1/48th scale Dalek Saucer interior

[Andrew Harvey]

  I'm rubbish at trying to keep a build diary. The model is made from card and old christmas lights. The lights were only white, but I used clear plastic sheet to give colour to the various screens etc. The pictures were taken with a long exposure time. The lights on the Daleks were all done with paintshop. The Daleks work out bang on at 1/48th scale. They are made by someone called Warlord War games. Or something like that. Anyway they are real trouble!!
  Anywobble, here it is. Bit of fun.
  Andrew






 ( Note a few extra details added by the magic paintshop..)




  Some cigarette smoke was puffed into the model for effect. Younger model makers will not want to try that! Get someone older and already knackered to do it for you.


  Whilst the Daleks are out, The TARDIS lands on board!


  Doctor Who has a look around...








ALERT! ALERT! OUT OF CONTROL!!!

[Volpone]

Magnificent.

[russellsuthern]

Agreed.
Great pics.
Very atmospheric.
Let's see some more!!

Russell

[Andrew Harvey]

I say! Thank you both for the kind comments!
  There are some more of my pictures in the pipeline. I'll post them all up when they are finished!

  Glad you like them,
    Andrew

[TheDoctor]

Amazing if the BBC ever need to hire someone to build minitures then I think you Mr Andrew Harvey have the skills

[Andrew Harvey]

Thank you kindly TheDoctor, ( Its not every day I get to write that!)
  I've just been looking at your consol....Brilliant! Quite Brilliant!
  It is like a cross between the Peter Cushing films and the David Tennant one.
  Have you taken it for a test flight yet?

  Andrew

[Volpone]

I think I've said this before, but I quite enjoy the miniatures where you can tell that it is a miniature just because of things like scaling and surface texture that there's no way around but you appreciate the design and detail that went into creating the illusion of being actual size.  (If that makes any sense.)  Sort of like an impressionist painting isn't photorealistic; heck, even your classic Renaissance paintings that DO aspire to realism, you can still tell that it is a painting but that adds to the work, if anything. 

[Andrew Harvey]

I understand what you are saying there Volpone. Miniature photography certainly has an appeal of the 'other worldly'. I am  very much into the classical paintings of the old masters. We had an artist here in Cornwall a long time ago called Stanhope Forbes. One of his pictures hangs in the museum in Plymouth, it actually pumps light out at you. If you let it, it can look just like a photograph!

  Its interesting how sometimes in film and television they use the depth of field to make things look out of focus in the backgrounds. ( Using a Tilt Pan lens is another way-it can make towns look like railway models....)
  In miniature photography one is restricted by a narrow depth of field. One way around that is to use focus stacked images. Some cameras , I believe, can do this with the programming. ( I think the camera I have can do it....) An Entomologist friend uses focus stacking all the time. His pictures are incredible. Mind you- he uses CO2 to stop his subjects wandering off or flying away! ( It does not hurt them, they just get sleepy for a bit!)
   I'm no good at all that fiddling about with machines, so I would have to do it manually, with paintshop. Sometimes I do them like that-depending on what I am trying to get, and other times I cannot be bothered! Some of my paintshopped pictures are a combination of several pictures all in one. Backgrounds, midgrounds, foregrounds with characters added later. Its a pain matching up lighting effects and all that, but worth it for a good image.
  Generally, I think if you use a high f stop, you get a deeper depth of field. But you need a longer exposure time. ( Those ones here are about twenty seconds long each time).
  Another way around it, is to use larger scale models. I think they did some like that on the Doctor Who series. ( I seem to recall a picture of the man standing among ruined walls with Daleks all around his feet and a clapper board in his hand).

  Unfortunately, if you look closely at those Flying Saucer pictures, you might notice a few bits of black tape here and there, which I completely forgot to remove before I took the pictures! Never mind, its too late now!

  All the best
  Andrew

[Volpone]

This reminds me of a Science Museum exhibit I saw on special effects when I was younger.  They talked about how they did the Florida Keys bridge Ahnuld blows up with the Harrier in "True Lies."  Since they used a model (naturally), they slowed the film down, because the rate of the explosion would be too fast for the size of the model.   

[Andrew Harvey]

Very interesting Volpone.
  Ive never seen the item to which you refer, but what you have said puts me in mind of the first Star Wars films where they did very much the same thing on occasions. The missile strikes on the Krynoid look to me like they were slowed down too. ( I always enjoy that whirling bit of masonry flying toward the camera in that sequence!)
  You might recall on one of my first posts here I put up several of my Dr. Who illustrations, one of which ( came out too small thanks to my ineptitude at resizing images) had a few Daleks with a mighty explosion behind them. That was a match head, and the long exposure made it look as if it were a proper bomb or something going off.
  I have another similar picture in the pipeline; this time with many more elements including the Police Box. As I intend this new one to be a stereo picture, I will be using two camera's side by side set at the same speed and image size.
  Timing is critical- and so is a small tub of powder and a heavy stone! Luckily, I have remote controls for the camera's but all the same, I might need my assistant to set off the explosions!
  It will appear here when it is completed...
  Just to save time faffing about I have included here the one I mention above...

  Andrew