Thursday 28 October 2021

Custom Figure: 'The Curse of Fatal Death' Grey Dalek

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Arguably my biggest custom Dalek project of 2021 has been to produce the numerous variants that appeared in the 1999 Comic Relief Special The Curse of Fatal Death – one of my all-time favourite pieces of Doctor Who fiction despite its non-canonicity. This year I've managed to make the Supreme Dalek, silver Dalek and a "variant" version of the light grey Dalek drone, and now I'm back at it again with another custom Curse of Fatal Death grey Dalek. Whereas I labelled the previous one a "variant" due to the design having elements uncommon to the grey/black Daleks of the show, this one falls a bit more in line with how they looked by the time of Remembrance of the Daleks – albeit with a few slight modifications.

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The Curse of Fatal Death featured a total of six Dalek props – a black and gold Supreme Dalek, two 60s style silver and blue Daleks, a dark grey/black Dalek and finally two light grey/black Daleks. Whereas one of these grey Daleks was a new construction based on the Imperial Dalek specs (much like the Supreme Dalek), the other grey Dalek was in fact a repainted version of the Supreme Dalek prop from Remembrance of the Daleks. As well as a new paint job, the Dalek was also fitted with new dome lights and appendages. Despite (presumably) only being a lowly drone, arguably it's this Dalek that gets all of the most memorable Dalek quotes in the special – uttering both "So Doctor, we meet again!" when they first appear onscreen and the infamous "We will explain later" when questioned by Emma about why there are chairs aboard a Dalek spaceship. Two key differences between the grey Daleks are the gun sticks and dome lamps - whereas the variant version has red lamps and the strange new gun unique to this special, the more "standard" one has orange lamps and a normal gun.

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As you would expect, the process for this custom was almost identical to that of the "variant" grey Dalek I made earlier in the year. A Day of the Daleks drone Dalek from History of the Daleks #3 was used as the base (that set being the first time Daleks with oval shape midsections have been re-released as part of the assortment), with a brand new 3D-printed eyestalk from Custom Dalek Creations. The Dalek was spray painted using Halfords grey plastic primer to get that perfect grey colouring, and then the black areas were either sprayed or hand painted using Citadel Chaos/Abaddon black. Prior to spraying the dome I coated the dome lamps with liquid masking gel, so that they could stay clear without having to break them off the dome and reattaching later. The masking was a success, so afterward I was then able to paint the lights the correct orange colouring using Revell's translucent orange paint. The eyestalk was painted using a mix of Citadel Grey Seer, Abaddon black and Revell white.

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Admittedly there's very little difference between this grey Dalek and the "variant" one, but it was highlighting those little differences when painting it that made the project more interesting. Masking the dome lights with liquid masking and then painting them translucent orange was my first time working with both masking gel and translucent paints, so those were some good learning experiences that I can take forward into future customs. This custom also involved really combing through the story to check just what colour the Dalek was. In some of the Tersurus shots the manipulator arm looks black and the eyestalk discs blue, but then in the brighter lighting of the Dalek ship later in the story you can see that they are undoubtedly silver and light grey respectively.

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That's four Curse of Fatal Death Daleks down, and only one left to go in terms of colour variants or two should I choose to make another silver/blue one to complete the prop line up (which at the moment I'm leaning against). The dark grey/black one will definitely be joining my collection at some point though, especially as I still have a spare Day of the Daleks Supreme Dalek lying about that I wasn't really sure what to do with. With The Curse of Fatal Death being one of the key pieces of Doctor Who television media from my childhood (not that there was a lot to choose from in the wilderness years), it's been a real dream revisiting the story so often this year to produce this little array of customs.

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