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Hi all, got this blast from the past, plenty of room to add lighting. This is a vac formed kit that was made around 1987, so definitely not a "shake and bake" kit. Not sure of the scale, it may be around 1/28 but I would be guessing. I wasn't too impressed with the cockpit and yellowed canopy, so I decided to see if I could scratch build something better, I ditched the canopy idea and went for an open frame so I could show more details. I built up a new floor and seats and added fibre optics around the cockpit, some of them would flash off and on and some on the back wall would be constant. I wanted to build Robert the Robot in control of the ship, I built him out of various sized fibre optic strands, glued his arms and legs with pva glue, trouble was he was almost invisible at this scale, so I put a warm white smd under his butt! LOL! At least he can be seen now, I made the canopy frames out of solder, cynoed together, then wiped over with 5 min epoxy for strength and yes I had lots of breakages, but got there in the end. I was going to leave the frames open but towards the end of the build I brushed some micro crystal clear pva glue over the frames and after about 4 days it did clear pretty well. However I decided to experiment and I 2K clear coated over the pva and it did improve its clarity, not perfect but better than the original kit part. I would like to think that Gerry Anderson, if he'd had the budget and the technology he would've added lighting to his models. Enjoy the retro trip guys!

In between building the DB5, Robby, and B9 (and a few other odds and ends), I started on this kit. I really didn't intend to start this kit for some time, but I seem to be having lots of down time while waiting on one thing or another in those builds I mentioned above, and needed something to break the monotony.... and this was it. Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start.... It's the Comet Miniatures Dalek. I have heard that the kit has issues, but they can't be any worse than my original attempt at a Dalek (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234945056-scratch-build-16-scale-mk-iii-dalek-complete-after-3-months/ ) I know I have said this before, but I intend this to be very close to a standard OUT OF THE BOX BUILD!!!!!!! I will NOT be going overboard on modifying/replacing/manufacturing/casting etc etc etc any bits. My intention is to display this model next to my scratch build and I think it will be, let's say, interesting to show the different levels of detail in both models. So, picking up the kit, I started with the skirt. I'm getting a strange feeling of deja vu here. That yellow stuff you see below is a USA version of Blu-Tac, it's called fun tac, and it's crap! It's not very sticky, and it's like trying to mold toffee. Anyway, I started with the skirt..... Knowing the issues I had with my previous build, I knew how difficult the skirt could be... and I was right! It was just as well I decided to dry fit the entire skirt because as I came to the last panel, I discovered there was quite a discrepancy in the width of the panel I had in my hand, and the available width to fit it in. So I resorted to reading the instructions.... and Comet suggest starting with the skirt - but - attaching the skirt panels to the top section first rather than the base. I did a quick test and that seemed to be better, so, doing only one or two panels at a time, I started gluing the skirt panels to the top panel. ...Eventually working my way around to the front section. I have to say that I am amazed at how quickly this has gone - but I am comparing it to my previous build, and just the skirt section alone probably took a couple of weeks form start to finish. The skirt is now fully attached at the top. and I am ow working my way around the inside, gluing the length of each panel, making double sure the panels are properly aligned on the outside before applying the superglue. The neck section was easy. However, there were no alignment features whatsoever in the parts, so I glued styrene strips on the top, bottom, and each of the sides to help hold each part in place relative to each other. So while I am waiting on other parts drying - and I have also run out of superglue! - I decided to start the part that I really hate - the skirt hemispheres... all fifty freaking six of them! It's a strange kit. Comet have used some really larger gates on the parts tree (see below) so I cut each part from the tree with plenty of gate left on the part. Now I need to go through each one of them, remove the gate and file down the excess...... luvverly huh? I should mention that this will be a slow build as I am only going to work on this when the DB5, or Robby have some to a halt for whatever reason. ... and I should also mention that I think this is an early Television Dalek, but I have no idea what the color scheme is going to be yet.