I got some cheap disposable BBQs and cut the mesh into eight sections and wedged these behind each section of Heronair, and them tacked some garden weed membrane around the inside of the neck so you can only see out of the front section, but not see inside.

And another semi successful domelight, sanded smooth and sprayed with frosting paint... Dalek has his lights... Below is a picture of all the casts I've made with the tow I'll be using, two spare clear beakers, one clear with some red pigment stuck on the surface and the two still sticky red ones....

I have one successful domelight, well almost... this was the one in the below picture next to the red Habitat beaker, clear with a few air bubbles, but sticky. I sanded the surface off with some 100 grade, and then sprayed it with the same frosting paint I used on the NSD domelight bulbs. Whilst its got a few imperfections it is not sticky and looks OK... although another is drying in the mould...

How difficult can it be... I've tried now to make 5 casts in the mould and all are coming out sticky... I added 5% of red pigment as per instructions and I got what can only be described as a cast with the consistency of a lolly pop that's been left out and gone all sticky, so I added just a dab of pigment and that was the same... So, I thought its the release agent, but that came out sticky as well. I cleaned the mould thoroughly and made a clear cast, came out sticky and mottled, and the next came out the same - then the scales broke so I give up [for now].

While I was out and about this week I popped into Habitat - thinking that they usually have unusual stuff and in the garden section I found plastic beakers that look like the disposable ones you get near water fountains... and they look just like the domelights on the Product Enterprise 8" movie Daleks... they come in a pack of 4, all different colours as below - red, yellow, grey and a greeny-blue... might be a viable alternative...

It's been a busy day of small jobs;

• Sanded and glued the neck blocks onto the neck;
• Cut out 8 sections of Heronair pool matting for the neck;
• Drilled pilot holes in the bottom neck ring and the top of the shoulders and glued in some small lengths of dowel to secure the neck to the shoulders, but enable a quick removal when necessary;

I've also made the mould for the Movie dome lights - what a nightmare... I used Plasticine to secure the movie dome-light to a piece of perspex and then cut a section from a Coke bottle and secured this with more Plasticine... then poured in the RTV silicone and it leaked, and leaked and leaked - so after about 10 minutes of fighting with it I struck the other movie dome-light into the bottom of a glass vase and poured the RTV silicone over this one - then had to wait for more silicone to arrive so I could complete the mould... panic over until this morning when I had to smash the vase to remove the mould... Whilst I have had to damage the outside of the mould, the actual mould is perfect...

Panic over and I've mixed some water clear fast cast resin, added some red pigment and its setting upstairs... I used about 220grams of resin, and have a moflash lens resting in the centre to allow me to have a bulb and holder in there once its mounted on the dome.

40 minutes set time and should be able to de-mould in about 4 hours...

Small update, fitted the captive ball bearing 'wheels' today so the head can spin on the neck, and dug out the left over Heronrib for the neck...

I met a very nice man today, a very nice man with a pair of re-cast Movie Dalek dome lights, a very nice man who was willing to lend then to me so I can make a mould and cast myself a pair with some 'fast cast water clear resin'...  much better than the moflash lenses...  watch this space...

I got a bit fed up of seeing the head in bits, so today I started on the dome innards. I started with a 6mm MDF disc that fits inside the dome about 7cm up, and then cut two 18mm MDF 'brackets' - each is about 7" long, 2.5" high and curved so that they sit flush with the dome when its all together. These two 'brackets' are set 32mm apart, with a block between which will act as a stop for the eye stalk, to keep it level but also to allow it to 'look upwards'.

I've glued /screwed the bracket to the disc, and drilled a countersunk hole 'side to side' that a 6mm coach bolt can pass through, and drilled the hole in the pivot out so it can all be screwed together. The NSD has two separate bolts that hold the eye stalk in place but it has a 'wobble' to it so this feels a more secure way to hold the eye stalk in place.

A quick test fit and its all as it should be. Next steps will be some bearings so the head can turn freely, and to fibreglass some brackets in the head to screw the disc to...

Again not much to report today except for gluing /nailing the struts to the inside of the neck, and screwing /gluing the disc on the top that the head will rotate on...

28th March 2009

Not much to add - the dome now has mounting holes for the red Moflash lenses and a slot cut out for the eyestalk...