Tuesday 9 February 2021

Custom Figure: TV21 Comics Black Dalek (Second Version)

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As the Dalek drones of the TV21 comics slightly changed colours so did the Black Dalek, and with my "Guard" Dalek drones now under the command of a Red Dalek Leader, I felt it was important to also add a new Black Dalek to the mix to complete the chain of command. This second version of the Black Dalek is another custom I've been looking forward to doing for some time now, and the increased availability of the Guard Dalek mould following the release of History of the Daleks sets finally made it an affordable possibility.

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While most are probably more familiar with the black/silver "Black Dalek" that faced off against Zeg in Duel of the Daleks, a second Black Dalek (or maybe the same one, we'll never know) later appeared in the story Plague of Death (strips 33-39). Left in charge of Skaro while the Emperor is off-world with the Dalek fleet, the Black Dalek is challenged by a radioactive cloud of dust when the testing of their Dalatomic beam missile goes wrong. As the dust cloud eats through their metalert casings, Daleks begin to turn on each other as the plague worsens. It is later discovered that the plague is actually being spread by the Black Dalek itself, who is chased out of the city and intends to infect itself the same way it had infected the other Daleks. However the Emperor deems the Black Dalek too valuable to perish, and commands its casing be repaired.

This version of the Black Dalek goes through a number of slight colour changes over the course of the story. When it initially appears it is black/silver with gold bands around its midsection, however as the story progresses this slowly changes to black/gold, and then finally black/gold with darker gold/brass bands. The one constant however is its unique neck mesh, which is red as opposed the usual black. For this custom I chose to go with the Dalek's final colouration in the story, as it was the most different to the previous TV21 Black Dalek I've painted. 

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This Dalek was again built using a History of the Daleks #3 Guard Dalek as a base, which was disassembled and almost entirely repainted. After being primed with Tamiya light grey primer, the body was spray painted using Tamiya TS-14 gloss black. The neck rings were sprayed using Tamiya TS-21 gold, and the mesh with TS-18 metallic red. The arms were spray painted with TS-30 silver, to rid them of that metallic blue tint the Guard Daleks have. All of the other details were hand-painted. The hemispheres and neck fixings were done with Tamiya X-12 gold, the shoulder bands with Humbrol 54 brass, the eyestalk with Mr Hobbby black acrylic, the eyestalk discs with Tamiya X-11 silver, and finally the dome lights with Revell red acrylic. The only parts of the figure that weren't painted are the base and the appendage joints. 

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Black and gold Daleks have always been particularly special to me, as my first ever Dalek toy was a black and gold Dapol figure. So it was really nice to make this custom from a nostalgia point of view (I've got plans for a different black and gold Dalek later in the year too), but there were lots of other aspects to this particular variant I enjoyed doing too. I was torn between doing the shoulder bands as brass or a different shade of gold for a good while, and seeing the results I'm so glad I went with the former. Not only does it contrast with all of the gold on the figure far better, but it's definitely more comic accurate as well. The greatest touch of all though is that red neck mesh. It's a really unique detail that you barely see on Daleks in any form of media. While a more vibrant red might have been a bit more prominent/comic accurate, I'm quite pleased with how the metallic red turned out. This was a really fun Dalek to paint and it's quickly becoming one of my favourite pieces in my collection.

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With this second version of the Black Dalek completed, my TV21 Dalek collection now has a very comfortable split - the early gold-banded silver drones led by Zeg and the silver Black Dalek, and then two Guard Dalek drones led by the Red Dalek Leader and the gold Black Dalek. All of which are then under the command of my Comet Minatures/Reshape Golden Emperor. This rather nicely covers two distinct sections of the comic, before they went all in on the movie designs and colourations. I don't really know how much more there is to add to my TV21 collection Dalek-wise now, but looking at them all together they're definitely the pride of my collection. The Daleks of the comics were more than just unrelenting evil, they were actual characters. If you haven't checked out these comics yet I highly urge you to, especially since the recent reprinting has helped make them more accessible than ever.

4 comments:

Covstarlite said...

Hi 🙋
Having great fun reading and being inspired by your site.
Currently I’m trying to build up the courage to make a fully accurate Cushing-movie Dalek.
I’ve read your own custom makes, but was wondering if you had any up to date tips and hits for someone starting from scratch?
Steve

Covstarlite said...

Hi 🙋
Having great fun reading and being inspired by your site.
Currently I’m trying to build up the courage to make a fully accurate Cushing-movie Dalek.
I’ve read your own custom makes, but was wondering if you had any up to date tips and hits for someone starting from scratch?
Steve

Alex said...

Hi Steve,

Thanks for reading! I don’t have any experience making accurate movie Daleks as of yet but I can definitely offer some advice for someone starting out doing customs! Which movie Dalek are you doing in particular?

My main advice would be just to take your time on it. Once you get into the swing of a project it’s very tempting to want to do it all quickly so that you can enjoy the finished custom sooner, but make sure the paint always gets adequate time to dry etc. Take it from someone who’s made plenty of mistakes being impatient!

Be sure to disassemble the Dalek beforehand to ensure you can get the paint on properly, and use primer on every part before painting. I mainly use Tamiya colour sprays at the moment, but want to get into airbrushing one day. There’s some great tutorials about disassembling figures on YouTube if you’re unsure.

Finally, if you’re on Instagram be sure to give NDWdesign a look. He’s made a number of accurate movie Daleks and is an absolute genius when it comes to customising - he’s also extremely helpful if you have any questions!

Covstarlite said...

Hey 👋
Thanks so much replying.
I was going to try the Drone from Doctor Who and the Daleks. Using a Jungles of Mechanus Character Options as the starting point.
Rushing ahead because I want it done ‘now’ is absolutely me, so I’ll try and hold back lol.
I’ll definitely check out NDEdesign.