Welcome to my showcase of custom Daleks created in homage to various Doctor Who audios created by Big Finish. The most fun thing about creating Big Finish Dalek customs is listening to the audios and thinking about how Daleks that appear might look different – for example, Big Finish audios gives us a lot of scenes set on the bridges of Dalek ships, something we rarely see in the TV series, so when a Dalek with a particular-sounding voice speaks often, we get the impression that it is a sub-commander or other specialist, which opens the door for the idea of Daleks of different designs appearing, and what said designs might look like.
For this, I tend to let my imagination create the concepts – I may take inspiration from pre-existing Dalek designs from other eras, or be aided by the brilliantly-designed covers of the Big Finish audios which sometimes feature completely new Dalek designs that make excellent ideas for customs.
Custom Classic Dalek Scientist
Big Finish Audio: Return of the Daleks
Although they resemble regular Daleks during their first appearance in the TV story Planet of the Daleks, the outpost that the Daleks man is run by scientists, which have been depicted as having their own unique colour schemes in later Dalek media. Examples of this include the cover of A Thing of Guile and the Orange Dalek Scientist of the New Dalek Paradigm. As such, I decided to take inspiration from the more tasteful of those two options and create a Planet of the Daleks-era scientist Dalek in the style of A Thing of Guile. This could therefore be a Dalek that appears in Return of the Daleks during the search for the frozen army on Spiridon.
Custom ‘The Overseer’ Dalek
Big Finish Audio – Planet of the Ogrons, from The Eighth Doctor: The Time War 2
The fascinating design for the Dalek Overseer on the front cover of Planet of the Ogrons inspired me to make this custom that, whilst not depicting that Dalek 100% accurately, does a decent job of paying homage to the design. My favourite aspect of this design, and therefore this custom, is the red eyestalk – it is an excellent touch, and Daleks with different coloured eyestalks should be explored more in the New Series as a means of denoting rank or status. I created this custom using a Dalek Sec figure, which was almost completely unchanged except for the eyestalk which was painted red with Citadel paint, and the plunger which was replaced with a mass of various wires held together with hot glue.
Custom Dalek Wars Special Weapons Dalek
Big Finish Audio – Emissary of the Daleks
Although the design on this Special Weapons Dalek looks more like the colour scheme from Death to the Daleks, I intended it to fit in with the Dalek Wars aesthetic, and so it makes the perfect representation of the Special Weapons Dalek from Emissary of the Daleks, which going by the look of the Supreme Dalek on the cover is set during the time of one of the Dalek Wars. To create this custom I spray painted a Special Weapons Dalek silver and painted the detailing with black Citadel paint. This Special Weapons Dalek was covered in rough scuff-marks which have come up quite nicely under the silver paint and gives the appearance of a weathered, battle-damaged look.
Custom ‘Transaction’ Dalek
Big Finish Audio – The Dalek Transaction, from UNIT: Encounters
Although this looks like a custom that should appear in my Asylum Project blog posts, this Dalek is actually an accurate recreation of the Dalek seen on the cover of the UNIT: The New Series audio The Dalek Transaction, I’ll have you know. I created this Dalek using a combination of a hacksaw, wire cutters and metallic Citadel paint in order to accurately depict the damage to the Dalek seen on the cover of this story including a missing eyestalk, missing appendages, missing hemispheres and various cuts and holes in the casing. I used bronze, silver and black Citadel paints for both dry-brushing and various washes to finalise the battered, weathered effect of this custom.
Custom Pre-Time War Dalek
Big Finish Audio: Blood of the Daleks, from The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 1
This Dalek is a somewhat loose recreation of the Daleks created on Red Rocket Rising during the events of Blood of the Daleks, the first two-part story of the first series of The Eighth Doctor Adventures starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. Although playing somewhat loose with the canon, as this Dalek should resemble the Classic Series Daleks, I used a New Series Dalek to add an ironic twist – what if the Daleks themselves later adapted to use the casing design of the Daleks created on Red Rocket Rising? After all, we are never given a physical description of the Human-Daleks in that story, and it would explain why the Time War Daleks use a bulkier casing that appears to be held together with rivets. Still, that’s my tinfoil-hat theory expressed in custom Dalek figure form.
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