Sunday 2 May 2021

Custom Figure: 'The Curse of Fatal Death' Grey Dalek (Variant)

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Completing the full lineup of Dalek variants from the 1999 Doctor Who Comic Relief special The Curse of Fatal Death has now become a personal goal of mine, and thanks to the improved availability of Character Options classic Daleks these days (thanks B&M store exclusives!) it's a goal I've gotten very close to completing in a short space of time. My third custom in this particular set of figures is the Curse of Fatal Death Grey Dalek (Variant), named as such by me due to being a little different to the other Daleks that appear in the story.

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While The Curse of Fatal Death featured standard grey Daleks in the normal Remembrance of the Daleks Renegade Dalek livery, an additional strange specimen can be spotted on the Dalek ship in the fourth part of the special. Despite having Renegade Dalek livery this one was clearly build from an Imperial Dalek template, given the hexagonal shape in the centre. The Dalek also has a standard eyestalk and manipular arm, red dome lights and the same unique gun stick seen on the black Dalek in the story. The Dalek doesn't have any lines in the story nor does it really do anything notable, but can be seen skulking around next to the black Dalek for the majority of the story's climax.

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This custom was made using an Imperial Dalek from the recent B&M Coal Hill School set as the base, with swapped out appendages from a 60s Dalek. The body was spray painted using Halfords grey primer, which not only is the perfect shade for this kind of Dalek but also applies like an absolute dream - I highly recommend it and will definitely be using it more in the future. The base was also spray painted using Citadel Chaos Black, whilst all the other black detailing was hand painted using Citadel black. The eyestalk discs were painted using Citadel Grey Seer, which is the original colour I planned to do the custom in however it turned out to be far too light. Finally, the translucent red dome lights were a custom order designed and 3D printed by Custom Dalek Creations.

The unique gun stick was not featured on a TV Dalek and thus has not been produced by Character Options. Rather than attempt to build one for now I simply took a 60s gun stick and cut off the end of the barrel to give it a flat appearance. The appendage was painted using Citadel Lead Belcher spray, with the both the end and the ridges painted black to give it a similar look to the onscreen version. It isn't perfect, but it'll do. I've also now given my custom black Dalek the same treatment, and it definitely looks much better for it.

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While this particular Dalek is perhaps more odd than it is unique, there's definitely something oddly charming about this Imperial Dalek in Renegade's clothing. No matter how good everyone says the Imperial Dalek livery is (and don't get me wrong, it is gorgeous), there's just something about good old fashioned grey/black Daleks that can't be beaten. The lighter grey of the Remembrance of the Daleks Renegades works for me far more than the drab gunmetal the Daleks were throughout the 70s and 80s. The red dome lights on this particular model really make the whole thing pop too. 

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Working through all of the various Daleks from The Curse of Fatal Death has been an absolute pleasure - so much so that I'm quite sad I'm quickly approaching the end. The only one really left to do is the standard grey Dalek (which features the regular ovular chest piece, normal gunstick and orange dome lamps) and then maybe the darker grey one from the part two finale (I'm currently unsure about doing that one since it was a model rather than a physical prop). As soon as the History of the Daleks sets hit the 70s era then that last grey Dalek will be done, and then it'll be time to move on to the next project. But this has been a lot of fun, and with The Curse of Fatal Death being so close to my heart I'm glad I could finally add these variants to my collection.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Man, sometimes I think a third of the reviews on this blog are of toy versions of this same robot. You sure love it!