Choosing a Dalek Design to Build
You'd think, a Dalek is a Dalek, right?? - Quite wrong...
With almost every TV story and movie, there's been a slightly different Dalek..
Sometimes it's big changes, like the addition of mesh and slats round the shoulders, or colour changes. Sometimes the changes are quite discreet, like the number of and arrangement of eye-stalk disks, or the type of lights on the dome.
The shape of the skirt changed in the 1980's to a more upright look for TV story "Revelation of the Daleks" with Colin Baker as the Doctor. The front was made almost as upright / vertical as the rear. This shape appeared alongside original shaped Daleks in the last of the classic Dalek series, Remembrance Of The Daleks with Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor.
The skirt shape changed back again in the 2005 series to the traditional, more slanted shape.
There are a couple of really great websites that detail these changes: www.dalek6388.co.uk and www.projectdalek.co.uk so I won't go into too much detail here.
Reading the above websites, you realise that you can generalise type of dalek together, but each and every one was unique and different in some way, and can be identified by various details.
Choosing my design
Based on the fact that this Dalek is for little ones to play with, I chose the design with the least sharp edges... and also the simplest construction.
I chose the Renegade Dalek known as "R1" or "N3-N4" From the 1988 story "Remembrance Of The Daleks":
This Dalek (R1 / N3-N4) has the later, more upright skirt shape of the Necros Daleks:
Images: dalek6388.co.uk and projectdalek.co.uk.
The naming convention came around as projectdalek.com and .co.uk refer to it as Renegade 1, and www.dalek6388.co.uk refer to the components it's built form - Necros Dalek 3's shoulders, and the skirt from Necros Dalek 4. ...If you're left wondering what-on-Skaro a Necros Dalek is, see here for "Revelation Of The Daleks".
The three Renegade Daleks built from Necros Dalek parts (R1 in the middle):
Image: dalek6388.co.uk
No Sharp Edges
Traditionally the shoulders of most classic Daleks have been wrapped in expanded steel or aluminium mesh, and then slats applied. This leaves a razor sharp edge of the cut wire mesh.
Apparently the actors and stage hands were fed up of receiving cuts and scratches, so the late 80's batch of Daleks were made to look like that had mesh (on screen it was quite convincing), when in reality it was a soft foam rubber, just painted like mesh:
Not R1, but image clearly shows the foam rubber "mesh". Image: dalek6388.co.uk
These following images are from an auction website. The auction was for a real Renegade shoulder mesh and slat section. It shows how someone has had a go at painting the slats silver:
Images: propstore.com
- So after all that, I decided to build a Remembrance Renegade (Necros shape).
Simple Design
Small details led me to choose particular Renegade R1 / N3-N4, such as the simplified eye stalk, square rods for the neck cage, thinner neck rings, lower collar the same colour as the shoulders.
I'm a firm believer in the old saying KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!