CAD Daleks
We all know
Daleks are real cads, but these ones are AutoCAD 3D models.
Back in '94,
I was working for a tool & die company and my bosses sent
me to night school to study AutoCAD, which was my introduction
to computers, really. We were using AutoCAD 12, for DOS - yep,
the old apha-numeric screen. Of course, once I got round to 3D
modelling, I realised my dream of building a Dalek - even if
it was just a virtual one.
It's based
on the BBC blueprints which first appeared in the Radio Times
10th Anniversary special and which, years later, JNT's office
would send you for free if you asked them, so, if you're a purist,
you probably wouldn't class it as a "real" Dalek, which
is flipping nonsense. I didn't hear anyone complaining at "The
Ultimate Adventure". If it looks like a Dalek, then it IS
a flipping Dalek! Right?
Besides, it's a fully
working model. AutoCAD in those days didn't have the most brilliant
rendering effects, but the ball-and-socket joints are REAL ball-and-socket
joints - well, REAL in a virtual kind of way. The eye really
swivels, the head really turns, the drain-plunger really extends.
The only things it doesn't have are wheels. Some of these images
have been used to illustrate The Master Dalek Plan, and one was featured
on the BBC Tardis CAM! (Click on the pic to go there!)
I used the
base of this Dalek to recreate the Golden Emperor Dalek from
the old comics. Only difference was that, in my version, only
the top half, or dome, of his head turns, the bottom half intersecting
irregularly with the base. I just thought the idea of that huge
ball turning round on a small base was a bit clumsy, like. Surely
he'd tip over every time he looked round at something! Non?
Of
course, these days there's lots of breath-taking 3D sites using
much more impressive software, and you can find links to them
at the Bits
and Pieces
page.
Well, that's
about all for now. I hope to include further amateur Dalek efforts
(and other "Who" models and props and such) in a future
update to the site. If you have any jpegs of your own amateur
efforts and would like to see them on the web, feel free to mail
them to me care of Ian's e-mail address. Don't worry - the more cardboard and
ping-pong balls the better!
By the way,
when my supervisor found what I was up to on his PC, I got the
old heave-ho. Remember, there's a time and place for Daleks!
