Human Dalek Costume!

Who remembers that episode of Doctor Who, "Evolution of the Daleks," when Dalek Sec turned into a human-dalek hybrid? I do, because it was STUPID. Dalek Sec was the least threatening creature I have ever seen, it looked like Cthulhu had a baby with a cyclops, and somehow it turned out all inbred and whiny. Take a page from the Spartans and cast the abomination upon the rocks, I say!

Still, it was kind of a cool concept, even if the execution was terrible. As Halloween approached this year and it became more and more apparent that I wouldn't have the funds and time to build a full size Dalek, I decided a compromise was in order: I would build a Human Dalek costume, only it would be much more awesome than Dalek Sec's nasty tentacle face could ever be!

This way, I would have a cool costume to wear, some parts of which will be reusable for the real Dalek costume I will be building next year (for realsies this time). In particular, the dome and the electronics, all of which were a huge pain in the rear, will be completely reusable.

Here's a video of me being frustrated and exterminating things:

So, without further ado, let's learn how to build a Human Dalek costume!

Step 1: The Dalek Master Plan

I wanted to build a full size, ride around Dalek mounted on an electric wheelchair, but as those are prohibitively expensive, and every single alternative I tried failed miserably, I decided I'd build myself a suit stylistically similar to a Dalek. The color scheme would be loosely based around the final 2005 series Dalek, seen in the 2010 episode "Victory of the Daleks."

The suit would consist of four major parts, two of which would be reusable once I do build a full size Dalek:

1. The Slacks -- to be similar to the Dalek skirt and bumper section, including the hemispheres
2. The Suit -- to be similar to the Dalek shoulder section, including death ray and manipulator arm
3. The Helmet -- to be essentially identical in broad strokes to the actual dome, so as to be reusable later on
4. The Electronics -- to be housed in the dome, but complex enough that I thought of them as a separate entity, including the voice modulator and voice activated lights, all to be reusable when I build a full size Dalek

Comments

[sunshiine]

Wow! I will vote!

[depotdevoid]

Thanks sunshiine!

[sunshiine]

UW!

[mikeasaurus]

Fantastic job, Ian! An entertaining and informative narrative, too. That voice modulator is awesome

[depotdevoid]

Thanks Mike, I was very pleased the modulator worked at all, even more so that it worked as well as it did!