#dalek cosplay

[rogisinspace]

TRICK OR TREAT! (Show me something cool! Whatever you want!!)

I'M SO LATE TO THIS IM SORRY

BUT I GOT TO BRING MY DALEK TO WORK!!!! It literally made me so fucking happy you have no idea....

Look at the goober!!

[dividedsingularity]

Cosplaying a Dalek

How I spedran my first ever cosplay to wear it at a con, aka a sentimental writeup on the making of the costume with lots of pictures! Find it under the cut.

Ever since I first laid eyes on them, I've loved the Daleks, both as a wider entity and in their design.

Look at this thing, it's perfection! A modern design from the newer, post-2005 series, but with a more classic-feeling black colour scheme.

During my comprehensive Doctor Who watch-through, sometime around January 2020, an idea for an anthropomorphic Dalek materialised in my mind, centering around the Dalek trooper helmets from Resurrection of the Daleks. Except I thought they could have looked way cooler.

I mean look at it. It's got the spirit but it lacks the style. So my design incorporated all the parts I found important about the entirety of the Dalek form. I doubt I thought about cosplaying it while I first had the idea, but the first post I ever made about it already mentions that desire. …huh, it's been so long already??

I never did much about it since that time, though, aside from talking it over with a friend for ideas and thinking about visiting some second-hand clothes shops to look for the right sort of coat. That didn't end up happening, because by sheer luck I found two leather coats to choose from at home, just sitting there unused, and one of them had exactly the right collar!

…that was definitely way over a year ago though. The next time anything moved forward cosplay-wise was early in April this year. Once my small group of friends decided all three of us would go to this year's convention, and all of us were to show up in costume, it was on. With a time limit and a real goal of creating the costume I'd dreamed of for so long, I actually got to work.

The cosplay never left my mind since that day; I was constantly planning what I'd need and how I'd go about achieving it in the back of my mind. There were some things I had ideas for, but many more that I didn't even know how to start approaching; I spent several days in the first two weeks just visiting every art and hobby shop and some more specialised ones across (and some outside) the entire city. (I found out more about public transport here in that week than for my entire life here.)

Some harder to find items that I'd known I'd need from the beginning were a bicycle chain (for the exo-spine) and clear plastic cups (for the helmet lights). Those required dedicated trips and, in the chain's case, much additional work cleaning and breaking it to the desired length.

What gave me the MOST trouble, though, were all the balls on the costume, both helmet and coat. Nearly everyone I talked to about this project had their own (mostly unsolicited) ideas for what they could be made of, but none felt right to me. Eventually I latched onto wanting to make them from buttons - so the problem became finding large enough buttons. After much effort I got them - only coconut shell buttons were anywhere near the correct size - and spent the next few days sewing them and the bike chain onto the coat. Tip: never attempt sewing leather without a thimble.

Here's what it looked like with all the attachments + a dirt cheap belt from a second hand.

Through all the work on the coat, however, I'd been dreading the part I knew least about: the helmet. It was the most crucial element, the lynchpin of the entire thing, and I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like, but nothing about how I'd achieve it. It took me the longest time to even settle on a material to make it out of.

Everything started coming together once I remembered I have access to 3D modelling software that I *knew how to use*. I speed modelled the helmet in one evening, adjusting only the cup holes for real size and eyeballing the rest of the dimensions, praying that it'd end up being right because I had neither the time nor willpower to go through modelling-printing-cutting and gluing it all a second time.

Some wip stages looked pretty funny considering the cup shapes were perfectly to scale

Once unfolded, printed out, glued together, cut out, traced on cardboard, and cut out once more, it looked like this:

a LOT of tape and wishing I had someone to help me hold things in place later, I finally ended up with a shape that looked right and thankfully turned out to be perfectly sized for my noggin. It's incredible how many strokes of luck happened here, really. and there's still several coming up!

After connecting the visor, cups, and a safety helmet base to the cardboard structure, I had a Usable Helmet. Feeling so close to my goal, I still knew there was a long way to go, as I had barely an inkling as to how I'd make or connect the helmet's optic.

I used a small tube of thick cardboard and bent wire in the end. The lens was from an old bedstand clock.

Other than that though, what remained was mostly decoration - and I was not about to even attempt painting this thing; I had to cut the helmet's template into separate pieces, lay them out tightly on a few sheets of PVC foam, cut those and then attach them to each side of the helmet one by one. It took a good while but the result was pretty phenomenal, colour quality-wise.

The helmet also got the button treatment, though these were a different kind and not ones I went looking for - I'd actually had these lying around for years, and exactly the right number, too! Incredible how good they look, especially when in motion and catching all the light. Ended up having to reattach them with a different kind of tape, but they're holding fast now.

So my helmet was done and I had little time to spare, and even less idea how to make my Dalek gun, despite having the parts for it. A classmate unexpectedly offered to let me use a 3D printer he had access to, though, and this opened up an opportunity - so the base for attaching the gun to my forearm was 3D printed, glued, got the straps (from an old gutted backpack) sewn into it and it worked pretty great.

For the gun, I used a clear plastic tube and even more bent wire, and finally for the cable leading to the gun I could do something relaxing - a measure tape that I had to cover with isolation tape. Taped again to the base of the gun, but detachable on the other side via paperclip that I can put on and take off the collar of the coat.

I had all the elements that required crafting ready and put together just a day before the con, then. I'd picked out appropriate underdress (my Dalek shirt and colour-fitting trousers, light for the hot weather) in between working on them.

Let's summarise: it's June. Sunny weather. My cosplay consists of

gun

shirt

trousers

long leather coat

black helmet

gloves

whatever shoes fit the vibe

and I wanted to put a backpack on top of all that, too. You'd have to be insane to wear all of that on a hot summer day!*

*Disclaimer: all Daleks are clinically insane or close enough, so it all checks out.

I decided not to use the gloves and spare myself that much, at least. In the end, the day was even a little cloudy, and it was only about 25°C outside (for my Fahrenheit-using friends, that translates to "way too hot to wear all that") - so the eleven hours of walking in full Dalek cosplay dehydrated me only a little in the end. I think. Yeah that water bottle was gone fast.

The day was incredibly fun, even more fun than it was exhausting, and the number of people who complimented the cosplay or even asked to take a photo with me was absolutely staggering to a newbie like me! It was all worth it in the end; as I write this, I haven't yet had my planned photoshoot to get nice detailed photos of the cosplay, but I did find a TARDIS prop at the con to pose with, so… I guess I can bend my no photos rule and show you this one.

Censoring my face with an actual Dalek picture for accuracy.

Now here I am, a proud and happy new owner of a rather nice Dalek costume. It still needs some adjustments for better comfort of wearing, mostly to make the helmet less wobbly while walking, but I have it! I got help from my friends and colleagues both in terms of solution ideas and resources given to me nearly every step of the way and completing it so quickly wouldn't have been possible without it. Thank you, guys. And thank you, if you've read this entire thing, hope it was enjoyable B ] Questions and comments most welcome if you have any.

[itsuki-fp3]

I made the Dalek dress! This dress was inspired by a Dalek. Received high ratings on Reddit. The set includes a beige dress with tulle, a dark brown overskirt, and a headpiece.

See more...

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1495643821/dalek-cosplay-doctor-who-cosplay-dress?click_key=431eef675df29c9ae14b7f42984fa0a88f693415%3A1495643821&click_sum=e68f6af1&ref=shop_home_active_1

[magicalponypartyrascal]

may not look like much but this is a victory. Ive been struggling to get my laptop to work nice with me on many projects (its very old cant replace it yet) but this , this is the base of a Dalek from Dr who. using a program to build it from scratch in life scale .Th e end goal of this project in two fold . to have a ready made model i can use on my computer for art and to be able to build a life size model for cosplay and fun looking to also make real life miniature ones for my son.

[imadaleknotanengineer]

14 May 2022

My brother had 3D printed the gatling gun bits from @threegringos since I didn't have a 3D printer at the time and I resprayed it. We started to try adding LEDs and spinning but weren't able to get that done in time for MegaCon.

[luxsolisghoul]

I was so excited to meet this Dalek who adored Ghost, we went back to hang out with him multiple times!

Terzo: @bigfukaku

[circular-time]

Barbie Dalek

[badxwolf]

The Daleks we’re trying to exterminate me while I was having my picture taken.

[aliacelt]

Toronto Comicon day 1

I met so many wonderful doctors and Doctor Who fans and I can't wait to see all my new friends tomorrow😭

[neptunefairytales]

I can't believe I find an Ood mask at a random french shop in the halloween aisle! I know it's not an offical licenced thing but it's so weird to see DW stuff here, knowing the show is almost forgotten here (sadly!) and we can't find any goodies anywhere!

Look at him! He is perfect! XD

Edit pour les frenchies de tumblr, oui c'est à Gifi! XD

[number1-syscourse-blog]

JOIN MY FRIENDS DALEK EMPIRE/DOCTOR WHO SERVER!!

i know a guy that made a really cool discord server that is themed around the Daleks and the Dalek empire, and is overall a space for doctor who fans to make to friends, roleplay in the roleplay channels, make art, and overall just chill! we are a pretty nice space with easy but good verification, and we would absolutely love you to be here since its been a bit dead recently (^_^)

[rogisinspace]

Dalek Progress Blog?

So uh.... idk how many of you know... I kind of have a Dalek.

Actually it's two Daleks

And I post progress on the work I do for him on Project Dalek but you need to make an account and wait for it to be approved in order to see posts. This kinda sucks when I wanna share updates with friends and stuff.

EDIT: too bad I did it anyways. @imadaleknotanengineer

[reecypontiff]

My Barbie Dalek with some DaleKens (one of which proposed marriage)

Gallifrey One 2024

[syspunk-is-blwze]

Not trying to sound desperate but my friend made a really cool Dalek/doctor who themed server and its been pretty dead lately and we need new members to make it active again!

It has roleplay and art channels ;]

[itsuki-fp3]

Hello!!! I did a photo shoot of the dress versions of the Tardis and a Dalek! My two friends wore their dresses and I was so happy and had fun!

[imadaleknotanengineer]

12 May 2022

I'd cracked my first two hemispheres but I had found some DIY plastic ornaments that I could take apart and snip off the part where the string goes through. I experimented with sanded vs unsanded. Some were test hemispheres and I tested out a colour shifting blue for potential use on Ren.

(unsanded ended up turning out better in my opinion but I might've not used a fine enough sandpaper, you can see the difference on the two black hemis)