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!

Im guessing they have a sliver too?

They make a opaque silver paint, but the beauty of this line is that the paint is noting more than a surface color that is transparent, allowing features under it to show through.

Which is what makes anodized metal look cool.

*ding*
There you have it!

This is a bit glossier than anodized metals, but it is still a great effect! :D

hmm interesting. I may have to pick up a few cans...need to get some time to mod again. Been busy to no end latly.

yeah, I may have to pick some up too

The last piece is drying tonight for the front panel, but it is the logo piece, so here is the front of the Centurion5:

Before:

And after:

I hope you do something with that black grill on the front....it's just screaming "MOD ME!"
just y'know, something to bring out the front panel a bit.

I'm muddling a few ideas around, however my wife specifically requeated that I do not make this mod overly complicated.

.....

We'll see! ;)

There Is No Overly Complicated!!!

That looks pretty nice.
and Nothing is complicated if you put enough time and effort into it.

That is looking fantastic! I'm still keen on the wolf silhouette but just had a new thought, what about one in stainless (look at least) metal on the front grille. I made this from a picture on google to give you an Idea of what I mean

Feel free to use that as an outline or whatever if you want. Anyway, it's looking great so far, so keep up the good work!

*EDIT*

I was feeling a little creative so I actually mocked up what I was thinking about with one of your photos... enjoy

yes, that looks brilliant. maybe a moon in the top right corner?

I really like the silhoutte, it should look great. The only problem, (in my opinion) is that at the moment it looks a bit squashed. The wolf looks as though it has been crushed a bit by the side panel. It would look fine if the case was just 2, or even 1 optical bays shorter. But this is just my opinion and I realise that this is just a mockup so I look forward to seeing what you actually do. Good luck.

Wow guys! Thanks for the ideas! That looks awfully nice! I'll need to give that some serious thought!

(And I think you might have the same image I was going to use for the side panel window cut out! I'll need to compare once I get home!)

Thanks for the replies folks! I'm gonna keep rolling on this!
Very good ideas!

Your front bezel wolf has inspired me to approach another take on the wolf references on the front bezel...

This was my inspiration behind the case (Smooth Creations BEAUTIFUL case painting link... )

And if you notice the art work on the front bezel? I'm not going to use paint for that, but likely some form of brushed alu/paint and lighting... maybe a power LED or hard drive light? ;)

Using a similar technique that I used on bling with sanded acrylic beneith the paws that are cut from alu? Might use spacers between the two layers... dunno yet... but man the ideas are flowing!

THANKS GUYS!!!!

Let me just say, that Coolermaster likes rivets! ;)

9 of those little boogers on the 3.5" drive rack alone! And they were *strong* too! Broke one of my new bits while I was trying to whittle one of the rivets out! :evil:

Oh well...

Here is my story for what I am doing right now.
The frame is going to match the bezel colors. It will also hopefully match it's smoothness (this is likely to be the death of me, but we'll see...). So, to match the color, the base metal needs to be about the same brightness as the alum on the front trim.
Uhmmm....

That ain't it.... ;)

So... how can I brighten this thing up! Start off with a good dose of Adhesion Promoter, then a dark grey primer coat:

let that sit for a hour or so.... lightly sand it with some 220 to get as much of the heavy texture down on most of the viewable areas, then I use what I never *ever* thought I'd use on one of my mods... rattle can Chrome paint... :lol:

There is a time and place for this kind of paint, and I just found the *ideal* place and time to use this stuff! We all know that a truly chrome finish is impossible with this stuff, but I remembered that this stuff, if given a decent base, will reflect pretty well.... and *that* was all I wanted!

....a decent reflective or bright surface that I can apply the X-Metals paint over, so that it will reflect like the front trim! or a bit more! I'm not looking for a Chrome finish, I'm looking for semi reflective, but imitating a metal surface... and I got that in spades! I'm going to pick up another can of the Duplicolor chrome to even up some of the spots, but after this dries, and I wipe it down, I'll cover up all of the shiny frame bits with the purple X-Metals paint!

I think the case frame is going to look niiiiice this time tomorrow!
;)

Well, I mocked mine up, to test out the fans placement and noise, as well as to see how well the components fit together. *Please* pay no attention to the unevenness in the internals color. I only wanted a basic covering on the internals, as I have another plan for that area. This was just to see how well the fans lit up the case, and see that the colors worked well together.

2 quick surprises that are going in this machine (hopefully) and my other machine (blingGreen).

I think these just look... SO COOL! (Totally, no pun intended...)
More later!

Very nice so far. Keep it up. Love the colour scheme.

the internal paint is nice

The purple color that you are painting your case looks a lot like the purple on the box. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

*insert X-files theme song here*

You should definately paint the Optical and FD drive facias in the purple. You should be able to match them in the same as you did with the case internals. I am really looking forward to seeing the wolf mural.

The optical will be stealthed, and I have no plans for purpling the floppy bezel. I dont want it standing out. As of right now, my front bezel plans are running the gammut!

I need to get them out of my head and into a scenario on paper to see what is going to work, and where!

Thanks for the responses folks!

And the purple box = purple on my case is nothing more than a HYOOJ co-winkydink....
;)

...on with a small update:

My front panel Firewire/USB cables, the front "mic in/speaker out" plugs and the 80mm front intake fan. I used a spiral wrap to pull the USB/Firewire cables together, I may include the mic/speakers line depending upon where the connector is on the mother board. Reading the manual now to see if I can plan out some more cable management before the board arrives!

This is my rear 120mm exhaust fan and the motherboard front button bundle (power switch/reset/hd act/power LED). I spiral wrapped the button bundle and will be trying an experiment with them to see if I can disguise them. The spiral wrap may not stay. But to be sure I did not have spurts of unexpected cable colors coming between the twists, I sleeved the bundle in a black cable sleeve. I also sleeved the 120mm fan, and will likely vinyl dye the white end cap.

The DVD Burner is now stealthed. I still have to rig up a button interface (which may be a bit difficult due to the front mesh panel construction) but the mesh fits perfectly! I had to cut off the side legs of the bezel plate (these things actually screw in to the front bezel frame. 2 screws remove it, then it is latched in place by notches on the side walls of the front bezel frame.), and then put it in my bench vice to give it a good "hug" to lower the height of the piece and the width of the piece. It was designed to be snug up against the other front plates, but "being snug" and "opening an optical device tray" are not good in the same sentence. So, by gently tweaking the front plate, I took enough of the dimensions down to allow it a tiny, immeasurable ammount of room. Enough for the tray mechanism to eject properly, and then close properly... without scratching or catching on anything else. I like the result!

The top pic, the black velcro tape causes a bit of a reflection, but trust me, in real life, you cannot see that it is there. The flash highlights the tape a little bit, but in normal light, you cannot see it!

looks very neat.

Very nice stealthing. Can't wait to see more.

I love the paint, very nice job. I like the chassis too.

Thanks guys... gone for a week on family vacation. Will be next week before the remaining updates.
Ciao!

Great Job so far !!! :)

That is a great case to use to mod with. I have the same case :). Tech-daddy, was the case wobbly with just the 3 1/2 bays removed? I was wanting to remove my 3 1/2 bays to allow more view, and tempted to find ways to support the case and move my 3 1/2 devices to other places in the case.