Attitude Adjustor the Dalek - Is Now Finished

[Norman]

I say go for it Davros err i mean Nigel

Just stay up a bit longer at night

Cheers mate

Wots for tea this evening ?

[Nigel Heath]

Thanks PZRGREN,

Not so many food pics though in recent days!! Tsk...Tsk...

I have been subsisting on an austere diet of bacon sandwiches and salmon spread rolls, not very photogenic I'm afraid. It has given my more time to spend with Attitude Adjuster though. He is quite demanding you know, its a bit like having a new born baby in the household.

Tonight will be different though, I will be cooking Conchiglie with ragu sauce which will definitely be worth a picture.

Thanks for asking Norman.

[Nigel Heath]

I have done some further thinking on this and had a chat with AA. Removing the vertical rods gives me the opportunity to wrap around some fine square mesh. This will have the following effects:

a] Look cool

b] Help hide any surface defects

c] Create a nice demarcation between the rings and vertical part of the neck

AA approves.

Anyone know a source for suitable mesh?

[Nigel Heath]

This looks ideal:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Extra-fine-Woven-Brass-Mesh-WM120-ideal-for-fuel-tap-filter-/190921590926?_trksid=p2054897.l4276#ht_177wt_1399

I need to check dimensions before ordeing though.

[Pete in Lincs]

I asked an italian friend.

That mesh is too fine for draining pasta.

I now see what you meant about the circuit diagram.

(Speaking as one who blew up his light up screwdriver the other week)

Pete

[Nigel Heath]

I have made ordinary screwdrivers light up using mains electricity. Good fun but they're not the same afterwards.

[colin]

Ah yes, grinding an end back on your screwdriver, that is of course after you have un-welded it from the metal work you shorted it out against, or just dead shorted it.Ho the memories coming flooding back, makes you wonder how I ever lived this long

Edit: Just thought I'd better say, we did a lot of silly things back then, before all this H&S thing put a sensible end to it all

[Nigel Heath]

I'm still doing it.

[PZRGREN]

Could you dremel off the misaligned bar to a flat surface and then create a new one from plasticard/strip or resin?

[hendie]

This looks ideal:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Extra-fine-Woven-Brass-Mesh-WM120-ideal-for-fuel-tap-filter-/190921590926?_trksid=p2054897.l4276#ht_177wt_1399

I need to check dimensions before ordering though.

I had intended to use a larger mesh on mine, but I may follow your lead (once again)

[hendie]

I have had a further think on this issue with the bars and perhaps there is something I can do about it.

There is solid resin behind all of them so I could grind them off. I could then drill throught the neck rings and insert trifoil brass rods like hendie has done. Quite a bit of extra work and it will delay the schedule, what do you think?

The question for you Nigel is: can you live with it as it is now, or is it going to insidiously, and unrelentingly, gnaw away, cell by cell, at your very insides, nay, your very essence... - every - second - of - every - minute - of - every - day ?

I think I know the answer to that one, oh yes I do!

[Nigel Heath]

Dalek Diary - Day 39

Going back to this morning I arose bright and early even though it was a work day, if I started early I could then finish early and get more Dalek construction underway:

Tonight, after the major rethink on the neck I did a few simple housekeeping jobs. I used an old ships hull from the spares box to better jig the dome in readiness for primer application:

With the neck thrown back into the melting pot, the primer ready parts were moved back to standby position:

Using narrow masking tape I measuered the neck circumference so that mesh of the correct dimensions could be ordered tomorrow:

325 by 14mm - 3 off, as it happens.

I sanded the filler on the top of the neck:

The sinkage issue was cured:

At 90 deg there was a hollow but it was at least consistent and is good enough for this hidden area:

I then had a hunt through the decal spares box looking for a white ring for the eye lens and writing for the on / off switch. There was nothing for that but these candidates could be punched out to make an eye ring:

The winning contestant was this set of roundels from the recent Airfx Club Me 109 set:

I almost forgot to include a picture of my dinner.

Here it is; conchigliette (little shells) pasta with ragu sauce, I was going to use conchiglie (sea shells) pasta as I thought I had some but I did not and this was the nearest substitute to hand

I am still thinking about the neck rods, I was not mentally fortified enough tonight to tackle them but I will get the fine mesh on order tomorrow.

Bye for now,

Nigel

Edited November 5, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[Nigel Heath]

Could you dremel off the misaligned bar to a flat surface and then create a new one from plasticard/strip or resin?

Yes, this is along the lines that I am thinking. I will not use my Dremel though, far too crude for such a tricky operation. My little motor tool seems like the best option, followed by some hand work. its not a job I relish as there are 24 of them to remove with some finesse. I will follow hendie's lead and make the new bars out of brass rod.

[Nigel Heath]

I had intended to use a larger mesh on mine, but I may follow your lead (once again)

I looked at quite a lot of mesh types today; photoetched, woven brass, plastic etc. but when I stumbled across this one I thought - this is the one. And not a bad price either. We canny Scots have to look out for such things.

[Nigel Heath]

The question for you Nigel is: can you live with it as it is now, or is it going to insidiously, and unrelentingly, gnaw away, cell by cell, at your very insides, nay, your very essence... - every - second - of - every - minute - of - every - day ?

I think I know the answer to that one, oh yes I do!

Agreed, clearly it has to be sorted and I think this setback can be turned to an opportunity - such as introducing the nice mesh. I have done this before and I don't really mind the extra work - its all modelling after all.

[John Laidlaw]

To me this is still a visible area. As you say it will only be visible when the dome is off but in the Nigey scheme of things it should still recieve (almost) as much loving care and attention as the true exterior.

Hear, hear!

[Bengalensis]

You have done so much great work by now, that I'm quite sure you can't leave those off line neck bars as they are. They will come back to haunt you, and you will have great satisfaction when you are done with the additional correction work.

If I understand the plan of the new mesh correctly you can remove all the current neck bars, wrap the mesh around, and then add all new neck bars made from scratch? That will be a much sharper solution and you will be able to get them all perfectly laid out and aligned. Go for it.

[Nigel Heath]

You have it spot on Jorgen. I just have to psyche myself up for the removal of the bars. Not an easy job that could go a bit pear shaped. I think I will leave it until the long weekend I have planned. So in the meantime I will potter around doing a few little jobs to fill time.

[hendie]

Yes, this is along the lines that I am thinking. I will not use my Dremel though, far too crude for such a tricky operation. My little motor tool seems like the best option, followed by some hand work. its not a job I relish as there are 24 of them to remove with some finesse. I will follow hendie's lead and make the new bars out of brass rod.

You might want to check the version history - I think some versions had a trefoil section and some had a single round dowel - but not sure which was which apart from the Mk III, which had a trefoil section

Edited October 10, 2013 by hendie

[Nigel Heath]

I am pretty sure the kit I have is trying to represent trefoil bars but you are right I should check my references. Thinking about it they would also be better at hiding any cosmetic issues and the join in the mesh so more than likely it is the route I will be going down.

[Nigel Heath]

The Colour of a Different Horse (I keep him in a biscuit tin in the airing cupboard) is nagging me that he needs a new home as good as this one. Three out of the four voices in my head keep telling him to shut up. The other voice wants to know when the Tellytubbies are coming back on TV.

I think I need my medication...

Dear Kallisti,

Over the last few days I have been thinking about your plight. I am willing to place a bet that you even think you have an imaginary friend. Attitude Adjuster and I think you are quite far gone and need to seek professional help.

Nigel

[Kallisti]

The Colour of a Different Horse is getting rather hot under the collar at the idea that you believe we have imaginary friends! The airing cupboard is echoing to the sound of his protestations which seem to be the constant repetition of one word beginning with "E"!

[Enzo the Magnificent]

This has been fighting you most of the way.

Well.... it is a Dalek! That's their job!

[GordonD]

Well.... it is a Dalek! That's their job!

Don't listen to any advice Enzo might give you about the bars. He has a bad track record concerning those...

[Nigel Heath]

Dalek Diary - Day 40

Day 40? This thing was supposed to be finished in four hours, what the hell am I messing around at?.

As I said earlier tonight I just pottered around doing a few little jobs here and there. I continued work on the eye decal. These early attempts were a complete disaster:

I got close with this go but I was still not happy:

This freehand approach was too hit and miss so I decided that a bit of tooling was required. But first I thought I would toughen up all the potential candidates with some liquid decal film:

Good stuff that. Some of these old decals were clearly quite brittle. My first idea was to create these two templates in card and draw round them in super soft 6B pencil that could then be easily cleaned off. This would at least give me something to centre the punches on:

The results were a little better but I was still not totally happy:

I then had another one of those Nigey brainwaves and decided to just use the card template as a guide for the punches, like this:

In the first attempt the outer punch slipped, so that was a right off. The next attempt produced a result that both Attitude Adjuster and I were happy with:

He will have to look out of the thing so it is important that I have his buy in.

In line with my policy of saving anything that might prove useful in the future, the centre decal discs were glued to one of my many homemade decal sheets:

I think this white decal ring is very delecate so I gave it extreme ginger handling in getting it into position on the lens:

I used my usual decaling set up:

I then secured in place with a brush applied coat of Klear:

That little job was then given sanctury under a DDS and I proceeded with something else. Sorry it is a bit out of focus but after sanding the filler on the neck ring I found I had completely missed this gaping cavty - how that got there I have no idea. The cocktail stick is actually lodged in it:

More filler was of course applied.

I had been thinking about the antenna spring. The steel that I had used from the can was very soft - most unspring like in fact so I thought it would be a good idea to add some of the nickel silver sheet to the construction. Using the plastic template I marked out accordingly:

After deburring the edges I now have three spring pieces to play with:

I have done a bit more tonight and I may post the pics but I will post this lot for now. I hope you liked it.

Bye,

Nigel

Edited October 11, 2013 by Nigel Heath