Project Restricted

[Cerberus]

I originally only had this on the CustomPC forum. So any of you from there will probably already have seen this. I'm copying the log onto a number of forums to increase the number of views I get to aid with possible sponsorship.

Heres the project so far.


So, now that I've finally got some time. I wanted to get modding. I've done a few small mods before, like cutting away fan hole bits and spraying a case.
This is a bit bigger, but not huge as it has to be done on a very cheap budget, almost zero. The less money spent the better.

Anyway, heres a pic of the case to start with, I sprayed it red a while back.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0682.jpg
and the insides
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0914.jpg
theres a geforce 2 and 2 optical drives also. The CPU is an old S478 P4 at 1.7GHz with 256Mb of RAM. It'll just be running Ubuntu Linux though so plently powerful enough.

I was stuck for a long time on what I wanted to do. At first it was just a window, but I wanted more. Then it went onto a car theme, but that was turning out to look hard and expensive. I was just browsing through TBCS earlier, and found a mod called Killer HL box. Based around Half-Life, it gave me some really good inspiration. I'm still not 100% sure on desisgn, but I'll be doing stuff as I go along.

I stripped the case out yesterday and gave it a coat of primer all over apart from the back as theres some stickers I need to remove. The inside of the case is going to be painted black (either matt or satin, which do you think?).

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0911.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0913.jpg

I decided to use the half life 2 logo for the window. I first got a template and used that to cut the main shape.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0917.jpg
Didn't like it and it looked very difficult to get a good finish.
so I went for this instead,
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0918.jpg
What it will be is, the main shape as the windo, then on the perspex will be the rest of the logo. I'll probably spray it on as I can't etch for the life of me. Not sure if spraying onto the perspex will work. Might have to use sticky back vinyl.

Then started cutting
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0919.jpg
My tools, :D
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0920.jpg

Finally got the shape cut, then I needed to start sanding away the edges to get a nice neat finish. As I'm still a modding n00b, I left a big gap between the edge and the line, so theres alot of sanding,
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0921.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0922.jpg

And thats all I got done today, Should be doing some more tommorow if the weathers nice.




Just been playing on sketchup and come up with this.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/idea1.jpg

I'm going to do another one with the black and yellow going all over the case and see what that looks like. Just going to be tricky doing the front.

Heres the other one

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/idea2.jpg




Finally, an update!

So, I've got the side panel with the window, sort of finished, the side bits have been filled and so has the i-media text.

First attempt at body fillering didn't go so well as my dad put too much hardener in and it was solid within 2 minutes.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0932.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0933.jpg
Partly due to the hot weather and direct sun too
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0934.jpg

So, while I was waiting for the filler to dry, I taped up the PSU casing to be sprayed with the yellow stripes.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0935.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0937.jpg

Then sprayed it
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0938.jpg
unfortunatly, When I thought it was dry, I put it on its side so I could get the little lip at the bottom, and while drying it stuck a bit to the cardboard, I then tried to remove the bits and only made it worse, as the pics show
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0939.jpg

So, I went back to body filling. More successful now.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0940.jpg
Sanded down
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0942.jpg
Did some more work on the sanding today, and got it looking quite good, I've also started the next panel.

And finally I gave the side panel its first few coats of white primer, this will be left for almost a week to properly dry, before I get round to taping it up for striping/
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0945.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0946.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0948.jpg


Oh, and I also managed to get the CPU fan attached with some cutting of the original mounting points and some trusty electrical tape. Holds it quite securly actually.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0943.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/Cerberus_xiii/CIMG0944.jpg


I've also just thought of a name. Project Restricted. This might change at some point, not to sure about it.

[Luke122]

You are off to a good start, and welcome to TBCS!

I would suggest not using the electrical tape permanently, the last thing you need is the fan coming off while the computer is running, and cooking the cpu!

From the second last photo, it looks as if there is enough contact between the old bracket and the new fan to drill a couple of holes in the bracket, and use screws to mount the fan to the bracket, but the last photo looks as if theres only enough contact on the bottom edge. I would recommend using screws if possible, and maybe fabricating a custom bracket from acrylic, or even metal to mount the fan as solidly as possible to the heatsink.

[nevermind1534]

What I did for a computer that I upgraded everything in for somebody, with parts out of the trash, is, since I couldn't use the stock athlon xp fan. I glued a fan from a socket 478 cooler on with superglue. It works great with fans. I just apply it around the whole base of the fan.

[jdbnsn]

Welcome to TBCS and good luck with the sponsor search!

[Cerberus]

Got a little bit more done the other day.

Got the other side panel filled and sanded down. Needs some more work to get it looking a bit better. Weather has now gone rubbish once again, grrrr