Doctor Who Handles Foam Pep Disaster

That's a neat suggestion, but I can't for two reasons - 1, I haven't got anything that'd cut grooves in whatever metal this pipe is. I can cut bits off it, but not along it.
2. the raised parts of the dalek gun are thin and raised quite high. I have the wire, and actually have enough spare to do a trial run. Once I have the measurements, I shall build a cunning device to ensure they're all built and bent to the same specifications. Because accuracy is important to me.*


*This is not actually true.
 
Damian,

I'm shocked that you would tell an untruth, :D! Your builds are always of the highest quality (when you have the time to manage anyway!!!!!).
Carry on my friend, I always love to see your updates, and this build is exceeding all the others so far.:popcorn

Roughneckone:cool
 
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"Damian,

I'm shocked that you would tell an untruth, :D! Your builds are always of the highest quality (which you have the time to manage anyway!!!!!).
Carry on my friend, I always love to see your updates, and this build is exceeding all the others so far.:popcorn

Roughneckone:cool"


What he said!
 
Came home from my birthday camping trip (ugh!) to find my eldest has papier mache'd the inside of the skirt, making it much more solid and resilient. I have another week before I'm due back at work, and only a small amount of writing work to do. High hopes of finishing the gun and sorting the dome out. 20180830_121116.jpg
 
:facepalm, you slave driver you!

Have to say though it's nice to see someone from the younger generation enthusiastic about building something (most kids these days have a mobile phone stuck to one hand and a playstation controller in the other) well done to her, from me at least :thumbsup.

You do realise of course if she continues like this she'll be outstripping you with prop builds in no time :lol.


Roughneck:coolne
 
Ha! She, unlike me, has college to go to. And a part time job. I have only the full-time job and the extra writing work on the side. Anyway, here's today's report:
Oh boy.

So, it's Tuesday. The kids are back in school (just one hour today, but you take what you can get, right?) and I have another few days off work - back in on the 10th. In theory, I have all this time to work on Derek and finish two pieces of writing. IN practice, of course there's no ACTUAL time for me, I have to pick up cars, and get them serviced, and take animals to the vet, and cook, and hey, while you're at it, stick a broom up my... You know what? I'm getting off topic.

With my birthday money, I finally hit "purchase" on the light up blue rope stuff I was hoping to line the underneath with for our glowing levitation field. Except it turns out they didn't say "rope" on the advert after all. Because it's string.
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Long enough to go around the whole of the underneath, not big enough or bright enough to be actually visible. D'oh! Strike one!

Never mind.



Eldest done a good job on the dome, but now we need another layer of filler all round, and I'm out. Have to go (gulp!) buy some. Ran out of birthday money purchasing the Raspberry Pi to run the lights (which we don't have yet) and the sounds (which we do have). Will it arrive in time? According to the delivery date, either two weeks ahead of time, or three days after the event. Anyone want to guess which one? Strike two!



So my first job this morning was a little more sanding, then some household paint around the shoulders as a surfacing method. They're not smooth, but this will help, and when it's all the same colour, it helps me relax a little. We're not building an Ironside, by the way - this was just the only full and "not in current use" paint. Because urgh, it's muddy green!

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Then I remembered I was going to do the wires for the gun today. I constructed the cunning device:

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I measured, bent, measured, bent, and cut. See all that measuring? Complete waste of time.

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Way too short. Why? I have no idea. I mean, obviously, impatience and incompetence are high on the list of suspects, but COME ON!

So, fling that one away, start again.

Measure, bend, measure, bend, cut. YAY!

20180904_123635.jpg
I'm used to disappointing results. I have never yet stood back from a project of mine and said anything more satisfied than "That'll do, I guess." This thing is bigger than anything I've tried before, it's way more complex, and requires actual skill. It really requires actual tools too. Man, I wish I had a vise. You do NOT want to see what's holding the gun assembly to that workbench....

Anyway, I have, what, seven more wires to measure and bend, and fit into the gun without breaking the first one. I have the dome to fill and sand, and then we have to think about cutting the slot for the eye-stalk we still don't have. I should maybe run out to the store for more filler, and see if they have a pot of optimism while I'm there.
 
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Yup, this definitely is the biggest project I've seen you do!
I also have to say it's looking pretty sweet so far.
You do know it's part of the rules of prop building that you always have to make at least three sizes/versions of every part before they actually fit, don't you? No skipping this now!
Keep at it though, because I can see another book coming here, something to do with emmm, Extermination if I'm not mistaken..... :D

Roughneck:coolne

PS Thanks for the damn pictures!
 
Wednesday is going well. I did some writing, walked the dogs, and now I've done some work on the gun, some new neck blocks, some surfacing on the dome and the shoulders. I may have a short attention span, but as long as I view this as several different projects, I can keep switching back and forth and still make progress.
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That's four vanes on the gun. Four more to go, and the measuring is a little more consistent today.
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The dome needs LOADS of work. Beginning to panic about that.
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Ten more neck blocks, making a total of fifteen so far. I need twenty four altogether, and they're a pain to produce. I can see why people cast them. These ones still need holes drilling, and marbles gluing in.
 
So, my buddy from the UK is staying with us, but I don't have any more vacation. He and his lady friend have to find their own amusements while I'm out at work, and yesterday I came home to find he'd cut out the vanes for each of the dalek ears. Nice work. I wish he was staying longer!
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Despite wearing my breath mask, I have a raging fiber-glass headache, so I'm taking a break. And staring at a screen. Hmm.
Anyway, I have almost a day spread across a weekend to get stuff done. I've started by glassing the lower half of the dome to try and reduce the fragility ahead of cutting into it and fitting the rotation device I haven't thought of yet.
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Here it is, untouched.
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And here it is halfway done. I did go all around the bottom half. I'm hoping the stuff goes off properly. My head certainly has.
Then I staggered into the basement and started work on the cowl. Man. I have detailed plans fromt he Project Dalek Forum, but either they are missing some measurements (possible) or I am reading them wrong (probable). I did my best anyway...
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The idea is, once the cowl is sorted, I'll have an idea how much dome I have to cut away, and the fibre glass will hold the remaining parts together. Then I just have to figure out how to articulate the eye stalk. Once I have the eye stalk.
Today I bought the tickets for the Fan Expo we're supposed to be taking this thing to.
 
Another day, another...moment of interest. Can you see what's wrong with this picture?
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Man, that glue sets really quickly. Some swift work with the scalpel, then more glue and we're back on track...
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Oh, that's much better. But I'm out of hot glue sticks. Better finish all those neck blocks, 'cos I can use wood glue for them.
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Very pretty. Still not sure about the rotation mechanism, but...baby steps...
Let's get the cowl glued on to the dome now.
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For some reason, the plans show you should make the plunger end, not just swipe one from a toilet plunger. I made one from the measurements. It was NOT impressive. Again, probably due to my skills, not the plans. I estimated and extrapolated and made this one:
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To make the plunger arm, I took an old expanding clothes rail and cut it down. I used a small screw as a backstop to prevent the thinner rod from sliding through altogether, and fitted the tubes through one of my Christmas baubles. Must get more of them...
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I used a disc of flooring foam to hold the outer tube in place against the bauble.
So, it all stays in place in the gunbox.
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I have the day off work tomorrow, so when I'm not driving or otherwise helping out my visiting god-daughter, I'm aiming to fit the plunger to the arm. Then I need to figure out getting more glue to finish attaching the slats.
Where does that get me? Wheels? Check.
Bumpers and base? Check.
Skirt? Check.
Hemispheres? Nope.
Shoulders? Check.
Gunboxes and weapons? Check.
Neck Cage? Check
Mesh for neck? not yet
Dome? Nearly.
Rotation system? Nope.
Lights and sounds? Nah. Got 'em, haven't fixed 'em.
There's a week of this month left. Then just short of two weeks in October. Three weeks, all in. Maaaaaaaaaaybe.
 
Thanks AlexaOne!
I get less done on Monday than I hoped, but I did re-stack poor old Derek. The eye pieces were supposed to arrive today, but they haven't - I have seen pictures from the guy who printed them for me, and they look great. Maybe they'll arrive tomorrow?
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