Welcome to the Asylum Project, a new blog post series dedicated to showcasing my custom Dalek Asylum figures. Several of these Daleks have been showcased on this blog before, however they have all changed greatly since then and new custom Daleks have been added to the collection. Many of the Asylum Daleks in this blog post have sustained critical damage, and several of them have many parts missing. I usually accomplish this using a small hand-held hacksaw, designed for cutting small pipes as a plumber’s tool. This comes in extremely handy as it cuts through Character Options plastic like a hot knife through butter, and it leaves very clean cuts that need minimal sanding.
Part V of the Destroyed New Series Dalek Asylum Inmates series will cover my collection of custom Time War Daleks in my Asylum collection that have been modified to appear destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Although many of these figures are ‘destroyed’ Daleks, it is not necessarily true that all of these customs depict dead Daleks – some are insane mutants still living in the battered remains of their casings. I made it my mission to explore ideas and concepts that would have made interesting additions to the TV story Asylum of the Daleks, and I believe that some of the best examples of this are shown below.
Custom Headless Restrained Dalek
This Dalek is among the first customs that I created using heavy-duty tools and although this is not the most elaborate custom in my collection I am still very proud of how it looks nearly five years later. I have made only minor modifications to this figure in that time, mostly touch-ups to the paint and occasionaly re-attaching parts that had a tendency to break off, which I view as a testament to the robust nature of the construction. I used a hacksaw to cut the to off of this Dalek, and the insides were filled with tissue paper, wires and pieces of plastic to give it a damaged, chaotic look. The insides were painted green and pink, and wires were attached to the outside of the casing to give the impression than an external mechanism was keeping the Dalek alive.
Though this Dalek was once in the intensive care ward, it has since been discharged due to an influx of inmates. The remains of this Dalek casing sit in some squalid corner deep within the Asylum’s hospital facilities, still sporting its external life support enhancers, plotting revenge.
Custom Eyestalk-less Dalek
Some Dalek customs can be as simple as a few coats of paint and a dislocated dome, as seen with this custom that was created with minimal difficulty using a simple bronze Time War Dalek figure. As this was a remote control Dalek, the inner mechanism had to be broken in order to dislocate the head without causing so much damage that it snaps off – the head can still turn, with effort, although I have used hot glue to keep the wires in check which has a tendency to jam the mechanism. The entire figure was painted using grey and black Citadel paints, and the wires sticking out of the side are from inside the figure itself.
Despite taking several glancing shots to the head from a fellow inmate, this Dalek did not explode in characteristic fashion – instead, the external systems blew downwards, lacerating the mutant inside and completely gutting this Dalek’s internal systems while leaving the outer casing intact.
Custom Scavenged Dalek Casing 1
The existence of the previously mentioned Splicers in Part IV of my New Series Dalek Asylum Customs post meant that several of their victims would need to be depicted – this was a simple process, as any damaged or destroyed Dalek in the Asylum could pass for Splicer victims – but I created a few with the specific intention of resembling Daleks that have been scavenged for parts by the vicious pseudo-faction and left to rot in the Asylum. This custom was created using a damaged Dalek Thay figure and a hacksaw, and the casing was painted black with silver detailing. The mass inside the casing is tissue paper glued down and painted black, and I used hot glue to secure the upper part of the casing to the lower section in order to give the impression that this Dalek’s casing collapsed after its structural integrity was weakened.
A victim of the Splicer Daleks, this former scientist is barely alive after losing the front section of its casing, its mobility systems, and its weapons. It is alive, however, and the mutant is not sitting idle. As a scientist, it is perfectly capable of thinking around problems – even when the circumstances look as dire as this.
Custom Scavenged Dalek Casing 2
Another potential victim of the Splicers is this Dalek – arguably one of my most elaborate customs since, ironically, the Splicer Commander himself – this custom is not a single Dalek but is in fact a mass of spare parts held together by an internal skeleton of wires and plastic framework, all held together with hot glue. The insides are old computer parts, and a variety of Dalek parts were added over that, including the missing panels from a damaged Dalek Thay and several leftover spheres, a spare front panel, and a spare dome. All of these are held in place with hot glue. The entire figure was then spray painted black and dry-brushed with silver to give the Dalek a consistent appearance. Due to the sheer amount of hot glue used, this Dalek – although seemingly fragile – is as hard as a rock, and is one of the heaviest Daleks in my collection despite the supposed loss of material it is depicted as having suffered.
This victim of the Splicer Daleks was killed in combat, and its vital materials were harvested by a rogue band of the insane scavengers. With most of the external casing removed and several key systems taken including the weapons and eyestalk, what remains of this casing is useless to all but the spiders.
Custom Defabricated Dalek Commander
This custom was created to visually resemble the Dalek that Captain Jack destroys inside the TARDIS in The Parting of the Ways, the finale of Series 1. However, the base figure is that of a Time War Dalek commander, not a simple drone. As such, it bears more resemblance to the remains of Dalek X from the excellent Tenth Doctor era novel Prisoner of the Daleks. I created this custom by sawing off the top section of the Dalek casing (from the neck upwards) and removing the front panel. I then filled the gap inside with a variety of pieces of plastic, hot glue and paper to form the mass that would become the dead mutant. The upper part was created using the remnants of the mechanism inside the dome and several pieces from a Warhammer set, as well as wiring. Beneath the mutant I attached the plunger and another piece of plastic to represent the remains of the gunstick housing. Lastly, I painted the mutant green and added some pink flesh near the front to keep it in line with the design of the New Series Dalek mutant at the time.
Having suffered considerable damage at the hands of the Doctor in a battle on a distant planet, this Dalek Commander was retrieved by his own kind during the Time War – but instead of returning to duty, he was flung into the Asylum for his failure. Now festering in a dark pit of hatred and bloodlust, feeding on whatever scraps congeal in the recesses of the Asylum, this mutant grows stronger by the day…
Sacred Icon 