My first real mod, Redbeard's Case

[Redbeard]

This is the worklog for my first real mod project, due to going back to college it remains not 100% but it is currently being used in the state it is in. All I really lack on it is to finish placing the lights in the case, decide on and obtauin the decals for the case, and repaint the front panel (cold weather left some undesirable places in the paint.) Anyways on to the worklog...

My case is a previously used blue chieftec dragon and the original front panel had to be replaced. Here is the front and left side panels after being sanded and preped to paint.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0085.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0089.jpg

I decided not to use a standard primer because I wanted my color to be darker than it would have been if I had used gray primer. I used Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter (a clear primer usually used for plastics.)

Here is the front panel with a few coats applied. The paint I used was Duplicolor Acrylic Enamel Cherry Red.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0091.jpg

[Redbeard]

Let me take a moment on this post to mention my father who without his help this project would not have been possible. His knowledge of cutting metals and painting more than made up for my inexperience.

Anyways, on the mesh panel. I personally like the look of perforated metal on a case mod and try to use it as much as possible on my cases. The problem is locating a small enough quantity of good quality perforated metal in my region without spending a fortune is unheard of as far as I know. The metal we used is actually from and old panel of satellite dish.

My father did all of the cutting at this stage:

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0032.jpg
Here is the panel before cutting.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0043.jpg
Cutting the panel.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0054.jpg
Freshly cut square.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0047.jpg
Deburring the edges.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0056.jpg
Marked out are to cut for the edge side with the curve in it. Then we sanded the metal.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0077.jpg
Our first look at the metal in its future placement.

[Redbeard]

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0082.jpg

Next we sprayed gray primer and then later we painted the grill with the same type of paint I purchaed for the case, except glossy black.

Next we began intenisive painting on the case panels, unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of this stage.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0106.jpg
Here, after the first few coats of red we painted the inside portion of the front panel black to match the mesh side. After drying we covered the black again to repaint the red portion a few more times.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0104.jpg
Here's the right side panel after painting and waxing. After everything dried assembly is all the remained to finish the leg of this mod.

[Redbeard]

Final pictures before I left for school, all that has changed is the guts were finally put in as well as some lighting and a jolly roger bage to decorate the door.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0149.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0147.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0144.jpg

I plan to finish the case durring the summer.

This project has allowed me to gain a wealth of knowledge, especially painting with acrylic enamels.

The specs are:

Pentium 4- 3 GHz
1 GB Corsair Value Select RAM
250 GB Western Digital HD
Radeon 9800 Pro

[OvRiDe]

Well its definately not what I was expecting.. but still a bangup job. Looks VERY nice and CLEAN!! Great job

[Nawl]

Very nice 4 a first mod !! ;)

[Redbeard]

yeah I know I got away from my original ideas but I felt this was more viable with my lack of experience.

I think I posted this thread in the wrong forum, sorry it was late when I did it.

[Rankenphile]

Looks good, the cherry red panel is drop-dead sexy.

Want me to move it over to worklogs for you?

[Redbeard]

sure I'd appreciate it.

[Tech-Daddy]

Yummy!
Great job on the painting! Please keep us up to date on the remainder of your modifications!

Where are you going to school?

[Redbeard]

I go to a small Christian School in Mobile, Alabama called the University of Mobile (go figure). 99.99% of the people here don't know what case modding is.

[adreamtraveler]

awesome man!!...clean and simple....very slick...great job!! :D

[l33tphr34k]

looks really nice, good job..

[abnoea]

really nice paint... i was disapointed with how my paint turned out... i dont know if its because the paint i have is top notch or i just suck at painting... did you just use some $4 spray paint for metal or did you find some special stuff?

i just cant figure out why everyone who paints theirs on the work logs gets such great results... ive had my fair share of spray painting too...

[Redbeard]

I used $4-5 duplicolor acrylic enamel. I had a lot of trouble at first too, and like I said once piece didn't turn out so good you juest can't tell in the pics. With spray can acrylic enamels (which I perfer right now) you have to spray it on very thick because if you don't the paint dries too quick and makes the finish hazy. I found when using this paint it also seemed to help a lot to lay each piece flat and then spray (helps to prevent running and evens out the paint). Hope that helps.

[eeK]

nice man, its looks great

[abnoea]

hmm... ill have to try some of that paint... going to basically restart my case...

[Redbeard]

*Update* My musketeer2 should hopefully arrive before the week's end and if so I plan to install it and also a couple cold cathodes on a rocker switch. Both my cables for the power supply and my IDE cables are silver but supposedly glow light blue under UV, anyone think that I should put a UV cold cathode in there on a rocker as well? Also does anyone know much about the modibility (is that a word?) of a musketeer2?

[wingman358]

Awesome job, especially for a first timer! I love the color and it's painted on really well. The bleck mesh on the side panel looks just awesome, I love it's simplicity.

[Sergeant Napalm]

Looks great for a first time. i know icouldn't do that good if i tried to make a comp mod first time.

[Redbeard]

thanks for the compliments, much credit is due to my dad ... I recieved my musketeer2 yesterday and installed it, which was really wasn't all that hard. Also, installed some red cathodes but they are prob not going to stay because they look so pink. more pics to come soon.

[Redbeard]

*Update*

As I mentioned in my last post the cathodes I have are cheap and look very pink when lit, and so began my journey into "fixing" the problem. I recently purchased and have been reading Crimson's modding book (which is absolutely amazing in quality and content!) and found his solution to changing cathode's color. He suggests that to change the color one should use colored gift wrapping acetate, but seeing as the time of year it is this was impossible for me to find. While pondering my problem it finally occurred to me to use red permanent marker to color it in. At first I was skeptical of the color change that would result, and also I thought that the marker might rub off but alas, IT WORKED!

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/CathodeCompare.jpg
Here I show the difference between the two bulbs prior to being lit; you can already see the big differences. I was going to take pictures of the difference while lit but that would have resulted in me wiring back my case (yes I rewired it tonight too) and then redoing the process all over again later so just take my word for it, after I colored in the plastic covering of the cathode it shines much more red than before.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/Gutted.jpg
The case wiring all taken apart, so I can lay the wiring more attractively.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/Wiredup.jpg
Reassembled, usually wlaying the cables and wires is my least favorite part of modding but tonight it was actually enjoyable. Thank God for zip-ties!

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/lighted.jpg
Final product of my labors tonight.

Please excuse any misspellings, as it is late.

[Problemchild49]

Nice trick with the cc. I have the same power supply, it's a little hard to route that type of cables, I had some problems with my cable.
Excellent work very clean

[wingman358]

I love this

[Redbeard]

Nice trick with the cc. I have the same power supply, it's a little hard to route that type of cables, I had some problems with my cable.
Excellent work very clean

yeah so did I at first. If you have a big enough case you can hide them pretty well. In my next series of pics I'll try to show how I tucked the cables out of sight.

[Dozr]

Nice & Clean Good job man

[Redbeard]

*Update* Here's my new lighting and lighting effects and my new decal.

First here's the decal, not much description needed. And no that isn't damage on the door and around the case, just bad results of using a flash.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0205.jpg

Here's the case with red cathodes lit.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0253.jpg

Here's the case with my new UV cathodes lit.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0231.jpg

Here is a close up of some UV effects. This is where I took some UV poster paint and carefully with a q-tip painted the edge of all my cards. Pretty Sweet huh?8)
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0260.jpg

Now both sets of cathodes lit. Yeah kinda neat but I rarely leave the like this. Kinda hurts my eyes.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/mobileray/100_0262.jpg

[shocker((o))]

nice first mod

[Redbeard]

nice first mod

thanks. And I suppose technically this isn't my "first" mod... But I don't really want to acknowledge the other one... still gives me nightmares.

[bigbaddog]

Nice decal...where did you find that one?

Also the UV detail looks good too. How bout posting some pictures showing the musketeer2..

[DaveW]

I like the way you got the egde of the cards. You might be able to do this a little more-maybe do around your motherboard, PSU, drives, etc.

Kinda reminds me of the box for Tron. :D

Damn nice work.

-Dave

[Redbeard]

Nice decal...where did you find that one?

Also the UV detail looks good too. How bout posting some pictures showing the musketeer2..

directron, it's intended for case windows.

[jofultner]

I must admit very nice 1st.I like the grill instead of window.Keep up the good work!And check out them hairy legs,lol.Thumbs Up,Jo

[Redbeard]

yeah those aren't my hairy legs... If it were my legs the hair would be red...

[Hasbios]

Very nice

[guitar.child]

nice i like the combo

[nil8]

That's some impressive paint work and cable management for a 1st time redbeard. Keep it up.

[Shikimaru]

that looks nice and clean, maybe you could steath the MB??

[Redbeard]

er, I don't know about that...I kinda want to start a new project for my server. Now only if I'll get off my butt and start something.

[Fuganater]

Its amazing how 6 years ago, this was a "featured" mod lol. Oh how times change.