Germy's Dalek Project part 2

I always wanted to have a force of Daleks to game with so when the Doctor Who Adventures magazine started putting plastic Daleks on the front cover I saw my chance. The magazine has put several configurations of Daleks on the cover. Most have been the new iDalek design (not my favourite design) and in different numbers. One magazine had 11 Daleks another had 17. I bought a fair number of the magazines but also managed to get hold of some from fellow gamers. In total I've ended up with 160 Daleks!

Appreciating the fact that these miniatures are effectively cheap plastic toys on the cover of a magazine I was surprised at the difference in quality. The Daleks are made up of three parts, left and right body and a panel for the front part of the skirt. The miniatures are also not that robust and I've had quite a few break or come out of the packets with bits missing. You can clearly see the construction on the miniature on the red Dalek as well as see one of the eyes has broken off. This one is destined to be converted into a heavy weapons Dalek because of that.

You can clearly see the mould lines that need to be removed from the miniatures. The tricky bit being to remove it from the neck area without destroying too much detail. The Daleks are made from a hard plastic so I should be able to file the mould lines instead of having to cut then off with a knife which will be quicker and easier to do on that neck area.

I've put up a picture of one of the worst examples of production quality, it's clear the different sets offered on the magazine were actually from different manufacturers. There are variations in size, colour and sharpness of detail. Unfortunately I have quite a number in this state so will probably use them on bits of terrain as destroyed Daleks.

Here we see another example of the variation in the miniatures. The Dalek on the left was from one of the more recent sets but is clearly a different version. When I finally start painting the Daleks I'll make sure to match up the variations to keep the two intended factions matching. Below shows an example of how I intend to clean up the Daleks. I have a filed the mould lines off of this dalek using a fairly blunt file because the miniature is plastic not metal and a course file would leave an abrasive mark. The filing also leaves a lot of debris on the miniature but that will be removed by scrubing the miniature with a toothbrush. I also keep haering from people that you wash plastic and resin miniatures before painting to remove any remaining release agent. So this method will cover both those points. Stay tuned for the next part of my Dalek project where the painting will start.