February 2012
66 posts
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A Dalek Year - Day 14: Reinforce
Ending week two of the 52 week project sees the fender upside down while I am still waiting for the spackle to dry completely. I decided to think about some reinforcement underneath as well as someplace to put castors so I can wheel this around. Obviously I need to buy bigger castors. The ones I have laying around are just too small.
January 2012
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A Dalek Year - Day 13: Creative ADD
I suffer from what I call Creative ADD - I love finding solutions for building props and figuring out how to build something, but then when that thing has to be copied over and over again, or I have to go around the entire project doing the same process that I just figured out works on one section, I start to wander off and get bored. It’s kinda what happened a little today - I figured out...
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A Dalek Year - Day 12: Now We're Getting Somewhere
The spackle I smoothed on yesterday was ready for sanding by this afternoon. Once I got it sanded evenly I sprayed the first layer of paint - which is the fleck spray paint that I have used to make tombstones - it gives a stone-like appearance. The Dalek fenders have that rough look to them.
After this layer dried I sprayed with a black undercoating which also adds to the look of the finish -...
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A Dalek Year - Day 11: Smooth Moves
Got some good time in today. Completed getting another coat of paper mache all around the fender, cut out the center to allow someone to stand in it, and began spackling around it to get it a nice smooth surface to paint and hide any traces of cardboard.
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A Dalek Year - Day 10: Movin' Right Along
I am heading toward my goal to get the fender near complete by the end of the weekend. I’ve got the entire piece paper mache’d with at least one layer and was able to get some of the front smoothed with joint compound. It sanded down really nice and will make for a finish that should fool anyone that it isn’t made from cardboard.
For shits and giggles I put the pieces of the...
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A Dalek Year - Day 9: Spackle the Crack
Day 9 - and I bet some would have thought I would have given up by now with daily updates. Ha! Anyway… I started experimenting with some joint compound/spackle mixtures to smooth out the fender (inset pic). And I continue to go around the entire fender with paper mache to get it complete. I’m still hoping by Sunday do get most of the fender mock-up done.
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A Dalek Year - Day 8: More of the Same
Work continues on the fender as I spray a quick coat of primer so I can see what will need to be smoothed out. Carry on.
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A Dalek Year - Day 7: Fender Bender
After a week of work I have experimented with three different recipes for paper mache glue and have about three layers on the front of the fender. Things are starting to strengthen and I hope by the end of the weekend to get the fender all together and maybe even start paint/finishing.
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A Dalek Year - Day 6: Sick Experiments
Feeling unwell today - but I made sure that I went downstairs to try a different mixture of white glue paper mache to see how that dries. Part of this whole year is to get myself to learn and try different techniques that I may not have made time for.
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A Dalek Year - Day 5: Up Skirts
Today’s progress entails cutting some of the Dalek skirt panels and checking out the angles and how they fit on the fender. Need to go shopping for some materials for different paper mache ingredients next week.
I’m in a group video chat with 18 others - Click to watch or join: http://tinychat.com/downinfrontshow
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A Dalek Year - Day 4: Bumper Experiments
Had some time this morning to mock up the bottom bumper in cardboard. Once I figure all this out I’ll have the confidence to redo it all in wood.
I am taking this opportunity to test some other paper mache recipes for other props that I build. I’m got to go around the bumper and use some different techniques and see what I like the best. This section is just a basic flour mixture.
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A Dalek Year - Day 3: Really? Two of 'em?
I think I made a decision to begin by making a full-sized Dalek mock-up in cardboard. Why the hell would I do that? Well, each time I build something I always learn what to and what not to do - and always say to myself; ‘if I was to build another ___ I’d do it like this.’ Well, before I go cutting wood and making expensive mistakes, I thought I’d go the cheap and familiar...
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A Dalek Year - Day 2: Know Your Enemy
Today I got comfortable at what looks like an awesome knowledge-base and community for those that are tackling the Dalek build - Project Dalek - and threw them a couple of sheckles (5 pounds - who would have guessed Project Dalek would be based in the UK ;-) ) to support the work they are doing and the amount of cruising the internet they saved me to try to come up with the dimensions since...
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A Dalek Year - Day 1
As I posted earlier, through some online creative communities and friends on Twitter, there was a challenge - to do something creative every day for a year. To twist this into what I like to do as a hobby, I needed to find a big goal and then break it into parts - which leads us here today - I accept the challenge and pledge to build a full-size Dalek in the next 365 days - doing something for it...
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