Project Cirque du Soleil

I love ur plexi work...and update pics u said u were giong to soon. Man u made cutting out teh pci slots and mobo look so easy....i got to get a router =[.

Yes, I know. It's been a long long time since I promised an update on this case. I have been ridiculously busy, but have no fear, the case has been worked on this whole time and it is almost done. I finished the actual case itself a while ago, and I have since been attempting to successfully paint my monitor (I failed like 467 times). Monitor painting update coming soon... just wait.

I also replaced the blue fans in my PSU with some pretty new red ones, sponsored by Logisys. Through the yellow acrylic, the old blue ones looked like an ugly turqoise color, so they had to be replaced. I apolgoize in advance for the sickeningly horrible picture quality, I had to use my OLD p.os. Kodak.




Logisys Computer was very kind to send me two of their 80mm red led fans to use in this mod. I thank them very much for their continued support and generosity throughout this project.

Here are the new fans in their packaging:

The PSU before the replacement fans:

The PSU AFTER the replacement, with it's sexy new red fans....

Nice!

I like the red better too, looks hot!

Alright, update time.

This mod is 99% done as of right now. It should be finished by tonight.

First, I wanted to post pictures of the painting process of my monitor. I do not have final shots of it yet, I want to wait and finish everything else and then photograph them all professionally.

Before I wanted to do any real painting, I decided that I would definately need a better place to do it. I was originally going to build a whole new airbrushing cabinet, but I decided against it and simply modified my existing workbench, turning it into a nice airbrush cabinet. Before, the table was messy, unorganized, and used for multiple purposes. Now, it is clean, organized, and used only for painting and photography (see below).

This is the workbench before I "modded" it:

This is the workbench AFTER I "modded" it:

You can see the holding spots for my airbrush as well as paper towels. Also, I added did some duct work, and now it has a vent to suck overspray out of my house and filter it.

Here, you can see my monitor being painted:

The first coats.

Sorry I don't have pictures of this. There was originally a viewsonic logo on top of the monitor. I gently pried it off with an exacto knife and then filled it in with Bondo spotting putty. You can still see the outline of it a little bit, I did a bad job of covering it up.

Next, I added in some light coats of red on the edge, and then sprayed it with a metallic finish from about 4 feet away. This ensured that I only get a TINY bit of metallic paint on the surface. I think that it looks good that way, the metallic finish really brings out the paint. The whole thing really glows. I then clear coated it with Krylon Crystalclear acrylic clear coat. The yellow and red were done using krylon "Fusion" paints, made specially for plastic. The metallic was just some old stuff I had laying around, made by Brand X, I don't know.

Finally, I reinstalled the face plate into my monitor. I also do not have pics of this, but I do have some quick shots I took after installing it:

My last task for this mod is to paint the mouse. That is almost completely finished. I think I will wait until later on tonight or tomorrow to update that, since it is almost done.

Okay, I found the pictures of the monitor painting. Due to an extremely stupid mistake, I ruined my paintjob shortly after completing it. However, this post will cover the original painting of my monitor:

Here are the supplies I bought. All were found at Pepboy's:

You can see that I have my primer, main color, and clear coat. I also bought some fine sandpaper and some imperial hand glaze for giving it that deep, wet look when I am finished. I bought 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit grades of sandpaper.

I also bought some "Bondo" brand spotting putty to fill in holes. In this picture, you can see the ViewSonic logo in the upper left hand corner.

I used an Exacto hobby knife to pry out the logo:

Then, I covered the area in the spotting putty, and allowed it to thoroughly dry:

I then sanded it down, and primed the monitor by applying a few light coats of the primer. After that dried, I gently sanded it down again.

Now, you can't see the ViewSonic logo anymore!

I then shot the monitor with yellow, red, and metallic paints. It came out beautifully, however, sadly it was completely ruined (always let your paint dry!!). So, I do not have any more pictures of the first paintjob. However, I figured everyone might like to learn a bit about the preparation process.

Finally, this project is nearing completion. I am still adding up the hours, but it is currently at 50+ hours of work alone, not including research and purchasing of parts and materials etc.

I finally finished painting the mouse today, after polishing it up this morning.

First, I pried off the Microsoft logo with a hobby knife.

Then, I covered in with Bondo brand auto body filler.

After sanding it down, I masked off the areas that I didn't want painted.

Then, I began spraying down my base color - yellow. I used Kyrlon Fusion paint - it is made specifically for plastic, and no priming is needed.

Next, after allowing the yellow to fully cure, I added red and metallic paints.

Next, I clearcoated everything with a couple coats of Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear clear coat.

Then, I began making my waterslide decal for the mouse. This time I have pictures of the whole process.

First, I designed/modified the image on my computer, and then printed it out onto my Inkjet waterslide decal paper.

Then, I gave it ample time to dry, because due to the glossy nature of the film, it smears quite easily.

Then, I clearcoated the logo multiple times. This is very important to the film's rigidness. If you only clearcoat your film lightly, when you go to apply the decal, it will be very loose and floppy, and will easily fold over onto itself, creating big problems. So, I heavily clearcoated my decal numerous times. That way, when I went to apply it, it retained it's structure and applied very easily onto the surface.

Once all the clearcoats have dried, mix up some water with a couple of drops of Elmer's school glue or similar mixed into it.

I didn't feel like digging the decal out of the bottom of the glass of water, so I poured some water into a spray paint cap :p .

After aout a minute, the decal will easily slide off the backing. So, I slid the decal off of the backing and applied it to my mouse. I used a wet paint brush to smooth out any bubbles or lumps in the surface before it dried. If you still have any bubbles, use a small pin to pop them BEFORE it dries. This is important to get all the bubbles out, or it will look like crap.

My camera hates close up surfaces, but in real life, this decal is very vivid and clean cut.


After applying the decal, I clearcoated the mouse heavily perhaps 7 or 8 times to ensure a deep, wet look.

After the clear coat went on, I used 3M Imperial Hand Glaze to polish up the mouse, and it turned out great, in my opinion:

How do you think it turned out? I love feedback.

Now I just need to get the whole computer set up with a decent backdrop and then get some good photos of the finished thing.

Dude, nice paintjob. It kills me that you have such good equipment. I need to find a sucker to lend me tools like those...at least an airbrush pump anyway.

-Dave

Lol, thanks. It's kind of shame, but at 14 years old I do have quite a large collection of tools and equipment - much of which is home built. Its what I spend most my money on - my parents refuse to pay for any of it (I'm only 14 :[ ).

Okay okay, I know I said that I was done. But I lied.

I was sitting here, feeling bored, and I got to thinking. My case mod isn't really complete, I don't have a matching keyboard! I didn't want to ruin my G15, so instead, I painted my recently replaced logisys keyboard. The color painting is done, I just need to clearcoat it and add some waterslide decals.

First, I removed the front of the keyboard and popped out all the keys. I then cleaned all the old crap out of the keys, and masked off what I didn't want painted. Then, I started spraying it with yellow.

After the first coat, it looked green! A few more coats took care of that:

Finally, I added some red around the outsides and sprayed over the whole thing VERY lightly with some metallic paint to bring out the color.