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Dome

Ok, so the fun begins…. Been a while in getting down to the build, now I’m committed (not insane, just committed). Chose a dry day and made sure that all items where at hand. Extra stuff I needed were a Stanley knife, dumb bell weights, a good pencil (decided on using a fine felt tip instead), and plenty of coffee!

Preparing for the madness of the dome.

Well, just looking at the manual and guessing the sheer amount of stuff needed, I must say I was 'daunted'. For a start, I found getting polystyrene a nightmare, and secondly I did not have the equipment (or the skill) to cut out the dome former base! Special thanks again to the amazing carpenter skills of Freek and his carpentry stuff which I could not possibly hope in obtaining or using, and for the ten sheets of polystyrene from Simon for getting the packing from a fridge box packing.

So what are the steps for the Dome?
  1. Polystyrene shapes. Because of the bolt in the middle, I started by cutting the poly sheets into half circles diminishing in diameter by 2 centimeters – this took a while! Lined up each half circle along a central line on both sides of the bolt.
  2. Layers - trying to keep it all stable – decided to use the weights to keep it all down at the same time using the dome former guide… I kept having to move the half circles back into position – luckily it wasn’t windy!!
  3. Plaster – using fine plaster I built up the dome shape, making sure that each layer dried. Had to keep taking off the former to clean off bits of plaster! Very messy… The centre second which did not have polystyrene was filled with poly and plaster to consume the central line.
  4. Marking out - nearing the end of the plastering once the the shape of the dome is coming together; mark the eye socket and ears section before sealing.
A little more detail is needed methinks...
I thought whilst writing the above it would be best to add some more stuff, so here goes!
The Dome of the Dalek was the first thing to sort out, but in fact, takes the longest to complete. This is because of the sheer amount of work needed to firstly construct the dome shape, get it prepared as a ‘plug’, and then fiberglassing into the plug to create the dome, and then having to remove the dome from the plug and prep.
First step? well, a visit to my local hardware store which was a great laugh. 

You should have seen their faces when they were told that I was building a dalek and had a shopping list for parts like this:

Hessim scrim bags, Glassmat, brushes, buckets, small brackets, 1 metre steel rod (which needs to be cut), nuts and washers

Suffice to say, there was a lot more, that got ordered:

50lb of plaster paris powder,1kg of G$ polyurethane sealer, PVA release agent, Acetone, pre-accelerated resin and catalyst, black gel coat pigment.

Before starting a Dome former was needed to get the shape of the dome – step in the magnificence of Freek to cut me the former (thanks guys on the ProjectDalek forum for helping me out with the former dimensions).
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Build up the shape using lots of polystyrene, and weights to hold it down from being blown away – all the time using the former to get the basic shape.
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Next, plaster on top, several coats, again, using the former to guide the shape, sand and sand again to get the correct shape.
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Now we have dome shape which is the fiberglass plug. Time to mark out where the eye pivot will go. Has to be done to ensure it shows up on the fiberglass.
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Bit of a gap on the photo front - the dome plug is fiberglassed, and then positioned upside down on a stand. Tons of sanding, sanding and more sanding, followed by a mass of wax. This wax was boiled up in the kitchen creating a wonderful mess using pots and pans (which I massively apologised for using).
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Three coats of PVA, followed by black polyester goes in the plug.
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The rest is fiberglassed. Three layers, black resin and black gelcoat in the mix. Left to dry for three weeks!
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Pull That Dome!

I thought this was going to be a nightmare.Pull out the fiberglass dome from the plug after 3 weeks of drying. Could only crack? Or step in with an ingenious method! Check out the video....

There is a lot of wax still attached to the dome, so that needs to be sanded (using a hell of a lot of arm work!!). Following that, the eye section is located - actually was re-identified - and then cut out.
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The dome now gets sanded again, and will eventually be sprayed. However, that will wait until the ear electrics are sorted, because the eye socket would need to fit properly (and I need to get the mechanism for the eye sorted in the dome rotation mechanism). Once all that was done and the skirt done, the result was amazing...
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Darik-the-Dalek