Classic Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – Expanded Universe Customs

Welcome to the next instalment in this tour through my collection of custom-painted Classic Series Daleks. The previous instalment featured the 1980s Dalek Customs, and this one includes a tour of my collection of Expanded Universe Dalek customs. All of these customs are made by me unless stated otherwise in the description.

1960s Peter Cushing Movie Dalek Custom Figures:

Lets face it, everybody loves the colour schemes of the Daleks in the Peter Cushing Movies. There’s something about the garish technicolor craze of that era that makes these Daleks particularly appealing, whether it be the mismatched globes of the Supreme Dalek, the surprisingly awesome-looking standard Daleks or the stark, bright red of the  Commanders. These customs were a joy to make, particularly since the Saucer Commander figures that I used as a base for these are so cheap and easy to get hold of, if I wanted I could probably do customs of all the other Cushing Movie Daleks too. For these customs I used a combination of various Humbrol and Citadel paints, and detailed using a thin paintbrush and Sharpee pens. The trickiest one was the Supreme, who required alternating gold and silver spheres, two colours which are difficult to paint with while maintaining a metallic finish. Overall, however, I am really pleased with these three and they remain a centerpiece of my collection.

 Dalek Zeg Custom Figure:

For those who are unfamiliar with Dalek Zeg, he appeared in a 1965 comic called Duel of the Daleks, published by City Magazines. The comic depicts Zeg, a Dalek inventor, accidentally discovering Metalert, the material used to make the casing of Dalek Sec, that fuses with Zeg and makes him almost invincible. He challenges the Dalek Emperor for supremacy, and after attacking a Black Dalek he is ultimately destroyed by the Emperor after being doused in liquid oxygen in a final duel for leadership of the Daleks. His unique and iconic design is similar to the Daleks seen in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, as well as the Dalek Movies, but his red and gold decor makes him a striking figure. Zeg is one of my favourite customs, particularly since the finish I used on him has set perfectly with hardly any imperfections.

War of the Daleks Red Dalek Supreme Figure:

When Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989, several scripts that were intended to be produced as part of the unmade ‘Season 27’ and beyond were instead adapted into novels. One of these is War of the Daleks, although the plot was heavily altered from its original form. When it was originally conceived, War of the Daleks was intended to be the finale of the Dalek Civil War arc, and would actually introduce two new Dalek factions to fight the pre-existing Imperials and Renegades. One of these factions was a group of Daleks led by a Red Dalek, which had long been a staple of Dalek command structures in the comics and the novels, but had never appeared onscreen before. Had the story been produced, this is an idea for what I think the Red Dalek Supreme could have looked like. I took inspiration from the Red Dalek Supreme seen in the New Series, which is one of my favourite Dalek colour schemes, and used a Gold Dalek as a base in order to retain the solid gold without needing repaints.

War of the Daleks Blue Supreme Figure:

Unlike the Red Supreme Dalek, this Blue Supreme Dalek is actually based on a pre-existing Dalek design, albeit not one that has appeared in any episode, comic or novel. The design in question originates from none other than the War of the Daleks tabletop turn-based game, which in itself adapted its story from the unmade War of the Daleks episode. Although it is not clear what role this Dalek plays in the board game, in the unmade episode this Dalek would have served as the Supreme for the fourth faction of Daleks, which presumably would have been blue too. I have loved this design ever since I first found the War of the Daleks Gallery page, and so it seemed fitting that it now exists in figure form. I used matt Citadel Paints for this figure, since the figurine in the board game had those palette choices too, and I used a Gold Dalek as the base, although hardly a trace of gold remains on this Dalek custom.

Alternate Resurrection of the Daleks / Madame Tussauds Dalek Figure:

This is an odd custom because it is essentially trying to be two Daleks at once. I set out to make a custom of the Madame Tussauds Dalek, an oddly incongruous Dalek prop that featured at Madame Tussauds despite not matching any Dalek shown on screen. However, I just don’t like the design, I have no idea why it was created, and it doesn’t make any sense to me. Instead, I decided to adapt the Tussuads design and create a cross between a Dalek from Destiny of the Daleks and a Dalek from Resurrection of the Daleks, but I still really like the way this one turned out. The colour works so much better with black, and in the right light it comes out as really light turquoise, which gives it a nice look on my shelf. Whilst its origin story may raise an eyebrow, this is probably one of my favourite Dalek customs.

Terry Nation’s Red-top Dalek Figure:

After the Peter Cushing Movies wrapped, Terry Nation kept several of the props, but put little effort into keeping the colour schemes intact, leading to many of his Daleks becoming mismatched. This problem was made even more complicated when he started painting over certain Daleks, creating orphaned parts. Whilst he did give us the excellent Planet of the Daleks Supreme using parts from Movie Daleks, the result was a rag-tag collection of leftovers, one of which was the infamous Red-top Dalek. This odd variant came about totally by accident, when Nation put several of his Daleks out for promotional shoots and, for whatever reason, included this Dalek with the pack, leading to it featuring in some of the promotional material for Dalek episodes at the time. Not only that, but some writers and artists took this to mean that the Red-top Dalek actually existed in the lore of the show, and he started appearing in various Dalek comics and games as a sort of second-in-command to the Supreme Dalek, even getting his own figure in the 60s. All-in-all, it was impossible for me to not create this custom since it is so simple – all that is required is an Emperor’s Guard Dalek and a Saucer Commander base, with mismatched red and blue LEDs for the lights and some slight repaints to the dome and skirt.

Next – New Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – Time War Daleks

Bonus – Comic Emperor Dalek Figure:

Since I had a Dalek Zeg custom, the logical next step was to attempt to create an Emperor Dalek custom from the comics, with the bulbous gold head and tiny lower section. Unfortunately, the end product wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for…
I do intend to someday go back and correct this figure, possibly using fibreglass and better paints to complete the effect, but until then it will have do.