Painting Daleks

[James Holloway]

Hello all,

I know there are several painters here who have produced some lovely Dalek models, and I want to call on your collective wisdom. I am just starting on my first Dalek model -- one of the ubiquitous iDaleks from the DWA packs. It is actually not a bad model for a cheap plastic kid's toy, but here's the thing:

How do you paint all those domes on its skirt without a) going insane and b) having them turn out looking all uneven and crappy? My heart sinks every time I look at it.

All suggestions are gratefully received.

[Inso]

I assume you are painting the domes a different colour to the underlying surface?

If so, I can't make any suggestions. I paint the whole thing one colour and then cover it in Devlan Mud wash. It highlights the blobs enough for me.

[James Holloway]

Well, my goal is certainly to paint the domes a different colour, since historically that's what most Dalek schemes have looked like. Do you have photos of your Daleks? Like I say, I'm very open to suggestions.

[Inso]

[Grimjack]

I bought 5 copies of the first DWA Dalek release and 10 copies of the next, more recent DWA with the new, steroid sized Daleks.

Then I undercoated them, mostly red...

Then I started to paint the domes...

Then, over time, i just went TOTALLY, UTTERLY INSANE!!!! gunmetal, gunmetal, the horror, the horror!

join us....................

[James Holloway]

Those are nice, Inso! Very clean and bold.

[Inso]

Those are nice, Inso! Very clean and bold.

Thank you

Both sets of plastic DALEKs from the comic.

[brummielad1975]

How do you paint all those domes on its skirt without a) going insane

Have you considered pre-emptive insanity? It helps keep the hand steady when painting.

[Van-Helsing]

Paint it your base colour, in this case Grey - give it a shading wash - in this case thinned black ink with a matte medium mixed in.

Wash the model all over, focusing on the domes - Paint your domes black (or whatever the colour you need them to be) I then roughly highlighted each dome a dark grey.



You are "kinda" painting each dome individually, but you are also cheating a little bit as well

[Just John]

I painted one pack of the iDaleks and did each dome individually. I used a small brush and did two swipes around the dome and a dot on top and it worked fine for me.




Its not perfect but its fine for the tabletop.

[CyberAlien312]

Well, I can't exactly say what's the best way to paint daleks, since I have painted several daleks at several moments in several ways. I'm thinking of painting the new series daleks that I've just received in a dark golden basecoat, so the basecoat looks good in contrast to the light domes. As for the iDaleks, here's a picture:

I just painted the body, dome and shoulders in a brownish colour, and washed it with a GW brown wash, but I can't remember which one. The only problem was that I had to keep turning the dalek until the wash dried to prevent the wash from piling up in one place. The domes just required a lot of patience (a ENORMOUS lot of patience...  ),  but the wash makes the domes look much better, so I think you should definitely use a wash.  I have also read about people who were planning to use a sharpie to do the domes, don't know if that's any good though.

[Onebigriver]

My own suggestion would be to only paint five Daleks at a time. Any more than that and you become dome-blind.

[forrester]

Insanity is inevitable. There is really no short cut to just painting each and every bump.

And then looking at it from a different angle and realising you missed lots.

Bumps, bumps, bumps. bumps....








THIS was SO much easier...