Oct.5, 2013

Andrew Lindsey, who previously designed the 3D-printed Transforming Tardis, has made another awesome figure - a transforming Dalek figure with 3D printing.

Dalek is a type of robot appearing in 'Doctor Who'. Daleks are cyborgs created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals. They are mutated Kaleds and integrated within a tank-like, robotic, mechanical shell. In December 1963, they were introduced to the series in the first season of Doctor Who, and they have appeared in 97 episodes as of April 2013.

"This was to be a much more complex design - both because of the more geometrically complex nature of the Dalek compared to the Tardis, and because I wanted to be a bit more ambitious with the complexity of the transformation geometry." says its creator Lindsey.

Images credit: Andrew Lindsey

Lindsey's main art reference for the model was the 2005 Doctor Who episode Dalek. The transforming Dalek figure was designed in AutoCad and printed out on his 3D printer. It took him 4 weeks of weekends and evenings to design and 3D print them. Lindsey says,

"My design thinking was really more to make a Dalek with a robot altmode than to make a Transformer with a Dalek altmode, and the styling of the robot mode is really based on how Dalek hardware tends to look. The main inspiration I did take from Octus was to have multiple arms. I originally wanted to have six fully functional arms like the G1 Octus, but was only able to fit four in. I also wanted to have the upper body open up to reveal the Kaled mutant inside, as shown on the Doctor Who TV show, but that meant I wouldn't have any place to put a proper robot head and would have to use the mutant as the head of the robot mode.

 

"Overall I'm happy with how it came out. It's a complex transformation, there are various bits of kibble that make up the upper body that swing around and lock into different positions to make the torso of the robot mode. I think the geometry came out well, but it suffers from the usual finish problems that 3D printed objects have. On close inspection, every part looks like it's made from a pile of colored string. To make this a real quality display model I'd have to sand and paint everything, and probably make some custom decals."

Lindsey is planning to post build files and assembly instructions for this on Thingiverse, once he had a chance to put together a good assembly guide. Check out Lindsey's blog for more details.

Images credit: Andrew Lindsey

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

 

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me wrote at 3/29/2017 11:56:42 AM:

what printer did you use and what softwere did you use

Willy wrote at 3/9/2015 9:00:37 PM:

wow! this is purely awesome!

ellindsey wrote at 10/12/2013 9:43:34 PM:

Plans for this have been posted: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:161455



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