and exterminated and black white supreme,and one more remembrance grey old prop to go with black silver supreme as i have red command as well so that's basically 2 grey for 80s
so 2 grey Daleks one Genesis pack and pretty much done ,sorry folks if there going to do the correct shape for remembrance /Necros it would be done already it is a CO list of priorities they have it isn't on there if it were we would have it ,think about we had them all now 

 clear glass, perspex Dalek defiantly wanted , well Al of CO said never but i know someone making them shall i bother?,time will tell  
so i need one pack and two greys job Done, but with arrival of the movie Dalek need to source a new large fender so might try get the talking DIOE drone while at £9,but so far nothing 

Friday 8 March 2013

Ben Flay

Ben Flay: GRAPHIC DESIGNER

shameless plug but all information you will ever need
http://flavors.me/anachist77




this sort of sums me up well enough
cant help but feel we have lost something 

Monday 4 March 2013

Technicolor Dalek

The Making of a Groovy Dalek

 And what a Groovy film it is 


Another bloomin Dalek post,im sorry,i to am fed up now as well, last one for a while promise tho it was a three pack

Well got me a nice Dalek set 2 ,cheapo, and it was a model kit to me
 so i did Remembrance grey now for the saucer Dalek Invasion Earth variant

so this Dalek the boss ,king of kings 
Lord of the Dalek race answers to big gold ball himself the Emperor right ,
well i saw these films as a kid visually impressive still are now ,but little to nothing to do with the program in characters (all Human) no console room no real aliens about it, very much a typical 50s Day of flying Saucers B movie Sci Fi affair think any old classic like Forbidden Planet 




Movie review click link


http://redscharlach.livejournal.com/164272.html



Filmed in 65 and in windscreen and Technicolor this was a big screen outing for the Daleks based on there huge British Popularity at the time, "Dalekmania"  ,

Dalekmania on the streets of London 64

They wouldn't be on TV in color until 1969 and then not in everyone's home until much later ,a fact often overlooked ,so Big screen Big Daleks
 http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/dr-who-and-the-daleks-film.htm see here for Details no point in rehashing them out here why have a dog and bark yourself ?, also this is something will need to browse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor

So  i want to make the black Dalek ,as i find these impressive and well as a kid thanks to Gibbins and Lee Sullivan, these are the High Council of Daleks the officer class and this is also going to be striking in my collection and something always wanted

 funds would never stretch to Sevans 2 foot bad boys, or PE commercial variants and  other reason to do this now ,well cheap Dalek set 2 with three Daleks in it and ...................

 Al DEWER head product guy for CO company tweeted this pic before vanishing so new talkie Dalek from chase ,(props used in the chase TV and AARU movie Daleks before they came out on the screen) so 2 movie Daleks 

Problem as i have said before about reference and research to death this is Technicolour (did you read that link ?) and they use Red Green Blue process three strip and dyed filmed
 its all bright so can be caught on film and saturated and soft looking sometimes with a little grain Superman and Star Wars (How much would we all love original copy of Star Wars from may 77 no messing by lucas original ?apparently private 35mm film exists and those who have stay quiet as lucasfulm lawyers are everywhere ,apparently )   were also filmed same way in the late 70s 
 this is a process that went on until the 90s and still used now sometimes  ,personally love it i find digital anything clinical and   cold 

So i got to have reference and the Daleks are in Technicolour so i tried reversing in photoshop bring down the saturation, the heavy colour and light and sharpen off a remastered screen grab ,which is nice enough but somehow i miss the slight grain,occasional circles top of screen(reminder to change the reel to the projectionist )
End result is one nice Dalek they seemed so much better made and the bright vivid sets and nice box for the TARDIS  visually can see how it can be striking to a whole generation 

Such a shame props didn't go to BBC Pertwee in that TARDIS , facing AARU Daleks 

well three days of work lots of drying time needed and swapping of some parts for correct gun ,which is a interesting thing as i pulled the gun off whole thing ball and all came off in my hand go figure cant fit through small hole but it did
 ,i also had to make the new dome lights but otherwise strait forward really

Hardest part was working out the exacting shades and the day long drying time for the enamel i didn't realise that the model Daleks CO make  are not perfect accurate, and that must be some resizing stretching going on screen because my model is really skinny in comparison

so no washes clean, flat and  new and shiny
Dalek in Technicolour

And clean shot

and with a little play in photo shop



original the Co2 fire extinguisher extermination gun blast was going to be a flame thrower gun
Id love to see how that was going to work ,right Malcolm stand there while this Dalek shoots you .....WOooooosh
No Malcolm,.......no set half of sound stange smoldering ruin


while i am at it how about this its very clever and i really like the Dalek voices from the movies deep grating


got to love the soundtrack to yes i do own it :)

got to have something to play while modeling

 




If you think toy story it could be a cool picture to see

Friday 1 March 2013

Ray Cusick and his sliver machines


 Ray Cusick, designer of the Daleks, died on February 21st 2013 , aged 84


Modern television favours media-studies graduates able to spend time toiling as unpaid interns. In Mr Cusick’s day it was different: a job you could drift into when other careers did not work out. life was so much simpler 
He had originally wanted to be a sculptor, studied maths and science,and was a Art Teacher before landing a Job at the BBC
now sadly passed on ,on this the shows fiftieth anniversary year


 Perfection,is rarely achieved at first attempt ,The Daleks however proved themselves to be the spectacular exception to the rule
From Written concept and story to the rough drawings to blue print to screen in little under two months ,the Designers and engineers who rushed out a TV Robot to last six weeks ,unwittingly or unknowingly created a legend who's popularity would show no sign of diminishing after fifty years and even a seventeen  year hiatus off our screens 


The BBC commissioned a script from a freelance writer Terry Nation known for writing comedies like hancocks half hour and he created the Daleks.
 Skaro the radioactive war the scorched earth  (this is 1963 height of the cold war ) all there in first script to be retconned some years later in Genesis of the Daleks but the first stories were there ,The Dalek was revealed to be not a machine but a protective shell in which a mutant creature – the result of the genetically disastrous consequences of nuclear war – was housed.what wasn't was the Description two lines in the script stage directions referred to them that is all

Terry Nation,suggested they should make a gliding movement "like the Georgian state dancers", but there was little other visual description in the script. a eye like a lens and thats it 
There was a general consensus among the production team that the cliched "man in a suit" look be avoided in favour of something more otherworldly.
 Cusick demonstrated the creature's style of movement by grabbing a pepperpot and sliding it across the table to the model maker Bill Roberts (whose company Shawcraft built the Daleks). (,there is a story of Bill a large person sat on a stool and for measurement drawn round for size of the Dalek skirt ) 
 An initial design involved the Dalek operator propelling the machine with a tricycle housed inside it but eventually the actors moved the squat, castor-mounted props along by shuffling their feet.
These two men Roberts and Cusick designed and engineered a enduring legend  
Ray coming back in the Chase (1965) and redesigning new elements to overcome initial limitations for what was supposed to be a one off appearance in one story 
he created the now famous slats mesh solar panel look for the Chase (1965) in answer to the Daleks power problem as well as various different equipment to replace the sucker on the Dalek arm (originally conceived to be a claw as used in the Movies  ,considered dangerous and replaced by a sink plunger)  and the Mekon's for that story 





 for more info on shawcraft,click link
making of at Shawcraft


  But Mr Cusick did much more ,his time as Designer and head of Art Department during the tenure of William Hartnell era saw some great innovations with no time and no budget.all this some years before anything else, the program was unique and the only one of its kind so this was new

Cusick had to contend with a number of Doctor Who adventures that required new sets each week. The Keys of Marinus (1964), for example, featured hideous brains in jars one week, a lethal jungle the next and a snowy vista after that. Cusick felt that the show's low budget was stretched particularly thinly on stories of this kind, but was assisted by the low-resolution television picture, which, he admitted, covered a multitude of sins. Planet of Giants (1964) was a humdrum story made remarkable by Cusick's impressive renderings of an over sized science laboratory, dead insects and a moving giant fly.

Cusick left Doctor Who after the 12‑part epic The Daleks' Master Plan (1965-66), on which he shared the intensive workload with a fellow designer, Barry Newbery, (who had taken over from Peter Brachaki) a man in interviews who seemed somehow pleased with what he did but sorry about lack of acknowledgement he got for the Daleks 

He recalled appearing on the TV discussion show Late Night Line-Up with Nation and asking him afterwards about potential involvement with the forthcoming Dalek feature films (made in colour by Aaru productions and starring Peter Cushing in 1965 and 1966). Nation was enthusiastic and reassuring about the projects "Oh leave it to me Ray"  but, Cusick said: "Then I never heard from him again." From these films and many other commercial exploitations of the Daleks, Nation, a freelancer with a hard nosed  agent, became a rich man. Cusick, on the other hand, was a BBC staff member, and only after a lengthy and hard-fought battle by his head of department, got a special merit payment that amounted to no more than a few hundred pounds. He was, however, the proud recipient of a gold Blue Peter badge for his work


 more here
Guardian newspaper
 http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21572725-ray-cusick-designer-daleks-died-february-21st-aged-84-ray-cusick.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/feb/24/raymond-cusick 

 He spent a lot of time not wanting cash but acknowledgement as Dalek designer ,well Ray many do, i for one always have 
Ray designed the Dalek, the maker was Bill Roberts who had to contribute to the design to make it and make it work  ,the writer who dreamed them up was Terry Nation, basing the Metal meanies on Nazis and gestapo with layering's of cold war 
fifty fifty owned by Nation and BBC