March of the Daleks

I had such good intentions this week… I was going to finish off my Ogri that I’d made a start on in Mobile Stone AND my Gel Guards that I’d almost completed in Blobby Aliens.

However, I am mere weak flesh and the siren call of the Daleks was too strong…

This was compounded by the arrival on Wednesday of a small package from Roger Webb, the generous chap who not only provides a great deal of eye candy on his blog Rantings from Under the Wargames Table, but is also the proprietor of Wargames Supply Dump – go there, browse his ranges and don’t be surprised when you’ve found you’ve placed an order…

Anyway, back to the package. This contained 6 of the ‘new paradigm’ Daleks, which have become known as ‘iDaleks’, along with some other new series aliens that were also given away as a free gift on the front of the British Doctor Who Adventures magazine. To be frank, the other figures were wildly out of scale with 28mm or just not very good, with the possible exception of the Weeping Angels and the Silence. We shall see what I can do with them at a later date.

Actually, whilst we are on the subject of the generosity of fellow bloggers, I want want to publicly thank Keith aka The Angry Piper, who is the proprietor of Dead Dick’s Tavern and Temporary Lodging. He recently contacted me because he’d remembered a discussion from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in May of 2015, that my preferred Heorclix version of the Thing was the one that was wielding a hot dog cart from the Fast Forces set, but that I’d not been able to get hold of one.  He’d recently ended up with a double and very kindly sent it winging it’s way over the Atlantic to my door. A very generous gesture and one that is much appreciated.

Go visit his blog, as he’s currently trialing Scott Pyle’s new ruleset Super Mission Force, by utilising an old scenario from TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes to pit the X-Men against various foes, including French-Canadian trappers! Well worth a read.

And for those of you unfamiliar with the Thing figure concerned, in a crossover you probably never thought you’d ever see, here’s why a single Dalek is no match for the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing…

Right, back to the ‘March of the Daleks’. Now, as those who have seen the new series episode Victory of the Daleks, which introduced the new paradigm Daleks, will know, they are a bit bigger than the ‘Time War’ Daleks, as the picture below illustrates;

So, how do the plastic Doctor Who Adventures ‘iDaleks’ compare with a ‘normal’ 28mm Dalek, which we know are roughly the same size as ‘Time War’ Daleks? Well, unfortunately, they are widely out of scale, as can be seen below; 

I am, of course, joking. The one on the right is the motorised toy Dalek I recently rediscovered whilst rummaging through my cupboards, who I was asked to put away because someone doesn’t find it trundling about on tabletops screaming “Exterminate!” quite as funny as I do. Regretfully, I was unable to locate this person’s sense of humour during my searches – I fear it may be lost for good.

THIS is actually the comparison shot:

As you can see, they are pretty much in scale with ‘normal’ Daleks, so if you’re a fan of the new paradigm Daleks, they are worth getting.

They are made from hard plastic and assembled from four individual parts; the left and right sides, a ‘cap’ in the centre of the dome and a small rectangular panel at the front of the skirt. The detail is quite good, although there are noticeable mold lines, but due to the material these can be cleaned up with a needle file.

Now, the front panel can prove to be a bit of an issue, as depending on the care in which the Dalek was assembled and whether the two notches that the tabs from this panel go into are cast correctly, you might find that the panel is at an angle, like a small door opening “into the Dalek”. This can be rectified by carefully prising the panel out and re-seating it. This may involves widening the notches or filing off the tabs completely, but it is worth spending some time on, otherwise they look ‘broken’.

As ‘iDaleks’ also have a larger ‘skirt print’ than normal Daleks, you’ll also need bigger bases. I based mine on some spare Heroscape bases, as you can see below;

Now, I have to apologise to Roger at this point, as I believed there were six different types of new paradigm Daleks, and this is what I told him when he offered to send me some across. There are actually only five different types; the white Supreme Dalek, the yellow Eternal Dalek, the orange Science Dalek, the blue Strategist Dalek and the red Drone Dalek. So, the darker orange Dalek above will become a further Drone Dalek when I start painting them.

However, if you want to see what can be made of these cheap plastic toys, I suggest you visit Germy’s website, specifically this page, as he has painted 120 of these little buggers up in the colours of the renegade faction of normal Daleks and Time War Daleks, as well as the most recent red and gold version of the Supreme Dalek.

I’ve obviously not got as many Daleks as him, but I do have some more to show you, namely my normal Daleks;

Whilst the Dalek Patrol set from Black Tree Design does come with six normal Daleks, I decided to only assemble and base five of them. I’m undecided whether I’m going to use the final Dalek to make a mold, so I can have a ‘Glass’ Dalek, like the one in Revelation of the Daleks or whether to add the top half of a DC Heroclix Psion to the skirt, to make my own version of Davros, seeing as he’s not currently available. We shall see.

However, I also discovered that I had enough parts from the remaining plastic Games Workshop ‘Daleks and Cybermen’ boxed set from 1987 to make a single ‘engineer’ Dalek, so built and based him too, along with the Special Weapons Dalek. And here are all the current variations that I have, showing how they all compare:

Whilst there is a slight variation in size between the plastic GW Dalek and the Black Tree metal Dalek, as they are different types of Dalek, I’m not overly concerned. Obviously the ‘iDalek’ is bigger, but they are supposed to be, so this is also not an issue.

So, currently, I have 13 Daleks ready to trundle out and exterminate their enemies;

Where’s Absolm Daak, when you need him?

Now comes the hard part – I need to decide which of the many colour schemes to use on my ‘classic’ Daleks.

That’s all for this week. Next week – even more Doctor Who, but ‘Who’ or what I’ve yet to decide.

Comments appreciated and welcome, although WordPress has been refusing to allow certain people to comment, so feel free to comment on The Miniatures Page instead.