New Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – New Series Paradigm Dalek Customs

Welcome to the next instalment in this tour through my collection of custom-painted New Series Daleks. Following the New Series Dalek Supreme Customs, this feature includes a tour of my collection of New Dalek Paradigm customs. All of these customs are made by me unless stated otherwise in the description.

New Dalek Paradigm Drone Custom Figure:

When the New Dalek Paradigm first emerged from the Progenitor in Victory of the Daleks, they were not very well received. But why is that? Maybe it was the terrible design choices. Maybe it was the shoddy flat studio lighting. Maybe it was the fact that they were all painted to look like plastic toys. We may never know. What is certain, however, is that this repaint of the Dalek Drone that I did over 2 years ago is far superior to the original design. For a start, the paint is less glossy and more metallic-looking, and the silver spheres add to the metallic effect. I used Humbrol paints for this entire custom, and the shiny effect really does the figure justice. Ridiculous design aside, at least the colouration is fixed now, and I think it is a great improvement.

New Dalek Paradigm Strategist Custom Figure:

Like the Drone figure, the Strategist suffered problems of not appearing to look quite right in Victory of the Daleks. Admittedly, of all the Paradigm Daleks, the Strategist was one of the better-looking ones, but the plastic-looking props were just a laughing stock. When the Paradigm Daleks returned in Asylum of the Daleks, they were given a fresh, metallic paint job, and honestly if they had had this in their first appearance it could probably have made them look a lot less like oversized toys. Speaking of toys, a figure of this new metallic Strategist was made, but as I mentioned in my Asylum Customs Collection Tour, it was packaged with the Eleventh Doctor in a box set that has doubled in price since its release. As such, I decided to repaint my blue Dalek Strategist to resemble this new colour scheme, and like the Drone the metallic Humbrol paint and silver spheres really adds to the design, making it look a lot more like a proper Dalek.

New Dalek Paradigm Eternal Custom Figure:

This may not look like much of a custom, because technically it isn’t – the only alteration I made to this Dalek Eternal figure was a slight repaint of the strange ‘back hatch’ that they included on the reverse of the Dalek. I actually liked the Dalek Eternal, if only we had known what on Skaro it was for, particularly since it will probably never appear again unless Chris Chibnall is feeling particularly adventurous. What I don’t like is the weird back hatch – what was that for? What was any of this for? Was this even a real episode?
My head hurts. Let’s move on.

New Dalek Paradigm Scientist Custom Figure:

Ah, the Scientist. Undoubtedly the most forgotten of the now universally-forgotten Paradigm Daleks. Of all the Daleks in the New Paradigm, the Dalek Scientist has appeared the least out of all of them, only appearing on TV in its debut episode, Victory of the Daleks, making it the only Paradigm Dalek to never appear on TV outside of this episode. The Eternal appears briefly in The Pandorica Opens alongside a Drone and a Supreme, and the Strategist shows up alongside more Drones and Supremes in Asylum of the Daleks, but the poor Scientist is left out completely. Fans of the colour orange need not despair, however, as Scientist Daleks do appear in the ‘Adventure Games’ series, but that doesn’t change the fact that this Dalek is just ugly. I did my best to try and make it look interesting – adding more black detailing to the dome, midsection and spheres – but honestly, any colour would have worked better than orange. Even brown would have worked better than orange, at least then the Scientist Daleks could better resemble what they truly are.

New Dalek Paradigm Supreme Custom Figure:

I may have gone a bit too far in a few places. Nonetheless, this is my completed Paradigm Supreme, with a reference to the Cushing Movie Daleks thrown in too, how about that. Realistically, the major problem with the Paradigm Dalek Supreme wasn’t that he was white with black detail – which is probably the most boring colour scheme ever for a Dalek Supreme – the problem was that they got the colours the wrong way round. And this may have been intentional, they could have been going for a ‘reversal’ of the norm with this Supreme, to show that the New Paradigm is different to the old order, but it didn’t come across that way, since the white was far more prominent and most of the black was neutered by various greys. Overall, the Supreme Dalek is my least favourite of the New Dalek Paradigm, simply because it is probably the most boring Supreme Dalek to date. As such, I tried to make this custom seem as elaborate and intricate as possible, with various whites, golds, silvers, blacks and a nice metallic sheen as icing on the cake. Whether or not it is an improvement over the original or a nonsensical mess is up to you.

New Dalek Paradigm Black Supreme Custom Figure:

Just when my Paradigm Supreme seemed secure with its fancy flamboyant colour scheme and vintage Humbrol smell, a new contender to the throne emerged. This is essentially an alternate Paradigm Supreme, throwing the base white out of the window and opting for the more traditional black and silver design seen in Remembrance of the Daleks. Whilst I am very fond of my white Supreme custom, I must admit that this is a much cooler looking design, and probably what I would have gone for if I was in charge of choosing the Dalek Paradigm colour schemes. The black is a matt, making this one of the few of my Paradigm customs to be in a matt paint job, but for these colours it works. The metallic silver gives it the authentic look and the matt helps the detail to stand out, just like how it does on Classic Supreme Daleks. It’s almost as if things were perfectly fine how they were and the New Dalek Paradigm was totally unnecessary…

New Dalek Paradigm Classic Custom Figure:

I made this custom out of a spare Dalek Drone out of sheer curiosity, I didn’t think that the colour scheme would work on a Paradigm Dalek sculpt and honestly, I was probably right. But I kept it the way it was just as a template to see how other Classic Dalek colour schemes might work on a Paradigm Dalek, particularly the Death to the Daleks and Genesis of the Daleks colour schemes. If I ever get any more New Dalek Paradigm figures, I might consider expanding my collection of ‘Paradigm Daleks in Classic Colours’ but for now, this figure stands alone. The silver and blue design was based on the newer versions of the 1960s Daleks seen in Series 9, although I kept the eyestalk the same Paradigm yellow as the others.

 New Dalek Paradigm Geneticist Figure:

For anyone who took my advice from the Dalek Supremes Custom Collection Tour or found and watched this short but brilliant animation independently this Dalek will be strikingly familiar. For those who haven’t seen The Dalek that Time Forgot, go and watch it, because it is amazing. It’s entirely non-canon and in places a tad ridiculous but it is a fantastic example of what Doctor Who fans can do with some 3-D rendering software, a solid script and a lot of free time. It exists in four parts, making up a 20-minute long mini-episode, and the first part can be found here.
In the meantime, without giving too much away, this Geneticist custom is a representation of a Paradigm Dalek variant that shows up in this animated short and it has the creepiest voice of any Dalek I have ever heard, as well as a creepy claw-like appendage. I have not recreated that detail on this figure, and there are some slight changes to bring it in line with my other Paradigm Daleks but overall it is a mostly-faithful recreation using matt green Citadel Paint and metallic silver for the detail.

Next – Classic and New Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – Davros Customs

Bonus – Stone Dalek and Dalek Ironside Figures:

Admittedly, Series 5 is one of my favourite eras of Doctor Who. Yes it has its flaws, the Paradigm Daleks being among them, but I have fond nostalgic memories of this brief period of calm between the confusing mess that was the Russell finales and the confusing mess that Matt Smith’s era became. The iconography of this Series is among my favourite in Doctor Who too – the return of the St. John’s Ambulance stamp on the TARDIS, Amy and the Doctor’s original costumes, the Smilers, Sunflowers, the Pandorica – it represents a simpler time for me, a time roughly when I was in my third or fourth year of secondary school. However, two elements of Series 5 that I absolutely adore when it comes to Dalek lore is the Ironsides and the Stone Dalek.

Let’s start with the Ironsides. Everything about them, from the concept to the execution, is just awesome. Since they use the Russell-era design of the Daleks, they aren’t dragged down by the Paradigm’s clumsy shape, and the military green with the little Union Flag beneath the eyestalk is such an amazing idea. I remember watching the trailer for Series 5 before it aired and this imagery had my mind racing with speculation – why were the Daleks on our side? Was this a trick, or is this a real scenario? Is it a parallel universe? Who is controlling the Daleks, and how did they survive? Will the Daleks kill Hitler? The possibilities were endless. And, for the most part, although this may be an unpopular opinion, I really liked all of the parts of Victory of the Daleks that included the Ironsides. They had a sneaky plan, they were not acting like normal Daleks, and it reminded me of the Daleks from Power of the Daleks – clearly a huge inspiration for most of this episode. Overall, they are probably in my top 5 Dalek designs. I wish they hadn’t gone out like wimps, though, I wanted to see them fight their way out in one final Dalek Civil War, with the Russell Daleks desperately attempting to hold their own against the upgraded Paradigm Daleks, to no avail. Ah, what could have been.

And the Stone Dalek was the primary antagonists of one of my favourite Moffat finales, The Big Bang. Ignoring the ludicrous premise, this episode is a great romp, and it is often overlooked as a standard ‘Dalek episode’ since it doesn’t have ‘of the Daleks’ or the word ‘Dalek’ in the title, but it is essentially a Dalek episode – Amy, River and the Doctor spend most of the episode trying to escape this strange zombie-like Dalek as it chases them around a deserted museum, and it actually managed to kill the Doctor… well, sort of. Auton Rory vs the Stone Dalek is awesome, and what is arguably the best thing about this Dalek for me is that, be it either the prop in the show or the figure itself, it actually looks like a Dalek made of stone, rather than a plastic prop painted and detailed to resemble stone. I hope we get wacky Dalek ideas of this irk in Chibnall’s Doctor Who and less of the wacky Dalek ideas like most of the others we’ve had in Moffat’s era.