Night of the Living Dead 40th Tribute

Short update: I was about to order the prop hand for the side window, when I gasped at the shipping costs from the small webstore I was buying from. This prompted me to try to find the prop else-where – which I was able to. The thing is, the next website had a much closer picture of it.

I’m sorry, but that looks down-right comical. Not as cool as it looked in a smaller pic. I’m going to source another hand instead. Between the Sketchup pics I have earlier in and the fact that the original movie did not have much of the “rotting flesh” zombie…I’m leaning back towards a more realistic hand. In particular, perhaps this one:

We shall see. This is one part of the project that will not get scrapped, come hell or high water.

Mate whered u get that lip from? Looks tidy and cool. Hm for the hands, I'd go for the second prop, first one looks kinda uh... futuristic? Lol.

I think a starry night over the cemetary would be cool

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Originally Posted by Acey

Mate whered u get that lip from? Looks tidy and cool. Hm for the hands, I'd go for the second prop, first one looks kinda uh... futuristic? Lol.

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Well, that would be the point, wouldn't it. Once I saw a better picture of them, I eliminated them from consideration. ;) Never fear...I have ordered one, and I think it will work much better.

Also - sorry, buddy, but I'm not sure what your lip comment made.

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Originally Posted by TheGreatSatan

I think a starry night over the cemetary would be cool

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A fantastic idea! I might steal that if my plan below doesn't work out. Wow – three updates in one day! I'm on a roll.


As we left off, I cut out the window from the inner part of the case:

Fun with the old Dremel and lots of discs.

There it is. It needs a date with the file, but it is cut.

Clamping it to the outer, plastic part to the metal, I used a razor to score around the opening, and then finished it off with a Dremel.

And that's that. The window is cut.

Now, for the next thing. I've been trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with the blank side of the case. Assuming I can suss out exactly how to arrange some white CCFLs around the mobo tray, I am going to cut the other panel, and then sandwich a transparency between to pieces of plexi. What is the transparency, you ask? Why, this:

(I had this printed this afternoon, and it looks pretty darn good.)

3 updates!!! thats sweet nice window mate nicely done

Get the moving hand which will be battery powered so you can run it off either your 5 v or 12 v line from the PSU . . .anything you can do to animate your mod improves it!

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Originally Posted by DarthBeavis

Get the moving hand which will be battery powered so you can run it off either your 5 v or 12 v line from the PSU . . .anything you can do to animate your mod improves it!

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I'm going to pass on that one. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I worked in a Halloween store...Besides the fact that those hands look bad, I can't tell you the failure rate on them after just a few hours of use. I've seen them in the stores since, and they're still the same cheap model. 8):down:

lol thats a pitty that would of been cool

im sure whatever you do will be good

Hey everyone – I'm back again.

Here's the update for this weekend. To pick up where we left off, I fiddled around with the transparency a bit on the existing window to see how it might look on the other side.

Obviously, I needed to add the plexi to the window, which you can see that I've done. It is held in place with 3M 4010 double-sided tape. Easy to mount, but removable if need be.

I mounted some white CCFL lights on the inside of the case to see how it would look shining through the plexi and the transparency.

The good news is that it looks great. The bad news is that playing around all evening that night, I couldn't for the life of me figure out a way to mount the CCFLs on the other side of the case (with the mobo tray in the way) to get the light to shine through as well. However, I was able to come up with some other options:

1.)Masking off the transparency and the window just what is in front of the drive cage, I was able to make a space that I have on either side of case (meaning that it is doable.)

This would allow me to use an image like this:

2.)The other option is bright LEDs. These take up much less room, and could probably fit behind the mobo tray, lighting the side not taken care of by the CCFL. I'm going order some and give that a try.

In which case, this part will be set aside for a little bit, while I get some other stuff done. Namely, the zombie hand busting through the boarded up window.

Here, I laid things out to get an idea of where things are going to go in the final project. I drilled and tapped holes through the wood, plastic and metal.

The screws are inserted from the inside to hide the screw heads. Also, I intend to affix nail heads to the outside once the boards are stained/painted to facilitate the hastily boarded up look.

Ta-dah!

The next step is to cut holes to mount the hand through.

This was a simple matter of using a hole saw to cut a few holes. One is for the wrist and one for the thumb (to allow it to “grasp”the board.

Now that this is set up, I moved on to the front bays. Since I will only be using one of them at this point, I will need to block up the other two. As shown in earlier illustrations, I intended to board these up the same way that I did the side window.

Not very easy to see in this picture, but I have cut a piece of plexi to fit the top two bays. To this, I added a few pieces of the 3M tape (shown here with the backing still on for visibility.)

This will hold the “boards” to the pelxi. Tape on these boards will hold it to the case.

The final step for today was to swap the white CCFLs for red and fire it up.

Final note: Looking at it now, I might leave the black fan on the front. It looks good backed by the CCFLs, and an LED one might be too much.

As always, thanks for stopping by again!

Cool hand. As pale as the dead.

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Originally Posted by Acey

Cool hand. As pale as the dead.

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Oh man, it was better than I expected. It doesn't show up as well in the picture, but the painting on it is very detailed. The veins look real under the skin, and the fingernails look ready to fall off. Very nice stuff.

I like the effect the hand gives. To me though, something about it just doesn't look right. Yeah, dead flesh is pale, but this almost looks milky white to me. Maybe dry brush some blood, or give it some bruises with make up. Put some mud under the fingernails. Something.. dirty it up somehow. Great work so far though. Keep it up. +rep

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Originally Posted by SgtM

I like the effect the hand gives. To me though, something about it just doesn't look right. Yeah, dead flesh is pale, but this almost looks milky white to me. Maybe dry brush some blood, or give it some bruises with make up. Put some mud under the fingernails. Something.. dirty it up somehow. Great work so far though. Keep it up. +rep

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Yeah, I can definitely see where you're coming from. As stated above, my camera does not do it justice...color fidelity is off (you should see some of the pictures I tossed of the case I took in the dark.) The actual color of this hand is a jaundiced yellow, and there actually is some dirt-color around and under the nails.

Blood is something that is lacking and I intend to add when I get to the painting. In fact, I was looking at a couple of different hands, and my one buddy specifically said, "I'd like this one best if it had blood on it like this other one." I assured him that I'd add some on. ;)

this is gunna look sweet

this is looking sweet**

Mega epic mod.

Looking good, expecting great things, that transparency is great!

Here’s a small update for you:

I have continued to work on a solution to my problem with the transparency. To recap, I really don’t have the room to properly light a window on that side, due to the mobo tray. (probably why people don’t generally put windows in that side.)

Currently, I am playing around with LEDs to see if that will work. To work with them, I only taped them in roughly to place that they will go. If I go with this plan, I will mount them in a neater and more permanent fashion.

The white LEDs are for the title and Ben, whereas the orange ones are mainly for text. So that I could get a realistic view of the final project, I cut a piece of cardboard for this side of the case. This is easier and more reversible than cutting the panel and hoping for the best.

If this works, then I can simply cut the panel and hopefully have it looks something like this:

I’m not going to have time to work again until the weekend, so I am going to think on this bit until then and decide if I like it.

In other news, I purchased the miniature tombstones and some foam-board, so work will probably commence on the base soon.

Gasp! That looks great! Fantastic idea dude!

I think I'm gonna tinker with your header, needs something...maybe headstones??

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Originally Posted by jdbnsn

Gasp! That looks great! Fantastic idea dude!

I think I'm gonna tinker with your header, needs something...maybe headstones??

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Thanks, man - glad you like it.


And all things header, I leave in your capable hands.

that looks heaps good igot my leds the other night

Looks great.

Take the hand into the garden, and dig a hole with it.

Then beat a Badger to death with it for blood and your laughing ;)

Should I let my dog play with it, too?

Now you're just being silly, that's going too far.

Tut tut.

Sorry...

rofl thats good

work out the ageing a little and put a green tinge to it if ya can as bodies go green after a few days...

not in the movies tho

This weekend was very busy, so about all I got time for was to clean up the one window and cut the other.

Here is the first window. I used some spot putty on it to fill in the tool marks from the dremel. That’s pretty much the last step needed for that particular window.

Here’s the plastic panel cut for the other window:

…And again with the metal portion cut.

Since the LEDs were just scotch-taped on temporarily, some of them have shifted from their intended location, but that is not wholly important:

I’m going to have to paint some “black out” on to the plexi. Since the transparencies are sandwiched between two pieces of glass, the thickness of the front piece allows light through. When viewed from certain angles (such as above in these pictures) is give the picture some bright borders. No problem – this is an easy fix.

Next step is to make the mount for the HDD cage and cut the blow hole, and then preliminary construction is finished on the case. After that, I can begin the cosmetic work.

Too cool!!! That looks AWESOME man!!

Wow. That looks amazing. +rep.

My plan had been to find a piece scenery fence to use as a front fan grill. Well, I have had zero luck finding one. Therefore, I did what any modder would do: I made one.

What I did was sketch up something in a graphics program, printed it out, and glued it to some scrap metal. I used regular old Elmer's so that some hot water will remove it later. This print out will be my guide while I work.

Here, I have drilled guide holes in the center section of the fence. The smaller lower parts, and the scroll work at the top are going to require smaller than usual Dremel discs. This is why I always save my burned down discs instead of tossing them.

From there, it was a lot of cutting, more cutting and some trimming.

]

After everything is cut out, a quick bath to remove the paper, and here is what I've got:

(NOTE: The above is not its final position on the case. I just held it up to see.)

I still need to do some serious work with a needle file, but this is a start.

That Fan grill looks awesome like where this is headed + rep

nice grill dude looks killer

Awesome grille, man! A lot more patience than I'd have for something like that. +rep

classic grill... it has that "this a graveyard scene" look on it

Glad you like it.

I had intended to get some work done over the long weekend, but I was stymied at every turn...I had two fantasy football drafts that took up a bunch of time, then I had some tool setbacks for another part, and finally, the two cans of primer I bought were both without propellant somehow. Serious - push the valve and nothing happens. Today I need to try to return them without a receipt (because, seriously: who tries to return spray paint?)

Oddly enough I've had at least 3 people try to return spray paint to me at the parts store I used to work at. 2 of them had used the cans and it must not have matched and the third guy bough a can of red that matched some Ford color when he owned a Dodge. So returning spray paint isn't that uncommon. Plus I have some I need to return, I bought it at Walmart and it doesn't coat at well at all so the un-used cans can go back for some better stuff.

*edit, that fan gill is wicked looking.

Allow me to rephrase then: Who tries to return spray paint when they didn't screw up? :D

Well, they exchanged it for me...eventually. The young lady behind the counter remembered me and was going to do a straight-up swap, but her manager "knew better" and came over and tried to prove that I was an idiot. After showing me how to properly shake a can of paint and unclog a nozzle, he pulled out some newspaper and...did nothing. Then he muttered something and walked away.

Gotta love it when someone proves you right like that. Glad they exchanged it for you.

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Originally Posted by The_Crippler



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I can honestly say that your custom fan grill matches
the theme better than any other I have ever seen.
Fantastic job on that. +Rep

I think the prop hand could use some decomposing discoloration.

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Originally Posted by Eclecticos

I can honestly say that your custom fan grill matches
the theme better than any other I have ever seen.

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Hey, thanks. I'm glad you like it. It turned out better than I had been expecting.

Update time!

After a weekend of laziness, it was back to the grind yesterday. (The one time I attempted to work, I found my spay paint was defective.) Aside from getting the chassis primed, my main order of business was to get to work on the graveyard/base for the case.

I am using styro-board for this, as the layers of styrene on either side of the foam adds rigidity and protection to it. First step was to make out where the base frame needed to be fitted.

A good razor and straightedge makes short work of this stuff. I like to make a couple of very shallow cuts first so that the blade has a “track” to run in. Once cut, and a spare CD drive laid in place, the boundaries of the base can be seen:

I went two inches off of either side, and a few inches off the front. One thing is for sure: This case will never tip over.

I don’t have a lot of pictures for the next part, as it was a lot of repetitive cutting to build up the layers on either side. Essentially, they’re the same as the base, but with the center cut out for the drive.

I cut the top layer of styrene off so that (later) I can shave out a bit of the foam to drop the drive lower. This is because the height of the drive is just a little taller than the stacked layers of foam board.

Here is what it will look like when all is said and done with:

The top layer is not glued as of yet, so that I can still work on the drive cradle. Yes, I see that spot in the lower right that’s not the same width as the other layers. I had a piece that wasn’t quite wide enough, and since there will be a face piece, I couldn’t see the need to cut a fresh piece for that section.

Here is a side view with some fence pieces that will be painted and installed later to give you an idea:

I got a box of those fences (probably 60 pieces) for $3 at the hobby store. Someone had cleaned out their attic and dropped them off that day. Lucky me!

Finally, here’s a shot with the primed chassis on top:

I’m moving in to the home stretch here. This is where things will start to move quickly (and the part I like best!)

One of the next things I will do is to clean up the edges and putty them over. This will give the base it’s strength as well as give me a clean surface to do the cosmetic work on.

that base looks sweet keep it up

Looks great, coming on well as per the original design,.

Well done that man.