Full Size Dalek

Soon after finishing my one-fifth scale Dalek Robot, I started work on a full size Dalek. This one is made from a combination of plywood, cardboard, PVC plumbing and acrylic Christmas decorations plus a good deal of duct tape and glue. Originally I made a paper mache dome but I couldn't get it looking authentic enough, so I cheated and purchased a fiber glass dome from a Dalek builder in the UK.

I released my Dalek into the wild in 2018 and it was last spotted on the 4th floor at Google's campus in Boulder, CO.

There have been many variations of the Dalek design on Doctor Who over the years and this one is based on those featured in the story "Genesis of the Daleks" with Tom Baker as the Doctor. These are the Daleks that I watched the most as child.  Here's a photo of the originals.

tombakerdaleks

Doctor Who was a low budget show at this time and the build quality of the Daleks wasn't the best. Brush strokes can be seen in some shots and there is quite a bit of variance between individual Daleks, so I chose to take some liberties with my interpretation (and cut many a corner to keep time and cost to a minimum).

When I started out on the project I had grand ambitions for turning this into a robot as well but I haven't made that happen yet. Instead I have installed an Arduino and an Adafruit Wave Shield that I can use either as a voice changer or I can have it play sound clips that I downloaded from the Doctor Who web site.

Here's a video of the voice changer in action.