Project: Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 !!!UPDATE!!! 26 April 2010

Just a small update tonight.

I have been weighing my options on how I can airbrush this paint job for a few weeks now. I could do like this guy did or I can use stencils. I finally decided on the latter about a week ago. So I sat down and took a good long look at the ARPAT pattern. It seems to be 3 layers with the lightest on the bottom and the darkest on top. The pattern itself is just blobs with pixilated edges. The edges seem to be what I will call full pixels and half pixels.

I sat down and did a few sketches on graphing paper to get a feel for creating the designs and then took it to photoshop and using my wacom tablet and a ¼” grid in photoshop I drew some patterns. What I plan to do is to trace these onto clear acetate overhead projector sheets and then cut them out using an Exato knife. Then I will paint the whole case a light gray followed by a lighter gray spraying from the patterns, then I will spray a second layer of darker patterns followed by a third layer of even darker patterns. Then I will coat the whole thing in a few layers of mat finish clearcoat. Ok let’s move on to the pics.

ARPAT (ARmy PATtern)

The first sketch I did. Notice the coffee stain.

The second sketch I did. The graphing grid is ¼”.

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This is the first digital sketch I did. Each pixel is 1/4".

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Part 2

Click for larger imageFor the first half I used a 1/4" grid created from guides.

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For the second half I used the normal photoshop grid set to 1". To draw the lines I used the pen tool to mark my pattern then right clicked and clicked "stroke pattern. I had the brush set to 1px with 100% hardness.

I will make the pattern files available in a 2 printable tiff files. They are sized to 8.5”x11” @300dpi.

lookin nice, I cant wait to see it painted!

I saw some peel and stick camo pattern transparencies a while back. Same ones used by the military. Interested? I could find them again.

Meanwhile:

http://tacticalcamo.com/Paint-Stencils.html

Specifically:
http://tacticalcamo.com/articles/How...tal-style.html

Thanks for the link terry. I think I saw there site when I first started thinking about this mod.

Update Monday or Tuesday

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Can anyone verify whether a water loop can cool below ambient temps?

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Luke-

From what I understand, you should not cool your loop below ambient temps (although it has been done with peltiers and such) because any drop below room temperature will cause condensation to form on the hoses, blocks, and any other equipment exposed to room air. I would ask Spawn-Inc though to verify.

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Originally Posted by jdbnsn

Luke-

From what I understand, you should not cool your loop below ambient temps (although it has been done with peltiers and such) because any drop below room temperature will cause condensation to form on the hoses, blocks, and any other equipment exposed to room air. I would ask Spawn-Inc though to verify.

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Thanks Jon, I knew about the implications of it, I was just curious if pumps+fans+rads= lower than ambient. I dont think it's possible though.

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Originally Posted by Luke122

Thanks Jon, I knew about the implications of it, I was just curious if pumps+fans+rads= lower than ambient. I dont think it's possible though.

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It's definitely possible. I have a friend who got one of the early Core 2 Duo's and got it down to 17C with, I think it was a Scythe Kama HS/F. At the time he did it, I think room temperature was probably around 20-25C. Granted, he underclocked the chip a bit just to see what temps he could get, but still; below room temperature on air! :banana:

Ohhh I see. Well if that is the case, I don't think it is possible. My physics is a bit rusty but I don't think you can actually lower the heat of an object by convection with comparatively warmer air. Not sure about this, but it doesn't sound logical, maybe the core 2 in the above story had some mismatched thermometers or something.

Hmm, assuming Wikipedia isn't lying to me about wind chill, you appear to be correct. I wasn't actually there when he achieved those temps, so idk, it's possible he was pulling air in from outside (where it was much cooler).

I very much doubt it's possible to get lower than ambient without active cooling. Fans, rads, heatsinks are all passive, they move air/water, nothing there actually chills it so the lowest it can get to is the ambient without some for of active chilling as opposed to cooling.

That wiki article basically states that wind chill only speeds up the temperature change of inanimate objects to ambient, and does not lower the temperature below ambient.

*edit* Back on topic, CJ.. when are you going to start building this thing?! Hehehe..

I talked to TT today and they will be shipping the case and the rest of the gear this week. So I expect to start sometime next week. There was also a mixup with my gear from NZXT and it was sent to the wrong address. Replacement gear will be set out tomorrow or the next day.

I hope to make it to an Army/Navy surplus store one day this week and pick up a few things for some top secret mods to the case. Luke knows what these mods are so I am sure he will vouch for me when I say its going to be freaking awesome.

I ordered my paint yesterday and it should arrive by Friday. I still need to pick up a self healing cutting mat and blue painters tape. I also need to go out to my shop at my grandmothers and nab the water filter off of the air compressor there.


Some of the fans I am getting have white blades with black bodies. Any thoughts on how to make them fit in with the theme?

Here is what they look like

camo paint the blades! that = win imo! lol

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Originally Posted by billygoat333

camo paint the blades! that = win imo! lol

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Better put a grill on them fans, if you cant see the blades you could lose a finger! ;)

Well if all goes right with the latest email I sent there may be custom fan grills on this too.

I was thinking today and am wondering where I will put the radiator. Here is my delima... I can rout it outside the case and attach it somewhere to the outside of the case or I can put it in the bottom of the case as there will be plenty of room in the bottom. If I put it in the bottom would I position the fans as a push or pull set up? As in pulling air into the case or pulling air out of the case?

Ok since I wound up explaining one of the secret mods on another forum I am obligated to talk about it here at my home.

I plan on taking a .50 cal ammo can and removing the stock 5.25" drive cage and replacing it with the ammo can. The bottom will be cut out of the ammo can and will become the end that the drives slide into. This will put the handle end facing the back of the case. This will provide me a very good place to hide wires and follow the theme. Exiting from the side of this new ammo can drive bay will be a 1.5-2 foot long belt of .50 bmg inert ammo.

Thoughts? Credit for this idea goes to OvRiDe and Luke122 btw. Thanks guys !!!

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Originally Posted by Oneslowz28

Credit for this idea goes to OvRiDe and Luke22 btw. Thanks guys !!!

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*blush*

But you spelled my name wrong. ;)

Fixed.

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Originally Posted by Oneslowz28

Well if all goes right with the latest email I sent there may be custom fan grills on this too.

I was thinking today and am wondering where I will put the radiator. Here is my delima... I can rout it outside the case and attach it somewhere to the outside of the case or I can put it in the bottom of the case as there will be plenty of room in the bottom. If I put it in the bottom would I position the fans as a push or pull set up? As in pulling air into the case or pulling air out of the case?

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If you put it in the base of the case with fans pulling air IN, surely that'll mean that all the heat gets pushed back into the case....

EDIT: Or did I just say something blatently obvious/miss something equally obvious

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Originally Posted by Oneslowz28

Fixed.

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Haha.. like my old cat. ;)

I was just bagging on you.. no worries man! Thanks for the props. :D

From what I read in Paul's book it doesn't matter whether you direct the fans inward or outward just as long as they are all the same. You want to create either a negative or positive air pressure and the heat will migrate on it's own (it will anyway, just not fast enough without a pressure gradient).

Hmm. Ok so I will have:

Pulling air out of the case:

• two 120mm fans on the radiator @ 58.3 CFM
• The Fan on the Ultra X4 850w
• Possibly 2 or 3 GTX295 (Depends on pending sponsorships)

So If I go negative pressure I would want just a single 120mm pulling air into the case right?

Well, technically pulling in anything short of the exact amount that your pushing out of the case would create negative pressure. I've always understood that it's best to have neutral pressure, so that you don't build up pockets of air trying to escape (positive pressure) or not have enough air flowing through (negative pressure). With neutral air pressure, you have exactly the same amount of air coming in as going out, and as a result, air is constantly flowing at a steady rate through the whole thing.

One thing to keep in mind as well (idk if you've already taken this into account, just throwing it out there) is that fans on a rad aren't gonna push anywhere near as much air as those same fans not on a rad. Really only matters a lot when you're shooting for neutral though, I suppose.

I spent some time in sketchup tonight modeling the Armor+ from scratch. I am no where near finished but it is to scale and will provide me a virtual place to test out ideas before I commit to them.

So here is what I got finished tonight.

Sponsored gear came in from Thermaltake today. I am going to have to get in touch with them though as the top plastic on the case was broken in 2 places. One under the Power and HDD leds and the other was the peice that holds the top of the right door in place. One other thing that was damaged was the FlowTX Plus. The threads were stripped out on the inlet side. The damage to the case was due to shipping I think as the box is pretty beat up. The Flow indicator damage had to have occurred at the factory as the package was not damaged and still looked factory sealed.

Here is what they sent.

Armor+ Black
Coolant 1000 1000ml coolent kit
TMG2 Dual 120mm radiator with fans
Water level indicator Rez kit
WB200 North Bridge Water block

I have my table full of stuff at the moment so as soon as I get it cleared off I will post some pics

this will be one sweet project. im at the edge of my seat in anticipation. at least, til my asscheeks fall asleep. then I wont sit at the edge of my seat anymore. :P

lol

OK, enough seat-edge-sitting, get some freakin' pics up here already!

Pics will be up tonight. Camera battery charging now. Went through both of them at the baskeball game the other night... Time to buy new batteries.

Did someone say pics?

This is the first batch of sponsored gear. The NZXT stuff came in yesterday morning.

This is the damage done to the Thermaltake Armor+ box. You can see a crease running lengthwise near the top. This tells me that something heavy was set on top of it or it was dropped at some point. Incidentally the corner with the most damage is also the side that the broken door mount is on. UPS really dropped the ball this time.

A big thanks to my sponsors Thermaltake, NZXT, and Plextor!!!!

So as of this posting I have in the following items:

1. Thermaltake
   
   • Armor+ super tower case Black
   • Coolant 1000 1000ml coolent kit
   • TMG2 Dual 120mm radiator with fans
   • Water level indicator rez kit
   • WB200 North Bridge Water block
   • Flow TX Plus
2. NZXT
   
   • Avatar 2600 DPI gaming mouse
   • Sentry 2 touch screen fan controller
   • 4 120mm fans. (2 solid black, 1 black with white blades, 1 clear with blue LED
3. Plextor
   
   • PX-880SA DVD/CD Super Multi Writer
   • PX-B320SA Blu-Ray reader / DVD and CD Super Multi Writer

Nice score Oneslow! Looks like christmas came late this year.

We used to use those cases for a customer workstation (not the + version). One in five showed up damaged. It was almost always one of the doors.

Has Intel contacted you yet? I may need to make another call...

I have not heard anything from intel yet. I just figured they had their hands full with CES this week.

I will contact TT about the damage after CES is over. (My contact is actually running the booth this week)

i really cant wait to see this finished...

just about every case ive ordered has come in the first time like that all droped and broke. i try to buy my cases from somewhere i can go and pick it up at now. :)

Well out of all the cases we have reviewed in the last year this is the first to come in damaged. I am sure this instance is not Thermaltake's fault as the drop or whatever it was was enough force to break the very thick corner of the styrofoam into several pieces. My bet was it was dropped from the loading ramp of a plane or crushed by something very heavy being sat on top of it.

I would have denied shipment of the case due to damage but UPS did their classic "set it on the porch, tap very lightly 2 times on the door and then run to the truck as fast as you can" trick. I heard the taps and the truck but by the time I could make it from my living room to my front door (about 50 feet) the truck was already pulling out of my driveway.

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Originally Posted by Oneslowz28

Well out of all the cases we have reviewed in the last year this is the first to come in damaged. I am sure this instance is not Thermaltake's fault as the drop or whatever it was was enough force to break the very thick corner of the styrofoam into several pieces. My bet was it was dropped from the loading ramp of a plane or crushed by something very heavy being sat on top of it.

I would have denied shipment of the case due to damage but UPS did their classic "set it on the porch, tap very lightly 2 times on the door and then run to the truck as fast as you can" trick. I heard the taps and the truck but by the time I could make it from my living room to my front door (about 50 feet) the truck was already pulling out of my driveway.

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Haha.. sneaky bastards. You should have called them up and asked when they were going to deliver the case... "It never made it to me!"

This is why whenever possible I ask for signature confirmation. That way a) they can't leave it on my doorstep for hours to be taken by anyone walking by, and b) they can't run away and pretend that any damages happened after they dropped it off.

I spent some time last night tearing down the LCD screen I will be using on the front of the case. I would like to thank Drum Thumper for providing me with this screen via the TBCS TGIMBOEJ. The screen was intended to be attached to a PS2 making the gaming console portable. I apologize for the fuzzy pics. The module I use to handle images on my website is resizing my photos and the end result is a little fuzzy. I am working on fixing this problem.

The PS2 Screen

Tearing down the screen was quite simple. There were 6 screws I had to remove and then the back cover lifted off reveling the guts. Seen in this photo is the actual LCD module, sound controller board, two speakers, and another controller board that I am assuming was used to further process the sound output from the PSU.

Everything removed. I will only be using the LCD module. The rest will go in my electronics junk box for future hacking.

The actual screen measures 4 5/8" wide. With the metal case it measures very close to 5 1/2"

Diagonally the screen measures close to 5 3/4"

The back of the LCD screen module is where the connector is located. Drum Thumper provided me with the pin out schematic and I spent the night confirming that it works. It is easily interfaced with a D-Sub connection and a 12v supply from a 4pin molex. More on this later and I will post a schematic for all to see and reference. The screen is a Sharp LM6Q401 and the dimensions on it can be found here.

Finally I would like to show you some of the damage done to the Thermaltake Armor+ case during shipping. Thermaltake is sending me a replacement plastic piece.

The Ultra X4 850W PSU came in this afternoon. Big thanks to Drum Thumper for shipping it to me after the mixup. Love the box of peanuts man.

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Originally Posted by Oneslowz28

The Ultra X4 850W PSU came in this afternoon. Big thanks to Drum Thumper for shipping it to me after the mixup. Love the box of peanuts man.

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Curtis told me you got the box and wondered why it cost $21 to ship it. I spent a year in e-commerce and I know first hand how stchuff gets (mis)handled in that environment. So I made it a point to get it to you in one piece. FWIW, it came to me in a similar sized box and had two crumpled up sheets of brown paper for padding.

I also love the fact that this worklog has gone ~10 pages or so and all you have managed to do is tear a LCD screen apart lol.