SALUTE TO RAY CUSICK, CREATOR OF THE DOCTOR WHO DALEKS

Raymond Cusick, the production designer behind Doctor Who’s Dalek enemies, has died aged 84. He worked on the BBC TV science-fiction series from 1963 to 1966.


Screenwriter Terry Nation (1930-97) wrote the episode of Doctor Who in which the Daleks made their entrance, but it was Ray Cusick who arrived at the final look, complete with eyestalk, sucker arm, and exterminator armament.

Lunchtime inspiration
In a 2008 episode of the Doctor Who Confidential TV show, Ray Cusick explained that inspiration for the Dalek design came during a lunch with special effects expert Bill Roberts, who was responsible for making the mecha-monsters. Apparently, Ray picked up a pepper pot and moved it around the table before saying, “It's going to move like that - no visible means.”

Chief enemy
Daleks have remained essentially unchanged in appearance over the half-century since they first appeared, and are still the best-known of the Doctor's enemies, and have had a new lease of life since the show's 2005 revival. Tom Spilsbury, editor of Doctor Who Magazine, has hailed Ray Cusick's design as ‘timeless’, and we have to agree with that.

And of course, the Dalek call to “Exterminate” has become something of a cultural meme, especially in the UK. Our pictures here were taken at the 2012 smallspace model show, which featured life-size Daleks moving in the streets outside, and as you can see, Imperial Stormtroopers were out in force, and Doctor Who's robodog companion K-9 was snuffling around, too.

Other TV shows
Apart from Doctor Who, Ray Cusick worked on other British TV shows, including the cop series Z Cars, Dr Finlay's Casebook and the historical drama, The Forsyte Saga.

To see Daleks for real, make a date in your diary for the 2013 smallspace model show, which will be held on July 7. 

More SMN Daleks here.

Dalek models, kits and collectibles available here.

‘2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY’ IN DETAIL - GREAT DETAIL

MAT IRVINE REPORTS

Ask any film enthusiast, and probably many non-enthusiasts, to name the best science-fiction movie of all time, and you will probably get 9 out of 10 voting for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. For all those fans - and for space modellers too - comes the new book, 2001: The Lost Science by Adam K. Johnson.

About the book

Adam Johnson - also the driving force behind specialist model outfit AJA Models - has compiled and written the most detailed reference book on the movie so far, full title 2001: The Lost Science - the Frederick I. Ordway III Collection. With much material supplied by Dr Fred Ordway (more on him below), a great deal of the content has never been published before. Its 112 pages are full of detailed original plans (of which there were originally 2,400!), many of them painstakingly digitally enhanced, as the original blueprints have long-since faded. Examples of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ process are shown in the introduction.

Other 2001 books
Considering 2001’s reputation, there has not been all that much produced on the movie in general, let alone technical specifics, certainly nothing compared to the oceans of material on Star Wars, Star Trek, or even Doctor Who. Science writer Piers Bizony covered the ‘making of’ in his excellent book Filming the Future, Jerome Agel compiled The Making of Kubrick’s 2001, while Arthur C. Clarke came up with The Lost Worlds of 2001, though this was primarily about alternate storylines. So 2001: The Lost Science is an important addition to the genre, and is gaining great reviews.

Details of the spheroid Aries moonship (right) and photographs (left) from the movie set, many not previously published.

About the movie

The immense care taken with 2001’s technical details were mostly down to the Producer-Director Stanley Kubrick. Besides co-operating on the writing side with the famed author Arthur C. Clarke, he also involved two respected space engineers, Harry Lange and Frederick I. Ordway III. Both Harry and Fred had worked with NASA and various aerospace companies, and their task was to put elements of the Kubrick-Clarke script into visual form. Even if you didn’t understand the ending - frankly, many didn’t then and still don’t now - the movie looked stunning from start to finish, and paid ultimate attention to detail, especially where the hardware was concerned. 

Details of the Orion spaceplane, a classic shuttle-type design that remains one of the best-looking movie spacecraft ever seen on screen.

Soft-sell hardware

The nice thing about seeing 2001 is that the hardware is mostly ‘just there’, no real play is made of it. The Orion spaceliner, Aries lunar shuttle, Moonbus - each gets a few minutes at most, and as the movie segues into the ‘modern era’ after the apes, a quartet of orbital weapon platforms occupy only a few seconds. 

These pages detail the orbital weapon platforms seen briefly in the movie. They were really there as props for the movie’s sketched-in political background of great international tension. 

Kits and more kits

Besides well-known 2001 kits from Airfix, Aurora, and Moebius Models, Adam Johnson’s AJA Models produces highly-detailed resin models, including those orbital weapons, the Aries lunar shuttle, even a booster set for the Orion spaceplane. We’ll be looking at these in a separate article. 

Dr Fred Ordway, photographed in 2008 in Washington, DC, outside the Cosmos Club, a social watering hole for people distinguished in science, literature and the arts.

Summation

2001: The Lost Science is not a cheap buy at $49.95 USD (£31.14 GBP) but if you have even a passing interest in this classic science-fiction movie, it makes a fascinating read. If you are a keen space modeller, then the book turns into a must-have - the level of detail revealed in the pages makes it possible, perhaps for the first time, to make a truly accurate scale model. 

Harry Lange, photographed in 1992 at the special celebrations for Arthur C. Clarke held in Minehead, UK. He is holding the space helmet worn in the movie by Keir Dullea, playing the role of Dave Bowman. Harry sadly died in May 2008. 

Buy 2001: The Lost Science direct from the publisher, Apogee Prime, and also receive a 2001 documentary DVD.

Also available from AJA Models here.

2001 kits available from Amazon here.

DECAL PACK TO IMPROVE THE 1:12 SCALE AIRFIX DOCTOR WHO ‘WELCOME ABOARD’ KIT

MAT IRVINE REPORTS:
Cast your mind back to my May 2012 review of the 1:12 scale Airfix Doctor Who ‘Welcome Aboard’ kit. It was the one I hadn’t completed, as I was trying to summon up energy to finish the complex paint job. One thing on the waiting list was the intricate pattern on Martha’s fashionable pink top, mainly as it was, well, intricate! I’m pleased to report that a quick solution has arrived.


OK, perhaps these things needn’t worry us too much - Martha likely had quite a few tops and, as we know that the Doctor Who TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) is of infinite dimensions internally, there may be a branch of Next or Top Shop inside that British police box, somewhere, somewhen…

WonderFest link
However, also cast your mind back to my first review of the WonderFest event this year, where I mentioned a British ex-pat I met, Jim James. Although he’s not normally in the after-market decals business, Jim has stepped in to produce a decal set to get around the ‘Martha’ problem. It has a comprehensive instruction booklet, showing where the decals need trimming to fit correctly.

Tee and tattoo
He produced this set primarily for the complex pattern on Martha’s T-shirt, but has added a few others as well. The tattoo on her upper right arm is included, as are the logo and stripes for Doctor Who’s sneakers, and a block pattern for his tie. Note that several sets of each decal are supplied, so you can experiment freely.

Fragile but worthwhile
The decal sheet is first produced by inkjet printer, then oversprayed with Testors Dullcote. However, it’s a fragile product, so Jim has provided multiples of each decal. Before use, you might find that applying a few more coats of Dullcote, or maybe the Humbrol equivalent, will also be beneficial. Delicacy in application is essential, but well worth it for the improvement to the finished model. To apply the T-shirt decal safely, I used Micro-Set wetting agent, and Micro-Sol softener.

Martha stands by the TARDIS (above), still without her patterned top, but with Jim James decals ready and waiting to correct this. Et voila!  Martha finally wears her correct T-shirt (below).

 

Exclusive set
The decals are available as an exclusive item from CultTVman’s online store. It’s part of a combined set that also includes a set of paint templates for masking off TARDIS windows and the pinstripes on Doctor Who’s suit, these last two from the accessories outfit, Aztek Dummy. The set costs $11.95 USD, and is a must-have if you decide to build the Airfix kit.

Thanks to Jim James for supplying review samples.

SMN Doctor Who ‘Welcome Aboard’ May review here.

Decals at CultTVman here.

SMN WonderFest articles here.

Micro-set and Micro-sol are available from model suppliers and made by Microscale Industries.

SMALLSPACE - MODEL SHOW REPORT

The new model show smallspace was a huge success - outside the hall, Daleks rampaged the streets, while inside model-makers showed off their skills.

Thunderbirds are Go

Gerry Anderson’s famed puppet and live action TV series were a popular subject at smallspace, so here’s a first burst of pix, to give you an idea of the beautifully made models on display.

More to come

There’ll be more to come throughout this week - enjoy!

Neat 6-wheel Rolls-Royce, with Lady Penelope under the wide canopy.

Tasty red markings sported by Thunderbird 3.

The Meta probe (above) looked a serious design for a deep-space craft.

Plenty of Thunderbirds collectibles and models available here.

FROM POLITE ROBO-DOG TO SNARLING KILLER-CANINE - DOCTOR WHO K-9 UPGRADE

SMALLSPACE COUNTDOWN:

The smallspace “model show for all things space, science fiction and fantasy” will be held this Sunday, July 1, and among the sci-fi stars on display will be the original K-9 robot dog from Doctor Who.

Old and new robots

The robotic dog stars at smallspace courtesy Mat Irvine (above), who has also co-written with Mike Tucker the seminal book BBC VFX. K-9 at smallspace is the original dog, but a newer one was created for an Australian TV series. Here are a couple of pix from the TV series, and note how advanced our canine mechanoid now looks.

Detail-up model

There are plenty of K-9 collectibles around, but injection kits are hard to come by, that’s for sure, so for model-makers the best bet is to start with a ready-built, then use it as the basis for a superdetailed display model. Kit-bashing from the ground up is another possibility, and if you go this route, then something entirely new might be an interesting route to take.

Deadly dog

The Sydney-based visual effects designer Nick Kaloterakis could provide inspiration, as his website features an excellent concept for a 21st century robodog, and very nasty it looks, too. It’s not just an autonomous mechanoid, but has been seriously weaponized, to become an attack dog, rather than the polite and cerebral K-9. 

Movie worker

Nick Kaloterakis has worked on movie blockbusters such as Transformers, so his robodog slots neatly into that gritty and modish genre. Nick’s images here are intended as ideas-generators, rather than examples of anything you can go out and buy, more’s the pity - but we can hope, and meantime it’s a project for kit-bashers to think about.

Visit the hugely talented Nick Kaloterakis at his Kollected website here.

Look at a radio-control K-9 here.

Other Doctor Who collectibles here.

Check out the smallspace show here.

Look inside Mat and Mike's BBC VFX here.

Mike Tucker (left) and Mat Irvine with BBC VFX book and Dalek

SMALLSPACE - THE NEW MODEL SHOW FROM THE HAMEX TEAM

The new model show from the HaMeX organisers is arriving soon, with liftoff planned for Stardate: July 1, 2012. The smallspace event will feature a galaxy of space, science-fiction and fantasy modelling.

Voice of K-9, the robot dog

A fantastic day is promised for UK model fans at the smallspace model spectacular, liftoff due in a couple of Sundays, on July 1, 2012. There’s heaps of stuff on offer, including a special guest from TV’s famed Doctor Who, none other than the 'voice of K-9' himself, John Leeson (above). And the actual special effects prop K-9, as used in both Doctor Who and The Sarah-Jane Adventures, will be alongside. You will be able to chat with John, have your picture taken, and maybe - for a modest fee - get a signed photograph.

BBC VFX duo

BBC Visual Effects Designer, Mike Tucker (above) will also be attending smallspace. Mike is seen here with the Big Ben clock tower model he designed and filmed for the first series of the new Doctor Who. Mike’s presence means that, along with the show's co-organiser, Mat Irvine, you have two BBC Visual FX designers, and both the authors of BBC VFX, a unique book that details the story of the BBC Visual Effects Department.

Prints on sale

Mike Tucker also writes his own novels, and novelizations of both Doctor Who and Merlin stories. And at smallspace, his own series of limited-edition prints will be on view, where they will be available to buy for the first time.

Props and models

Scores of FX props and models will be on show at smallspace, from Star Cops, The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy and Red Dwarf, to Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Moonbase 3, and Space Vets.

Meet the Daleks

The Doctor Who theme starts before you walk in the doors, with a squad of real-life Daleks waiting outside. Steve Fletcher will be co-ordinating them in greeting (or exterminating) visitors arriving at smallspace - assuming the Daleks obey him, of course!

Thunderbirds Are Go!

There’ll be an amazing display of replicas from the Gerry Anderson series, expertly recreated by David Sisson. Look for Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, plus an actual Eagle spacecraft, as used in the live-action Anderson series, Space 1999.

No Strings Attached

See the equally amazing puppet recreations by Duncan Willis, including examples from Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, and Stingray.

It’s all happening with smallspace at Hanslope village, Bucks, UK, on July 1, 2012, and of course there's much more besides. Full details here.

Here's Mat, surrounded by tasty stuff, and (below) heaps of kits for sale.

SMN's Mr J (above) will be there, as will space models by the planetful. Look out for the Gerry Anderson Starcruiser at the SMN Crew Dock, along with displays of original art, and signed prints.