So having come up with a plot, I needed to make sure I had some miniatures. Observe above, in all its glory, the stock of parts ready for this project. A mix of model tanks from the Britannia Model Village and Steampunk project, some planes from the Thunderbolt project, and a few toy and model Daleks. All of which were in somewhat poor condition following months of being in store following the kids arriving, and all the miniatures being stored in the loft. On the other hand, it once more reinforces the point that one should never throw anything away. Ever.
The Daleks which would be 'background' items. Two of them (the larger two) were toys bought from a charity shop ages ago, somewhat broken, the one on the right is one of the older Dapol toy Daleks which I got years ago, rebuilt for a Uni photography project, and which got somewhat mauled afterwards, and two others (not pictured)- a key ring Dalek about 3cm high which I got as a Christmas pressie from the Youngest, and my somewhat treasured 2ft high Radio Controlled Dalek which will be used for close-up shots.
A bit of rebuilding and repainting later, and I had one 'intact' Dalek and one damaged version which could be dismantled into its component parts.
Such aircraft as would be appearing would be represented by the generic designs from the Thunderbolt project; the fighter built from bits of model kits (above) and the bomber which is mainly bits of an Airfix Wellington bomber (below).
One thing I was attempting with shooting the aircraft was to try and match them to the movement of the camera; more on this in the next post.
The 'hero' Dalek would be a Special Weapons Dalek, which in the fiction of the show is a type of Dalek armed with, basically, a bloody big gun (which every time it fires causes a massive amount of radiation to mutate it, leading to the development of personality, emotions etc). They were described in some detail in the novelisation of "Remembrance of the Daleks" and I liked the description of them, but wanted my own design of them(as the only time they were seen on telly was the old-Dalek design in the TV version of "Remembrance"... look for it on Youtube or something, it is good). Being as I didn't want to carve-up my aforementioned radio-controlled Dalek, I turned to the model above.
This started off as a money box, I got part-way to converting it into a Boy Racer Dalek for an aborted comic when I was at Uni (I lived in Carlisle; many boy racers, shazzas and kevs, and it seemed a good idea at the time). Part-way into the project I aborted, and it had been doing nowt since. But it was about a foot tall (so big enough for close-ups) and the perfect fodder for converting.
In the best tradition of a Benjy project, I had no budget, no time, and a box of odds and ends, so spent a productive evening gluing random bits of pen lids, torches, and old toys to the Dalek to convert it into a Dalek with a big gun (which would light up- good old Poundland and their torches).
A bit of judiscious repainting and weathering later, and shazam; didn't need to be too neat as the whole shoot would be done at night anyway.
Airfix and Citadel kit parts, highlighter-pen cap, and mini speaker components...
...more speaker parts, more kit bits, a pipe from a mini air-pump, and a torch.
I don't know how well this shows up, but one issue with the need to shoot the pics in a hurry was that I enede up having to paint the models in a real rush, and thus got caught out in a rainstorm, so the model got wet. I initially despaired somewhat, then realised it had added a nicely battered patina to the surface of the model, which fitted the general air of neglect and battle-damage I was aiming for.
Next up, the recce for the shoot.
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