The Challenges of Building a Dalek: Part 14
Be sure to read the previous parts of The Challenges of Building a Dalek. As a result of a number of delays, not much progress has been made, but we are still slowly moving forward. We have gained a few hitchhikers in our dalek; we have about three hornet’s nests inside of Derek the dalek, dad discovered them as he was about to get in it one day.
Weather Concerns
In part 1, I mentioned that you should consider the location of the dalek; Florida has been experiencing some heatwaves, most days the feel like temperatures have been in the high 90s with lots of humidity. Which does make it harder to sit let alone build outside. The moment you step out the door you immediately want to go back inside; this has delayed us from finishing the bodywork of the dalek. Now another delay we are watching out for is that we are facing the height of the hurricane season.
To battle the heat, we have added a number of fans to our back porch as well as only working first thing in the morning (that’s a reasonable hour for the neighbors) or working just as evening approaches. We are trying to do as much as we can inside the house before adding it to the dalek that is outside. Though we have a lot of sanding down to do, which is something that is not smart to do inside.
Hemispheres
At the moment we have currently made 24 half balls out of 75; we are down one mold so production of them has slowed down a lot. We have also come across horrible resin again, I am only saying it’s horrible as when we take the ball out of the mold it leaves a lot of defects. We have managed to save most of the defective balls, but not all. With a lot of sanding, polishing, and spray paint we have been able to save the majority of the defected hemispheres.
Current Design
Using some of the work we were able to accomplish outside, we were able to sand down the body to a more rounded look; that was something the dalek builders suggested. Currently, the neck is about 10 inches in height; and about 16 inches in diameter. When you add it to the base it stands at 62.5 inches, 1587.5 millimeters, including the wheels. Derek the Dalek is currently a bright hunter green and will be having soul-sucking black hemispheres around the base. We are in the process of looking for another electronic scooter/wheelchair to make the next dalek to make more of today’s version of the dalek.
