Project : Lupine

Hey folks!
I tend to post my logs around on multiple forums, to get feedback from as many locations as possible. So, don't be surprised if you see this thing hanging around on another location! :)

"As such, it starts yet again... with a thought... a smokey whisper of inspiration that quickly reveals a raging fire of actions and calculations...."
Tech-Daddy, 2005

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lupine
adj : of or relating to or characteristic of wolves
n : any plant of the genus Lupin; bearing erect spikes of
usually purplish-blue flowers [syn: lupin]


Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Lupine \Lu"pine\, n. [L. lupinus, lupinum, apparently fr.
lupinus belonging to a wolf, fr. lupus a wolf; perh. so
called because it was supposed to exhaust the soil: cf. F.
lupin. Cf. Wolf.] (Bot.)
A leguminous plant of the genus Lupinus, especially L.
albus, the seeds of which have been used for food from
ancient times. The common species of the Eastern United
States is L. perennis. There are many species in
California.
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For the sake of clarification, I'm not modding as a tribute to a plant... ok? I'm going to be dealing with wolves here. Beautiful, majestic.... and my wife's *favorite* animal ever.

Wolves...

So, I wrap up blingGreen... and she asks me, "So when are you going to make me a cool case like that?" , to which I respond, "What would you like?"

This started off as a "very" easy case.... but not much on the "OOoooo..." factor after I thought about it for a few days. So, I modded my plans, and have begun what will be known as "Project : Lupine"

Constraints:
simple color scheme (purple and black)
no "overly complicated" cuts
How best can I relay my wife's love of wolves while maintaining an elegant simplicity that reflects the dusk/night time environment that they are usually active in? (Again, the purple and black will assist here).


So, I start with a Coolermaster Centurion 5 (CAC-T05) in it's basic silver and black. They make it with a blue trim that appears anodized, which is what gave me this idea, dye the trim a violet purple. All aluminium on the front, the side trim, the button housing, the buttons, the lower port cover... make all of the the same beautiful shade of purple.
But dont stom there, match that up with the same shade going onto the frame of the case. I want to keep any exposed aluminium... exposed. I like the look of the brushed alu. The texture and lines are just classy in my eyes. So, anywhere there is alu that is silver in color, it will be treated to a clear primer, then subjected to a purple treatment, and followed up with several coats of clear (for durability).

The window is going to be cool. I have, in my mind's eye, a multi layer diorama where the scene actuallly starts by being cut out of the case side, with other facets of it residing in the acrylic to be lit up by off edge LED's. Specifically, I will have the profile of a howling wolf and the terrain that it is standing on (the top pf a rocky cliff...) shaped into the window's edge work on the case. Clear acrylic will be mounted behind it, but not just any acrylic. The acrylic wll have several high resolution imaged laser etched into the surface... a full moon (that the before mentioned wolf will be howling to), a ghostly wolf bust apparition off to the side, seemingly floating to the side of the window, and some fog/northern lights in the sky. The moon will be side lit with white LED's making it stand out all by itself. I am hoping that the glow of white from the Moon will also give a faint bit more resolution to the wolf bust in the sky on the side.


Color for the internal lighting is, yep, purple. I have matching purple coolermaster LED fans (80mm and 120mm) so the color will be consistant. I also have some purple (not UV) CCFL's on order, and we'll see how that goes.

So... after careful deliberation, and thinking... I dove in. Here are the initial pics of the carnage:

unsuspecting victim:

Close up of the lower bezel and the ports:

Once I figured out how to safely get the front bezel off, this poor case never stood a chance! ;)

Here I was reminding myself of where the cables routed so that I could put it all back together..

Out popped the switch and port housings, nice and easy...

The "emptied" front of the case.....

Topless!!!!

Taking off the side trim on the fron bezel (drop 6 screws and off they came! It was a dream come true.)

That is all I go to tonight, I firmly believe that this mod is going to move pretty quicly, especially once I get the artwork finalized and the materials lined up to be etched!

Anyway, look out world! Here I come again!!!

after ure first case, i have faith in this one turning out good:)

Thanks Frakk!
That was a nice booster! Appreciate that!
:)

You sure no complicated cuts cause I am really feeling the wolf cut really big into the side backlit with purple and blacklight neons. Mmm. Sinsperational.

Mmmmmm... yeah... I'm thinkin it's going to be pretty frikken cool too!
;)

Yummy....

After I had removed the panels, here was what I was left with to paint:

I laid them out on a piece of wood that I had put some screws through to hold the buttons off of the painting surface, then dropped 2-3 coats of the clear primer on them:

1st coat of color:

I then let them dry for a few hours, then I wiped them off with a towel to get some of the residue off.

2nd color coat:

After a few hours, and a wipe down here is the result.

I'm testing the clearcoat out on a scrap piece of alu that I treated with this X-Metal. I just want to be sure that it does not cloud the finish. If it does not, I'll shoot these pieces with 2-3 layers of clearcoat, then some polishing compund to take any orange peal that might happen with the clearcoat.

This will be the same colors that the side accents will be on the bezel, and the same color of the internal chassis.
:)

very nice

Thats a really deeply cool colour... Going good so far :D

Krylon X-Metals purple. They say to apply it with the X-Metals base, but if Krylon is anything like Duplicolor on this product, then the base coat is nothing more than a primer with metalflakes in it. I did not want the color to disguise the grain of the brushed alu metal. So, 2-3 coats of the clear primer, and then followed up with the transparent "X-Metals" paint and voila!