Yesterday I decided to add an operators seat in the skirt, very comfy!  Also trimmed up the template for the shoulders to allow for the gun box to protrude, needs refinement buts it's on the way.  Out of curiosity I used an offcut of normal ply and had a go at forming a shoulder corner and it worked rather well! 

One of those weekends where I feel like I've worked through industrial quanties of polyester resin.   On Friday,  I cast up the second dome plus the second batch of mid-blue hemis. I laid up the dome with an extra layer of 600csm, as I want it to be more like a DIOE dome, which I think were a touch thicker than the first batch. The first one was quite thin, as per the movie domes that still survive.   Both demoulded just fine. Having done a QA on the hemis, I was two short of the mid blue, and 13 short of the ice-blue, so planned to make up the shortfall over the weekend.   Yesterday, I did a final board of the ice blue hemis, plus the first skirt.   This morning, I demoulded the skirt - successfully! - then cast up the second skirt and a set of four mid-blue hemis to complete that set. It's that time of year where gelcoat won't cure properly without a bit of help - hence the halogen heater - and the resin takes ages to go off - I went for 2% catalyst, probably should have gone for 3-4% given the temperature.   Tomorrow I'll release everything, then will trim the skirt and do a quick clean using the jetwash with some car cleaner to start to get the wax off.   I'm pacing myself on this work. I hope to get the wooden returns fitted for the skirt and dome by the end of the month, then do all the holesawing and hemi trimming in December. All the build effort will be in January-February, all being well!

My money is on a bit of gunbox. Those blank firers must have put a fair bit of stress on the structure, no wonder it needed replacing by the time of Genesis.

I have a new 3d printer! I am currently churning out skirt sections using a Bambu Lab P1S. It is 3 times faster than the folgertechs and the parts are as close to perfection as I have ever been able to produce.   This dalek has gotten too tall for working on while up on the bench. I was in danger of dalek vs ceiling fan issues. I have moved him to the floor.   I also have reprinted the dome lamps. Previously I had glow pla which resulted in very poor detail. I have since printed in transparent petg which I like much more.