Project: Outpost 948

[Aero]

The year is 2126, for over the past 100 years the world has been in war. This has not been a war of boundaries, but a war of belief. In the start on the new Millinea, the world was shocked by the first of many terrorist attacks. Attacks like nothing that could have been imagined. Each one bringing thousands of deaths. The United States formed a coalition with other nations in an attempt to bring those responsible "to justice". For 15 years they fought a blind war, never knowing where the increasing number of attacks were coming from, or even who was organizing them. By 2050 nearly 1 million people had been killed, either in fighting, or from unseen attacks. The world agreed they must fight together to stop this ghostly evil. All free countries, and even some non free ones, Cuba, China, and many others came together with The United States and England to fight under one flag, the flag of know as that of Nations for Global Peace. Then it happened... an attack so massive, it instantly killed 250,000 people, with 400,000 wounded. The total death count would be over 600,000. A nuclear weapon had struck one of the nations largest cities. It could have been worse, but the missile malfunctioned, going under-water before it exploded. After this point, the newly formed NGP set out to create a defense system like nothing the world had ever seen. A system to make Hitlers Atlantic wall look like a child's fort made from card-board boxes. They decided on a system of self sufficient cities, with airports, and research labs, hospitals and water purifiers; they decided on; Outposts. Outposts with the most advanced Radar systems, top-of-the-line air craft. The Outposts themselves were bunkers made to survive nuclear attacks. Thousands of these bunkers were built, in steamy Jungles, in frigid mountains, on small islands, and in the arid deserts. They were given numbers for easy identification in case of an attack. This is one of those Outposts. This is Outpost 948.


http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/1255/outpostfinal4iw.jpg




Ok, have fun reading? Yes I got bored, anyway. To give an idea of how this mod is designed (I don't have CAD or and fancy drawings,so your going to have to imagine this one :p ). I'll post some pics when I can get my digital camera workin. Anyway, I started with a mid-size ATX case, I will be using something I love from the Doom 3 mod, the rocks.In my mod rocks will create a small mountain on the front left of the case, the mountain will slope down till it hits the ground on the lower right side of the case. There will be a tunnel with a 120 mm fan inside. The right side will have a window, and on top of the case there will be a, acrylic box on a bit of an angle, on top the will be a runway with a few jets and helicopters. The rocks will be painted tan and I will attempt to give the the appearence of the desert. The case will be painted a tan color. Yes I know it seems plain, but would it be that fun if I told you everything right away?

Well, I'll post some pics of what I've done tomarrow, once I get the time. most of this mod will be built with things I have laying around, my budget is about $100, so I need to spend wisely, hopefully it will turn out pretty nice.

[Xbrid]

[QUOTE=Aero]The year is 2126, for over the past 100 years the world has been in war.[QUOTE]

WTF?? :? i could've sworn i was only asleep for a couple of hours.....

lol. That sounds like an interesting theme. hope u can pull it off

[temmink]

Sounds interesting, look forward to some sketches and stuffs.


Ok, have fun reading? Yes I got board, anyway.

Sorry, had to point this out, by board do you mean like wood (in which case it may be a little bit too much information) or bored in which case there is no innuendo at all :). I know, I'm a prick.

[Aero]

lol, yeah I mean bored. I was falling asleep when I wrote that. You should have seen the amount of speling errors in my little background paragraph before spell-check.

Ok here is the case I am using. Its an old beige box. It used to have a P3 600mhz inside, but I'm going to be putting in my P4 3 ghz (which is my normal PC) in it instead.

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/7448/frontunmodded7lq.jpg

Heres the left side, it has a cutout that I used for my Project Husky. When I make the window I just have to be sure that I cut around the current hole and everything should be dandy.

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/8333/leftsideunmodded0my.jpg

And heres the right side:

http://img252.echo.cx/img252/7033/rightsideunmodded8dw.jpg


This cases was sitting in my room for about 4 months during the school year, I got board while doing my homework and would draw on it, thinking about modding it but never cutting it, which is why theres writing all over it :p

[invalid]

Spelled bored wrong again. lol

[UK-Blade]

lol, yeah I mean bored. I was falling asleep when I wrote that. You should have seen the amount of speling errors in my little background paragraph before spell-check.

Did you actually change the spelling mistakes it pointed out? ;) ;)

Only kidding, we all do it from time to time.

The mod sounds intertesting, keep us up to date.

Whats more interesting though, is WTF is 'Buttery Flavour Liquid Margarine'????

Your case is resting on an empty box.

Is it that good that you buy it by the case load?? ;)

C'mon let us into the secret....

[temmink]

And on the third day God said let there be Buttery Flavour Liquid Margarine, and he saw that it was good, then had some toast.

Or didn't you all go to Catholic school like me?

[Aero]

ROFLMAO, I never noticed that box. It has some old junk in it and was sturdy enough to hold the PC case.

and on the spelling, that was the only subject in through grade school hat I regularly failed.

Also I went to the Cubs game today so I havn't worked on it much, just made some rocks, I'll post pics once I work on it more.

[temmink]

Actually on topic for a change, I think you should make the actual case itself appear to be steel or something, sticking up from the rock instead of painting it tan. It would be a bit more interesting. You could use some metallic silver paint then give it a brown wash to make it appear dirty and weather beaten. You could even score into the case to make it look like its made from panels of metal, then you could make that cut bit look like a massive explosion out the side and kind of bend the metal out and stuff. Then you could make the little tiny jets on top wrecks and make it look like there has been a massive battle played out on your case. Wikkid. As Westwood from Pimp My Ride UK would say, "your case would be straight blazin."

[Aero]

dude, temmink, do you have a microphone hidden in my house. Thats pretty close to what I was planning on doing. What I am going to do is first give it a gray base coat, then I will paint some areas tanish to get the impression of sand and the desert, then I am going to give areas of a darker gray and rust. I'm still debating how to make the inside look though, if I want to make it seems all futuristic but in the desert (think of Area 51 from Independance Day), or make it look like a battle was inside as well. If anyone thinks one will look better than the other, let me know, give your opinion, thats why this is here :D .

Also I did a (really) quick drawing in photoshop of the basic design that I have decided on. Ok this looks REALY crappy because usually if I have an idea, I draw it out on paper not the PC, so please don't laugh here, its free handing on a computer :P.

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/7312/outpostsketch5sz.jpg


Of course this is without the paint scheme I just described.

The scan lines are where I'm going to stealth my 2 drives, proboly by painting them and covering them with some mesh.

[Xbrid]

Aera 51? do u have a rule to only update this thread when u r drunk or what? lol. j/j :D

[Aero]

no, but only when I'm 3/4 asleep :P. But you know what I mean.

I'll work on that.

[Aero]

Ok, so I got some more pictures today, and did quite some work.

First I cut out my window. Once it was cut out I decided to fill in the "handles" on the case sides with bondo to smooth them out.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7519/leftsidebondo5ba.jpg

Then I sanded them smooth.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8899/bothsidessanded7vq.jpg

Once they were pretty smooth I took them out to the garage and gave them each a coat of white primer. Tomorrow I will sand it out a bit more and then give it another coat.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7446/sidesprimer9rz.jpg

Heres a picture of the window that I cut out. I think it look pretty cool, but thats because I cut it :p . I'm playing around with a few ideas for the window, I'm thinking of puting some mesh infront of the plexiglass. Anyway heres the left panel.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/1005/windowprimer6xm.jpg

Over the past few days I have been slowly building my mountain. Heres how its coming so far.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/433/rocksleft1di.jpg

As I said before there will be a cave in the rocks housing a 120mm fan. To make the tunnel I am using the cover of a CD spindle. Its almost a perfect size for a 120mm.

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/8279/rocksfront0za.jpg

And just for fun I thought I would post a pic of my "workplace". Its really just some white table my dad got for free when they moved out of an office building and a spot light, also note the extremely comfortable concrete floor.[/sarcasm]

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9310/workspace2zj.jpg

[Zeus]

very nice work

[Aero]

Well, unfortunatly due to time restraints, money, and more than all the smell of Bondo, I have to post-pone working on this project. My parents hate having the entire house wreak of bondo. And due to back to back vacations over the next months, I have very little time to work on this. Hopefully once I can get a new workspace not located near the air ducts in my house I will get back to working on this. Thank you to the people who posted opinoins on this, I hope to get to work on it again soon. And of course I will update this the second I do :D.

I will proboly work on another project untill I get the "Ok" to finish this one, so I'm not just going to disappear 8) . See yall around the boards.

[timmer]

There appears to be a window to the outside world on your wall. Maybe try opening it and getting a box fan to blow the bondo fumes out of the room?

[Aero]

tried that, only the smell gets into the air ducts first, reaching every corner of the house. That an I have barely any room to move around, just enough to stand in one place, or sit if I'm lucky. But plans are being made to clean out our basement and buy a new work bench, so I just have to be patient. :(

[timmer]

could you put some sort of high resistant cloth (i.e. heavy blanket) and try to not make it get through?

[Crimson Sky]

Bondo fumes are extremely toxic, brain cell destroying gasses---It causes irreversable nervous system and brain damage almost immediately when exposed to it. Must wear a NIOSH certified respirator if working indoors, and even then you need good ventilation.

the Bondo Rule is, if you can smell it, its causing serious damage to your brain.


Oh but great work so far!---just be careful with the bondo so you can enjoy the mod when its done...and not need to wear a helmet/drool cup combo forever.

[Aero]

Thanks Crimson.

But yeah I had just bought a 7 pound can of Bondo, as I was mixing it up when I read the warning label and was like "uh oh", my little white cotton face mask didn't seem sufficient any more. This seemed to rank on my list of "Dumb Things I've Done". Right above the time I soldered LED's with a 60% lead solder right next to my dinner, and right below the time I used a heat gun to dry off my horse hair brushes while painting :P.

[toast07]

wow uv allmost caugt up to me in tems of stupid stuff....lets see jumping down a full flight of stairs ot the ripe age of 7 for a mountain dew, triying to ramp a 10ft wide creek on a 50cc moped, roled down a 100ft hill in a tractor tire (my idea the rest was my uncles doing)....and driving a dodge omni side allong the side of a snowbank going 40mph....and thats just the stuff at the top o the list ;) ..so i win except this isnt really a contest ud wanna win but oh what the hell :p ....



BTW its looking good :)

[Bum]

When you get back to working on your mountain you might want to consider making yourself a hood like they have in chemistry labs. Make a fan and duct system going out that window and hook it up to a moderate sized box so that it draws the fumes out the window. There's nothing better than modding so that you can mod safer!

[Aero]

uh-oh. With the county fair starting up one of my friends contacted my on AIM tonight. Heres what he said:

(21:04:50) FRIEND: dude, i was helping out at the lake county fair and i saw the coolest thing!
(21:04:56) Aero: what
(21:05:15) FRIEND: some chick built a pc IN A MIALBOX
(21:05:20) FRIEND: EMAIL!!!
(21:06:04) FRIEND: with a plexiglass window
(21:06:09) FRIEND: i was like WOW
(21:06:42) Aero: ok got my attention, was it like on display at the fair grounds?
(21:07:02) FRIEND: it was, don't know if it still is

So now I'm interested. I might actually go to the fair now :P. If I see this case I'll post a pic or two.

Anywho having got back from my vacation today I want to start back up on this project. I have a little planning to do before I get back to building it. Some small airplanes need to be purchased along with some paint and plexiglass, and an industrial size fan...ok maybe not the last one, but I need to solve my bondo problem quickly.

[Aero]

ok, update. Having cancled our final trip for the summer I have had alittle time to work on this. and in a sense I have "gone back to the drawing board". The more I looked at the design the more I realized how boring a large mountian was. In this pic from my last update you can see alitle of what I mean:

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/8279/rocksfront0za.jpg

As I stuck the rocks togather they loose alot of texture. I feel that if I were to build the whole thing the way I currently am, it would look too manufactured, not like rock. So, to combat this I have been throwing around some ideas, things like a tank depot, turrets, or missles..anything to bring the mountian to life. This project is like a monster, every time I look at I get some other idea and that gets added to the bunch. I have some plans for inside now, as well as the window to make it look like it really got shot through. Also, I might be removing the plans for a 5 inch LCD in favor of this because it has a more "militaristic" look to it:

http://www.xoxide.com/vl-system-lis-pop-vfd-green.html


Also it can control some fans and lights. But more on that later ;) .

Well, thats about where this project is at now. I need to get somethings before I continue, for the landing strip on top I am torn between build model aircraft, or just getting some die-cast models and the re-painting them. I'm leaning toward the die-cast ones becasue they are easier, and much more sturdy.

[Nathan]

how about little grass/moss on the mountain? that would make it a bit more realistic and decaying looking

[Aero]

I'll think about it, I don't want it to fall of going to LAN's though :p .

Ok update time.

So today I spent about an hour walking around my basement thinking about my project. (Because if I tell my mom I'm working on something, then I don't have to clean my room) Anyway, during this time I found these:

http://img271.imageshack.us/img271/9387/foamboard9zm.jpg

Foam posterboard, at first I didn't think much about it, then I remembered my dad had found them by a dumpster at his office and told me I could do what ever I wanted to with them. So I began thinking, then after dinner I started building. I cut out some shapes with an Xacto knife I found in a box. I then hot glued these cutout the the right side of the case.

Heres what I have done so far:

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/8849/rightsidefoam4bv.jpg

Tomarrow I am going to do some more cut-outs and paste them on.

OH, yeah, when I was wondering around and moving some boxes I found this and instantly thought, "WTF? This looks like its from a Half Life 2 mod".


http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/995/wtfhowoldisthis5cd.jpg

[public_eyesore]

it'd be cool to make a fake wrench, but a real one would be too heavy

[Aero]

Well. I have good news. Now that school has started back up, I have had time to get in a "groove" so Iam going to finish this thing up soon. My parents are having a room built in the basement specifically for a workshop! No more sitting on concrete floor with 2 square feet to work! Plus I just bough a Paasche VL Double Action Airbrush, and will be getting a 4 gallon compressor on Wednesday once Home Depot gets them in stock. I also bought some plastistruct pieces that will bring some more realism to my window, something I am quiet excited about.

Well, I thikn thats all I got for now. I will try to get this done soon, at least most of the construction by the 22nd, because I'm going to be out of town. A few friends and I will be in Morton, Illinois at the annual Pumpkin Chunkin contest. We have a 10ft tall trebuchet and are hoping to take atleast 3rd in our age group. But more on that later.