Project: Blue-Hellfire

I would do a white base with the purple bubbles. OR silver base with white and silver bubbles.

I can't say which colour bubbled would look best, but the case looks very nice where it is. +rep

thanks for the comments guys.
they are all much appreciated
i did a bit o playin around with some of the smaller stuff in the past few days.
remember these?

well.. i did a bit of filing, grinding and sanding to them just to clean em up a bit.

they did look like this after a few coats of primer

but now they look like this

all nice and purty and gloss black
while i was at it i hit the rest of the chassis bits with some primer(yes i did sand everything down previously with 600 grit paper to the primer had something to "etch" onto)

also remember these things?

it was time to give them a bit of a makeover as well.
since they are going to be full stealth i removed the front bezel totally
i peeled off the stickers on the drives ( whats a warranty worth now a days anyhow to a modder? lol)
the rear of the drive (the header panel SATA connection) for some reason they cast in tan plastic..thats horrible in my opinion but thats why paint was created.so i taped off all the electronics inside of it and sprayed the back panels black and also the exterior casings

since the front bezel isnt going to go back on these drives i need to add some auxiliary wiring to them so i can relocate the open/close buttons.
broke out the soldering iron

and some spare wire from my lil extinct PC spare parts bin.
then i soldered the 2 bits of wire to the front 2 points for the micro switch on the pcb board

and one with the outer casing back on.

ok thats where i have to leave off for today. more to do this weekend
cya soon

kool you tought me something i didnt know how to do that nice...

Nice drive rack hacking lol.

yanno. sometimes they make those things with a bit too much metal for me.
i was contemplating building a complete new drive tower out of plexi or whatever i could find but to be honest i dont have the materials, patience or skill to pull off the visual aspect i would be looking for.
so modding the included one seemed the best option for me :up:

AC Ryan have a drive bay kit you can buy made out of plexi. All you have to do is install it.
ConstructX Bay Columns:
http://www1.acryan.com/_constructx/ACR-CX31052.shtml

yea i have seen em.. and even contemplated them.
problem is i am a tinkerer
i couldnt simply buy them and use them as is, i would have to cut bend tweak paint blah blah
much easier and keeps the wife from killing me if i try to keep budget low and just work with what i have =o)

very cool work, man. very impressed with all of it. i especially like the "bubbled" technique. can you post a link for us newbs to the video you mentioned? i love your wife's case so far. even for just a pain job, i think it's gonna look excellent.

also, the trick with the opticals is kewl. one more thing to add to my impending design.

rep/sub.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ad.php?t=12621
there ya go bud..the origional tute i saw that gave me the idea for the water effect.
enjoy

sweet... thanks for the link.

Fantastic Paintwork... Rip time...

I think this mod just keeps getting better can relate with the wife buget thing lol keep it up man it rocks

sorry for the lack of updates guys n gals but i got stuck on a side project last week ( building a new cage for our degus)

we have 3 of the lil critters and they needed a new place to run around.
so i built this

6-7 hours of bending wires and cutting wood should have provided them with enough room now to chill and enjoy thier toys for a while =o)
pc build update should be here this weekend hopefully.
cya then

Haha nice cage modding. A bit of Diablo II as well, not bad.

lol good eyes.. sadly its one of the few games that actually play on my old beat up machine which is why i am so looking forward to building the new pc's ..i would love to play something a bit more graphically intense =o)

Hey, I read through the whole log - good work. Funny thing is, right here at the end you prompt me with a new question: What did you use for the the cage material? I have a number of birds, and I would like to make a custom cage for them.

+rep and sub.

i actually found a local run down pet shop that the guy looked like he made all his own rabbit hutches and stuff in , so i asked him about the mesh. luckily he said he just ordered some recently and sold me meters at about 5% over his cost. all in all i think the entire cage ran me about £50 compared to the one we bought when we first got the degus that was £80 and less than half this size. if you hit google for "welded wire mesh" thats pretty much what it is

Aren't those creatures called gerbils? Helluva big cage you got but I know you won't clean it lol. Cos I havent changed my hamster's bedding for like 1.5 mths due to Paperazzi haha

eh cage gets cleaned every other sunday. been doin it for the past 4-5 months, also with the new cage design once i add the plexi shroud to the base of it cleaning will be simply pulling out the tray and dumping it in the trash then refil with wood chips.. dont get alot easier than that.

lol nice
its a huge cage

Had a friend of mine do up a sig tag for this one now as the one i had previously kinda sucked.

thanks Jon, works awesome as always.
ok tis time to get back to the pc's, first a brief rundown of what i have done on mine this week and then a quick update on the wifes with temp lighting and her etching.
when we last left my machine i had just painted the internal opticals and parts of the chassis.remember the first skull i carved out of plexi?
kinda looked like this

well i didn't want to let it go to waste so i recycled it by adding a bit of mesh to it and painting it black.
it now resides on the rear panel over the rear exhaust fan.

i didnt like the pieces of plexi that connected the eye sockets and the nose so i removed them with the dremel and epoxied each piece to the mesh behind it. i think it looks alot better than previous.after this shot i also shaved down the left edge to be flush with the case IO panel.
next... i grabbed a bag of rivets and decided it was time to start an assembly process to get it back to lookin like a pc again.
i do have to say at this point i am glad i didn't disassemble the chicks pc as far as i did mine..made it alot easier to use as a template for riveting mine back together lol.
once i got a basic chassis back together i started pondering how to mount the hard drive in such a way that it looks like its floating in thin air.
somewhere in one of my parts bins i found what i needed

its an old drive bay cover from one of those full acrylic cases ya see here n there.
should work nicely for what i want so lets knock right into it.
measure things up and layout the holes that will act as mounting points in both the case and on the HD itself

then drag it out back in the garden and grab my friend the propane torch =o)~

lil bit of heat, lil bit of persuasion and i have what i want.

this is the basic mount idea i have in mind.. simple but yet it will give me the effect i want when complete.

so i make sure the hardware fits the mount and the case frame itself

bolt it down in place

hit it with a touch of paint to make it disappear and then attach the HD to it.

its far enough off where the mobo will be so it wont cause a problem. not worried alot as i dont plan on anything extravagant for a vid card or anything and in the position its in it will also help me hide some wiring while keeping itself in the middle of the cross flow of the front and bottom fans.
just for the hell of it i decided to throw the side panel on just to see how much will be visible through the window when done....

yeap...... i like it so far =o)
ignore the colors as the only thing on it at the moment is the stock black and then some white primer . this will all emd up changing but i have more work to do before i am anywhere near ready for paint yet.
tis all for mine this week but a quickie on the wifes rig.
she had her go at etching and i have to say i am quite impressed with it...

then for her blowhole cover i cut out the basic shapes and she went to town on those as well

slapped some mesh behind it and a blue led fan to compliment it.

hot wired a psu

to get an idea if how it will look with lighting
while none of these lights are in their final places you can get the idea that its gonna end up looking very cool.

i think thats it for this weeks update.. didnt have the time to polish out the chicks rig so hopefully that will follow this week sometime. and i have more fun stuff to mess with on mine.
cya next week with another update...
one last parting shot for ya before i go

Looking good Cobra.

wow shes better than you :P just kidding but shes good i love that final pic its like the coolest fan grill ive ever seen

lol she does do well and she puts up with me messin with my pc .. i cant really complain hehe
all i have left to do on hers is to locate the lighting switches , rub out the paint and then wait for the hardware to build them up.
mine on the other hand has another 2 months of messin with it before i am actually ready for paint.
gives me something to do and in the spare time i am tooling up some sketch up views of project 2 which i wont post till i finish this one.
all i will say atm is its a shuttle that i aquired for free and i think it needs one hell of a makeover hehe.
cya later this week with another update on the main rig.

real life interrupted my modding this week again =o/
back at it now tho with a new purchase for the final product
pics and log update will be here this weekend

Some great engraving on the door panel and love the dolphin grill, I like the HDD mounting you made I've just made a HDD cage for the build I'm doing and I never even noticed there was screw holes underneath the HD which I could have used, duh!

You mentioned hot wiring the psu to check the lights how does that work exactly?
I was trying to get my psu to work to try some fans but it wouldn't work and I thought it must have to be connected to the mobo or something before it turns on, could you tell me what wires you use to hot wire it please.

Many thanks, Beta-brain.

easy guide for hot wiring psu's ..basically just bridging the green wire in the large connector to one of the blacks
http://www.techwarelabs.com/guides/misc_mod/psumod/

Thanks very much for the link, it works a treat :)
Also plus Rep +sub which I forgot last time.

alrighty then...
i got 2 things in the mail last week that are both gonna help me towards my final goals with this build
first one deals directly with the build itself

wifey snuck around and found me a compressor on ebay so when its air brush time i dont have to use those god awful cans =oX
second present that showed up is just plain awesome.
wife knows i plan to use this as a gaming rig when done so the ebay queen herself struck again and now i have this

now yanno by the time i actually use it i am gonna have to rip it apart, tweak, push, pull, prime, paint and light it so it all matches lol.
as wife reads this and shakes her head in shame i have to remind her.. its a mod thing =o)
gotta have everything match when its done or its only half a mod =oX
this morning i looked over my side panels and decided i have some pinholes to fill in the larke one and i needed some bondo for the flamed one to even a few areas out so i started with takin care of those.

knocked most of the flame areas flat with a hammer and dolly , still needed some filler for the bits that didn't wanna cooperate.
then i hit the other side panel with a bit more filler.. this ones almost ready for color

i am shooting for the end of this month shooting some color on my rig. should be able to pull it off as long as nothing drastic happens.
while i wait for the bondo to cure so i can start the sand fill sand fill sand process i figure its damn well about time i polish out the wifes rig..
what do you know.... she agreed with me =o/
armed with a bucket of slightly soapy water,

an old piece of wall tile i have cut down and use as a sanding block. some 1200 and 2000 grit paper

i start rubbin it out
starting in parallel strokes with the 1200 grit first until i take all the gloss off the panel itself

once its all a uniform dull finish i grab the 2000 grit and sand the entire piece again being careful on corners and in depressions so as not to cut through the color coats and into the primer since i really really don't wanna do this paint job again o.O
once i have it gone over with the 2000 i grab some light rubbing compound. the stuff i am using today is called t-cut compound but any haze and swirl remover would do the same.
loaded a damp towel with some of the t-cut and applied it to the panel with a light haze.
then i grabbed the electric car buffer and used that to work the compound over the paint and smooth out the finish.

i repeated this on all the exterior panels on wifeys machine until i got a nice even shine.
she seems to like the way it shines and reflects now ( yay me )

thats it for todays update. hopefully have some more for ya next weekend.. have a great week =o)

just a bit of a quickie for today
bodywork is done on 3/4ths of the case so far.. all complete except the flamed side window side as i havent had time to do the necessary sanding to flaten things out yet but that wont be too much hassle.
since the rest of the case is matte black right now from the guide coats of paint i am going to use basic black as one of the main undercolors on the paint scheme.
on top of the black base i need white as what i have planned will need a very light background as a canvas later
i grabbed some 2 inch masking tape and covered the exposed areas.
than i grabbed my flamed side window panel and used it as a template for the flames on the other side just so everything ended up in scale and matched.
once the flames were traced on the panels

i grabbed a generic razor knife and cut out the pattern little by little

flames started to take shape the more i removed masking

figured while i was at it i might as well throw in a foot shot so no one felt left out or neglected since there haven't been any new sightings in the past 2 weeks or so =oX

the layout for the top panel

i am not real worried about symmetry as flames aren't perfect anyhow and it wont really have an effect on the overall appearance once its done
grabbed a can o trusty Halfords white primer and layed on a light mist coat

i hit the front panel with the white again as well

i hit the panels with a few more light coats till i had even coverage
then let it dry about 20 mins before removing the masking tape
this is what i am left with atm

as i said.. the side window panel isnt finished yet and needs to be sanded and painted to match.
kinda my queue to go buy some more black and white primer lol.
both cans started sputtering out a bit by the end of their sessions.
its prolly gonna be about 2 weeks till my next update only because i have a bit of a full workload on the homefront and work in the near future so mod time will be limited but i will get "something" done in that time.
cya when i can =o)

man weird foot shot but hey hey foot!! *waves*

when i saw the white flames my jaw dropped nice work

OK, wait.. you sprayed on the primer, then removed the mask?

Are you going to mask it again for paint?

nope most of what i have planned now involves freehand masks and an airbrush.. aside from the bit of tweaking the alignment of the flames in regards to the side panels i shouldnt need any more masking tape for this one except for the internal component masking while i hit the color coats later.

Lol you want a weird foot shot, you should see mine haha. Nice work mate, it's coming along nicely.

sorry for the long delay in updates guys. real life is infringing on my modding time again (how dare it) ..
i am tryin to clear a bit fo time in the near future to atleast get an update up.
i have done a bit more wrk and have pics so i have to clear 30 mins before this weekend to toss em up here.
hopefully see ya then.

its ok mate sh*t happens

prolly gonna have to wait till after the holidays before i get any serious modding in =o/
cash and time are two things in short supply at the min until we get the kids xmas gifts out of the way.
hopefully see ya soon

That's a shame mate, take your time. Looking great BTW.

looks awesome! :up: