The Challenges of Building a Dalek: Part 4
Be sure to read the previous parts of The Challenges of Building a Dalek. Picking up from where I last left off; we have fully started building the shoulders; otherwise known as the gun mounts out of wood. We are using pine and plywood sheeting to build each section.
The Shoulders
We are almost finished with the shoulders; after we have added the last of the interior supports dad is going to drill a hole in them to reduce the weight. As of right now, we do not know how much the dalek weighs but we do know it is heavy; it takes at least two people to lift it up. After the interior supports are added, we then will add the outside panels then work on the gun mounts. We are still planning on making all the different types of guns that the daleks use.
Accidents Happen
As I stated in part 1, accidents tend to happen when working on any project. For a while we were doing pretty good on the number of days without any accidents; I believe we were about a month in. Dad was using the nail gun to nail in the interior supports that will support the outside panels. His hand happened to be not too far from the spot he was nailing; when the nail shot sideways causing it to curve and stab one of his fingers like it was a needle.
In dad humor, he joked that he’s been nailed by Derek the Dalek now. It left a small hole that closed up in a couple of days, and I did make sure we cleaned and covered it up. But we learned another lesson; make sure all hands and fingers are away from the area where you are using the nail gun.
Current Design
Currently, the shoulders are standing at about 16.5 inches; and 24 inches wide and with a slight incline that goes in at the top and meets at 22 inches wide. When you add it to the base it stands at 52.5 inches, 500 millimeters, which includes the wheels. We are still expecting to finish by May and still have no idea what the color scheme will be.
