Welcome to the Asylum Project, a series of new blog posts showcasing my collection of custom Dalek Asylum inmates, including Time War Daleks in the Asylum. These Daleks are a more loose collection, with no real theme between each one, though several are similar. 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.
This instalment of the New Series Dalek Asylum Inmates series will cover the more unique examples of Daleks in my collection of custom Time War era Daleks that have been customised to appear damaged, insane or deranged, though are more like ‘quirks’ of the Asylum than commonly seen soldiers.
Custom Damaged Classic/New Series Hybrid Commander Dalek
A great advantage of making Asylum Daleks is the creative variety, as I have mentioned many times throughout this series. But this custom is perhaps the pinnacle of the principle of being creative with Dalek parts. Keen-eyed readers may notice that this Dalek is mismatched, sporting a 1960s era body but with a 2000s era base and dome. Interestingly, this Dalek custom is not entirely mine. To clarify, I did the paint job, attached the appendages and also added the ear lights, which are LEDs. However, I did not create the original damaged custom. It is in fact a custom created by none other than popular Youtuber CaptainJimiPie himself, who is famous among the Dalek customising community for his prominent Youtube videos showcasing custom Daleks, as well as his How-to videos and his live workshop episodes. I acquired this Dalek via eBay, and it is not the only CaptainJimiPie custom that I own. However, like the other Daleks that I have from the Asylum Daleks custom figure showcase, by the time I acquired the figure that paint job was largely unrecognisable.
Formerly a Dalek Saucer Commander in the early days of the Time War, this Dalek was condemned to the Asylum for failing to fully utilise smaller Dalek Saucers as disposable assets, according to its immediate superior. Unfortunately, this Dalek has since been destroyed, and its remains have sat in the Asylum for centuries.
Custom Destroyed Dalek Remains
One problem that can often arise when doing various elaborate Dalek customs is that various parts will accumulate over time, with nothing that can really be done with them. This is especially true of detached domes, as many of the Dalek customs in the collection involve Daleks that have been destroyed, meaning that the dome and often the entire upper section is missing. This custom was therefore created to use some of these spare parts in a creative way, and represents a mass of destroyed Daleks that have collected in the Asylum during the centuries. This is essentially a mass of spare parts, hot glue and Dalek mutants made of tissue paper, green paint and computer wires.
Infighting between the Daleks leads to several firefight hot-spots within the Asylum, leading to wreckage piling up quickly, and surviving Dalek mutants scramble over the remains to throttle each other or escape to fight another day.
Custom Destroyed Dalek Controller
One aspect of the Dalek Asylum that fascinates me is how it is run – in Asylum of the Daleks, it is mentioned that the Asylum is fully automated, however I believe that may not have always been the case, particularly if you take into account the fact that the Dalek Asylum existed for a very long time. It seems odd that the Daleks would entrust the command of their most dangerous prison world to mere AI, and I believe that the Asylum may have once been overseen by Daleks – but they all went insane, just like the inmates that they were assigned to guard. This custom represents a Supreme Dalek that may have once held position of Overseer of the planet, but now resides as a derelict husk somewhere near the centre of the Asylum. It was created using a broken Supreme Dalek figure that I spray painted silver and painted the detailing using bronze and blue Citadel paints. The external additions were added using hot glue, and the dome dangles off using wires that are attached using hot glue.
This Controller once held the position of Supreme Dalek in the Asylum, though over time eventually the inmates began to quite literally run the madhouse as this Dalek succumbed to insanity. This convinced the Daleks to start using AI to run the Asylum facilities, leaving simply Dalek crews aboard to run operations.
Custom Damaged Dalek Overseer
Furthering my assumption that individual Daleks were once responsible for the running of the Asylum, I concluded that there must have been a grand overseer who coordinated the facilities of the planet before eventually going insane and joining the inmates, and this custom was created to depict that insane ‘Overseer Dalek’. The base of this custom is a mutant reveal Dalek, although the front panel has been cut in half and positioned on the casing using hot glue to resemble the opening method that Dalek casings use in the New Series. This custom was originally a Series 4 Insane Dalek Caan custom, although I added extensive modifications to it including a black dome with added Paradigm Dalek neckpiece, the green coat of paint on the mutant, and the black hemispheres.
If the insanity of the former Supreme Dalek was the beginning of the end for the Dalek crews in the Asylum, then the fall of the Overseer was the final nail in the coffin. This Dalek used to run all the security in the Asylum, until his insanity triggered by watching the surveillance camera footage all day led to the Daleks pulling the few remaining sane Dalek crewmembers out of the Asylum and leaving the facility to by run entirely by AI.
Custom Parallel Universe Damaged Dalek Sec with Genesis Ark and Cybermen
The idea behind this custom was always a strange one – what if the Dalek Asylum also contained Daleks from other universes? This custom represents an alternate version of the Battle of Canary Wharf in which Dalek Sec lost the battle totally, being cast into the void by the Cybermen in the remains of the Genesis Ark. I created this custom using a Dalek Sec figure that I encased in the remains of a Genesis Ark that I cut up using a hacksaw. The Genesis Ark was rebuilt around the Dalek using hot glue and wires, and the entire custom was painted using silver Citadel paints. The Dalek figure itself was given a silver ‘straight-jacket’ appearance. The Cybermen that surround this custom are an optional extra, though each one is a custom Cyberman in itself – I will eventually upload a blog post detailing my custom Cyberman collection for a closer look at these.
Having fallen to Skaro in a fireball, this Dalek and what remained of the device that surrounded it was condemned to the Asylum after claiming to be none other than Dalek Sec, and against all odds the Cyber-technology that was hidden inside this damaged Dalek has begun to interfere with Asylum systems en-masse…
Sacred Icon 