New Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – Dalek Asylum Inmates

Welcome to the second part of my New Series Dalek custom collection tour. Following on from New Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – Destroyed / Asylum Daleks, which showcased my collection of destroyed Asylum inmates, we will be taking a look at some of my intact Asylum Daleks, i.e. Daleks that are still alive, but damaged and placed in the Dalek Asylum. All of these customs are made by me unless stated otherwise in the description.

New Series Emperor’s Guard – Asylum Variant Custom Figure:

This is an Asylum variant of the Emperor’s Bodyguard, first seen in 2005’s Parting of the Ways. Unlike the original Emperor’s Guards from the classic series, these Daleks were never actually built as a physical model, and they only exist in the form of CGI renderings. Regardless, the design itself is a nice homage to the classic series, reviving the concept of black-domed Daleks being seen as a higher rank. This Dalek, however, seems to have abandoned his post and so was admitted to the Dalek Asylum. Lack of maintenance has led to several fluid leaks in the casing, which I painted on in green. I bought this Dalek slightly burnt, put I have painted over the melted plastic patches to imitate warped metal, suggesting sporadic firefights in the Asylum between inmates has caused this Dalek’s damage.

Cannibal Dalek Custom Figure:

One of Asylum of the Daleks‘ biggest failures for me was the way in which the Dalek inmates were presented. Aside from some malfunctioning and generally odd behaviour, we never really got to see any truly insane Daleks. The inmates appeared to act just like any other Dalek would, and the irony is that we had already seen a truly insane Dalek in Dalek Caan. I built this custom to try and emulate a Dalek that had been driven so insane that it began to destroy and cannibalise other Dalek Asylum inmates when its own casing began to fail. After centuries of this, what remains is a hideously malformed and defective Dalek that no other inmates dare approach, as it uses its manipulator arm and reprogrammed self-repair droids to tear Asylum machinery apart in a desperate attempt to keep itself alive. I built this Dalek using leftover parts from my destroyed Dalek customs, and as such the parts are mismatched and held together with wires and bits of electronics which adds to the idea that this Dalek has combined parts from several of its victims in a manner that would bring a tear to Victor Frankenstein’s eye.

Damaged Dalek Commander Custom Figure:

This Dalek was once a Field Commander in the early days of the Time War, but was infected with a Time Lord bioweapon designed to react with Dalekanium and cause horrendous mutations in the Dalek mutant inside. After a lengthy quarantine, this Dalek was relegated to the Dalek Asylum when it was deemed unfit for duty. This Dalek started out as a Dalek Sec figure which I painted with a grey wash and enhanced with silver detailing, simply to add some variety to the customs. I also built a Dalek Thay-style makeshift replacement for the section of his lower casing that was removed, and the pipes beneath were made using pieces of a plastic frame glued together. The hasty removal of infected Dalekanium plates have caused the inner workings within to seep oil and fluid, represented on this figure by green paint. Since this Dalek came with no eyestalk, I had to make a new one using pieces of plastic and glue, and the gun I replaced with a few hanging wires which I then painted silver.

Intensive Care Inmate / Rusty Custom Figure:

Originally starting out as an Into the Dalek ‘Rusty’ custom, this figure took on a life of its own and I eventually decided to make it an Asylum inmate, although it fulfils both roles. Perhaps this is an alternate universe in which the Daleks found ‘Rusty’ before the crew of the Aristotle, and admitted him to the Asylum? Who knows. Nonetheless, I used glue and pieces of plastic from the frame of a Warhammer set to create and detail the additions, and I also created a complex copper wire frame which I sculpted around the Dalek and held in place with hot glue. I had to create a new eyestalk for this Dalek using more pieces from a Warhammer set and painted blue at the end.

Damaged Asylum Inmate Custom Figure:

This is a fairly standard destroyed New Series Dalek custom, the only real story behind this one is that it is yet another Dalek that I bought burnt. It is distressing that sellers on ebay put little-to-no effort into burning Dalek shells that they have salvaged for eyestalks, gunsticks and plungers to sell on individually, but this is one of those unlucky Daleks who, for whatever reason, were given trial by fire. I have been able to paint over the burnt sections to resemble warped metal and I gave this custom some character by removing sections of the lower skirt and sculpting the machinery beneath using plastic frame, hot glue and electronic circuitry from an old motherboard.

Destroyed New Series Supreme Dalek Custom Figure:

This was a fun custom to make, even if the Supreme Dalek figures are exceedingly rare. This was one that I got as part of a job lot with a few other Supreme Daleks, all of which were broken, some beyond repair. Thankfully, I had enough spares to fully restore and paint all but one of the Supreme Daleks – this last one. I had to use this poor chap for spare parts to repair the other two, and so it remains broken. In light of this, I decided to turn this last Supreme Dalek into an Asylum inmate, using hot glue and paint to fill in for missing parts and black paint to simulate damage on the head, side and lower section of the Dalek. I also used bronze Humbrol to give the impression of rust and decay to the gold parts. Although this particular model of Supreme Dalek was never seen in the Asylum, there are examples of Supreme Daleks in there such as the white Paradigm Supreme, so it makes sense that one of these would be in here too, particularly since this is the model that Supreme Daleks used during the Time War.

Next – Classic Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – Destroyed / Asylum Daleks

Bonus – Destroyed Dalek Caan Custom Figure:

Although not actually an Asylum inmate himself, Dalek Caan was definitely insane when we see him in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End. As such, it would be wrong to not include him here, particularly since this custom fits well alongside other Daleks in my Asylum collection. And to clarify, I was not responsible for the destruction of this rare Dalek with Mutant Reveal figure, it came to me in a damaged and burned state and it was only after I purchased it that I realised that it had the mutant inside at all. I used a hacksaw to cut the pieces and plastic frames and hot glue to secure them in place, and I expanded on the mutant using a combination of glue, plastic wire coating and purple paint.