Attitude Adjustor the Dalek - Is Now Finished

[Neal]

Great build so far.

Love the meccano airbrush stand.

[Nigel Heath]

I bought a steak yesterday to cook for my dinner but I never got hungry enough to make a start on it so I made plans for it tonight. I always like to get any meat I am cooking out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before I intend to cook it. I had the presence of mind to take this one out a good hour earlier:

My intent was to use up the last of the blue cheese butter and to do proper justice to the tomato accompaniment. Instead of chips I ringed the changes with sautéed potatoes:

Worked quite well I thought.

One of the plastic pipettes I was using during the primer session tonight seemed a bit rubbish, on later examination I found it had developed a split:

Something else for the modelling bin.

Here are the two possible reds for the skirt and dome seen (much) earlier, I don't know which you favour but I think the Humbrol looks better, the other is too pinky / orangey

Here are some of the primed parts.

Under unflattering lighting the dome is not a happy picture:

That might need more filler.

The gun:

The eye stalk:

Quite pleased with that considering its difficult start in life.

There is a hairline crack it the plug mounting:

I got the dome lights ready for a coat of Tamiya clear red as per Pete's sugestion:

My final job of the night was to seal that crack with some Kristal Klear:

Tomorrow I am going foraging for wild mushrooms. I hope I will be able to collect enough for my dinner tomorrow. The lady in charge said that as it was a public parkspace they might be a bit doggy. I'm not sure what that means but I don't like the sound of it.

Don't be alarmed, I'm sure some Dalek construction will also take place.

Bye for now,

Nigel

Edited October 13, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[hendie]

definitely the Humbrol red.

[Scratchbuilder]

I am not generally interested in sci-fi, but I make an exception for Dr. Who.

When I was looking for a career as a professional modelmaker when I first left the ordeal that had been school I applied for a job at a company in West London called Aircraft and General Modelmakers. Having had a general look around, the bossman said I might like to see their special room which only the BBC were allowed access to. Mystified, I agreed and he pulled back a big iron door, which miraculously opened another going the opposite way and my blood ran cold. Up each side of a long thin room were 10 Daleks as used by the makers of the programme and standing nobly alone at the far wall was the "Master", a slightly larger Dalek in hi gloss black with gold blobs, so distinct from the all the other 20.

They were all incredibly crudely made, but nothing raises my hackles like a Dalek to this day.

After this the chap took me to see parts of the T.A.R.D.I.S. and various other control panels which really were made of balsa wood and cardboard.

I didn't get the job, instead I got an apprenticeship at John B. Thorpe, the world's oldest modelmaking company, where I worked with Nick Gaffney, the man who made the very first Dalek for the BBC and actually occupied it to take it upstairs to show the Director General, who, apparently cacked his Tweeds on first seeing it. Mission accomplished!

Cheers,

Martin

[Nigel Heath]

Thanks Martin,

Interesting story which when I read it to Attitude Adjuster got a very positive response. He does like a nice bedtime story and is now snoozing quietly. Bless.

[Kallisti]

Excellent airbrush holder made from God's own Engineering "toy"... Meccano!

Nice to see some paint going on, but I think you are made for sanding down the pillars and re-doing them lol, then again you have AA giving you an ear bashing and TCOADH is bad enough when he wants his biscuit tin cleaned, so I guess I can understand...

He's still at it with the "E" word, but I wrapped his tin in an old duffel coat so its just comes out as "mm-mmmm-mm-mmm"

[Nigel Heath]

By pillars I assume you mean the neck bars?

[Nigel Heath]

Dalek Diary - Day 43

The dome got another round of sanding and filling:

Dispite my earlier checks I found that the rivets did actually interfere with the balls (OK?). They were easily dealt with this end cutter:

By now it was time for my mushroom field trip. On arrival I found that any doubts about me having enough mushrooms for my dinner were quickly dispelled:

These however I will not be eating - fly agaric, pretty but quite poisonous:

I remember finding a ring of those on the farm where I grew up. Enchanting.

Before wandering off into the woods as a group I studied the instructions:

We had only gone a few meters and we were practically tripping over the things, this is honey fungus and makes good eating. Some of these went in my box:

This was my final edible haul:

The brown ones are the honey fungus, the orange chanterelles, pale orange winter chanterelles and the white one is a hedgehog fungus.

Check out tonight's instalment for the recipe.

On returning the eyestalk needed a few touches of filler:

I also used some of the Vallejo filler on it:

The colour change of the thinners indicated that good things were happening to the airbrush parts:

There were some grinder marks inside the dome which recieved some filler:

Note also the pen marks bleeding through, I should have removed them but I know that Alclad primer will hide them and that is what I will be using to do a spot reprime.

This is what the dome looked like after sanding:

I then reprimed practically everything and while the airbrush was out I sprayed the clear red onto the dome lights followed by Aqua Gloss varnish:

Although I have brush applied the red onto countless navigation lights this is the first time I have sprayed it. I found it worked far better with IPA as the thinner than water. I even used some IPA to clean out the airbrush. He is much better by the way, still not quite at 100% but perfectly acceptable.

That is the end of the interim update, more to follow later.

Nigel

Edited October 29, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[Procopius]

Oh yes, Tamiya paints don't thin well with water at all, I find.

[hendie]

nice mushrooms!

I remember staying at a friends down in the borders and we went for a walk one day a found a field full of shaggy parasol's - we were eating mushrooms for days after that. They were fabulous.

oh yes, the Dalek (nearly forgot)

Getting closer day by day, can't wait to see the dome complete and see what kind of character you have there

[Kallisti]

Always use IPA to thin Tamiya acrylic!

[jargonking]

Good progress so far Nigel....given the size of the parts, personally I'd abandon the airbrush and use Halfords acrylic rattle cans instead. The finish is excellent and you can build up a dense colour finish relatively quickly. I use them exclusively now on anything that requires a solid primary colour.

[Nigel Heath]

For the big parts my plan is to use the big rattle can of primer I posted earlier. The dome was sort of on the borderline. An airbrush was good to finesse those difficult areas like the eye socket. I will have to use an airbrush for the top coats obviously.

[Nigel Heath]

I got a little more done before dinner.

This is how the dome looks after its second coat of primer - much better:

I gave all the primed parts a rub over with 2400 grit Micromesh and the troublesome area on the dome also got some treatment with this sanding stick to finish off any high spots:

So this lot are all now ready for a top coat in the morning, this is getting really exciting now!!

I put the light covers on a white background to have a proper look:

When I first sprayed one of them the finish was quite blotchy (the other was fine). I let it dry under a lamp and then applied more Tamiya clear red, it seems to have sorted itself out. I am well pleased with these, thanks for the suggestion Pete. These have the honour of being my first finished painted parts.

In resturants they have to wash wild mushrooms to get rid of the grit the enevitably gets into them during transportation. This is not the best way to treat mushrooms as they have a tendency to absorb all the moisture. My carefully handled specimens could just recieve some loving dry preparation. My grippy tweezers came in very handy for removing bits of grass and moss:

For my mushrooms I has several meal options in mind, a couple of risottos, a couple of pasta dishes, a bruschetta and a tartlet. I the end I went for a pasta dish with linguine and pecorino romano:

I have a special Nigey rating system for all my dishes and this scored the extremely rare 10/10. Quite exceptional (assuming you like mushrooms), you simply have to try it.

I will post the recipe shortly.

Edited October 13, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[Norman]

Nigel

these posts crack me up mate

I am loving this thread

Cheers

Norm

[Nigel Heath]

Norm, you are now my friend, like it or not, and similarly here is my recipe:

Linguine with Pecorino Romano and Wild Mushrooms

Serves One

Ingredients

100g Linguine (if you are a man, I am a wimp and made it with 80g)

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Medium Clove of Garlic, finely chopped

60g Wild Mixed Mushrooms (such as chanterelle, porcini, morels and those that I used) - larger ones cut in half

2 tbsp Grated Pecorino Romano (you could use pecorino Sardo but I prefer Romano)

1 tsp Unsalted Butter

1 tbsp Chopped Flat Leaf Parsley (it really has to be flat leaf here)

Maldon Sea Salt (quite a lot in the pasta cooking water - Italians say it should be as salty as sea water)

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.

Heat 20ml of the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat and add the garlic while it is still warming. Give it 30 seconds and then add the mushrooms and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes until they have released their water and are soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions, mine took ten minutes. Of course you want it al dente, definitely not over cooked pap.

Drain and reserve a mug of the starchy cooking water.

Add the hot pasta to the cooked mushrooms then add the butter, remaining olive oil (mix together) and then finally the cheese. Keep it warm over a low heat.

Add a plash or two of the pasta cooking water to nicely lubricate and make a sauce (more mixing).

I recommend using a rubber spatula for the latter operation and serving, that way as little as possible goes to waste.

Transfer to a nicely warmed serving bowl, then top with more grated cheese and finally the parsley.

Serve at once.

Please let me know how you get on.

Oh, by the way you do not have to venture into the outback for wild mushrooms as I did. You can get them in good greengrocers but sadly Aberdeen does not seem to have such a thing these days.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[Nigel Heath]

oh yes, the Dalek (nearly forgot)

Getting closer day by day, can't wait to see the dome complete and see what kind of character you have there

Thanks hendie, with the neck on hold, the dome is becoming my main focus, although I should be able to do good things with the metal collars which are on the critical path for the skirt and shoulders.

[Nigel Heath]

Nigey's Amazing Fact of the Day

On my woodland excursion today I learnt that mushrooms are amazing creatures (and they are creatures, more closely related to us than plants). The mushrooms we eat are of course just the fruiting bodies, the true organism consists of a mass of microscopic filaments filling the soil. It is estimated that each cubic centimetre of healthy woodland soil contains an incredible 8km of such filaments.

Quite extraordinary.

Even AA is impressed, and that is not easy to do.

Edited October 14, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[John Laidlaw]

Now I'm starving, and will save this recipe for future use. Thank you Nigel . The Dalek's coming along a treat, too!

[Nigel Heath]

John, my posts now do contain a government health warning.

[John Laidlaw]

As in, "Danger: Food depicted in this thread has real flavour and calorific value"? .

[Nigel Heath]

You have tipped me onto page 22. Well done.

Real food is all about flavour and calorific value, moderation in all things is my motto. Good, local, fresh ingredients, in season and of known provenance are also important of course.

I think all of this is all deeply embodied in my fungal expedition.

.

[Nigel Heath]

Love the meccano airbrush stand.

Thanks Neil,

I can provide plans, if required.

[Procopius]

Will that recipe (a) serve more than one, and ( impress my wife if I make it for her?

[John Laidlaw]

I have my uses.

Moderation in all things is a motto by which to live. Whisky tests moderation, but we can't allow things to be too easy now, can we?

And we always knew you were a fun guy.