Comet Miniatures Davros

 

This is a Reshape kit that is now sold by Comet Miniatures. Unlike the Comet and Sevans Daleks, the skirt comes as a single part – a fact that took me by surprise when I opened the box. The five major parts (skirt, Davros, three ‘globe’ sections) were covered in flash and were slightly malformed in places, most significantly at the hinges for the moving section of the globe. Thus, the time I expected to spend on assembly was spent on tidying up!

I’m not fully satisfied with the satin white finish (on dark plastic), but four coats was all I could be bothered to do.

Comet Miniatures Dalek 2

 

I bought a Movie Dalek with a view to making it into a destroyed version of a TV one. I discarded the dome and cut away part of the neck bin such that it looked like the top had blown off. Inside, you can see the dead Dalek-creature itself and the controls (not visible in these photos). The creature is based on the ones seen in the New episodes.

I did something I don’t normally do with this one and used spray paint.

(I’ve wondered, retrospectively, if I should add charring and other damage effects to this Dalek.)

Comet Miniatures Dalek 1

Having only done Sevans models before, this one was a doddle. An interesting difference (for the kit-maker) between Sevans Dalek-skirts and Comet ones is the way they do the hemispheres. The former have them moulded onto the panels, and the latter have them separate, with stubs to attach them to the panels with. So with Comet you get a far easier paint job but a longer assembly process.

 

I took the suggestion in the instructions and replaced the plastic plunger arm with a metal one, and in so doing discovered a nice way to merge the cross sections of pipes that sit tightly inside one another. You put one into the other, and roll the whole back and forth under the blade of a craft knife. When you cut through, you find that whereas before you had two distinct pipe endings visible, now there’s ‘only one.’

Sevans Dalek

 

I did what I believe is the usual thing and made this one into a Genesis version so it could complement the Davros.

Externally, the only creative thing I did was to ‘play down’ the blueness of the eyestalk discs, due to my not liking the way they stand out in these Daleks. I did one or two interesting things internally, which you can see in the fourth photo.

One of the few tedious things I had to do for this kit – and the same was the case with Davros – was to mitre the skirt panels before fitting them together. I don’t think I ever got the hang of mitring…

Sevans Davros

 

Of all the kits I’ve assembled, this is the one I’m the most pleased with. Whereas the main join lines on my Cyberman are visible, and those on my Ice Warrior are discernable, the ones on my Davros are such that you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that his torso came as one single part!

I mixed a custom pot of paint for his skin, and then did some shading and other little effects to make the finish as realistic as possible.

 

The template for the sticky-back foil sheet that went on his backrest was, in my case, the wrong shape. I discovered this after I’d cut it out, but was fortunately able to make a new custom one using the spare foil. This was a fine example of the good sense in giving the kit-maker more material than he needs.

Sevans Ice Warrior

This kit gives you the choice of a “Varga” or a “Turoc” head. I opted for the latter at the time, though years later I did the second head and can now put either of them onto the body. With my model, each head sits on a cannibal-style ‘head pole’ (a modified cling-film roll) that I simply insert into the torso.

The kit contains fur, which is designed to line the elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles of the Warrior. After watching clips of The Seeds of Death, I decided instead to line the shoulders, elbows, upper thighs, and knees. This was a bit tricky where the arms connect to the torso, but I think I did okay.

Sevans Cyberman

I put this one together when I was quite young, so it isn’t too professional, with the worst thing being the obvious ‘join lines’ where the halves of the moulds fit together.

The things that I remember being most difficult were stretching the spring to slide over the tube connecting the chest unit to the back unit, and fitting the head onto the shoulders. The easier parts included taping the tubing onto the body, and assembling the chest unit.

Interestingly, it looks a lot better in photographs than it does in real life!