First Mod, Resistance

Project "Resistance"

This is my first real mod. Everything up to now has been simple stuff like painting my cases.

I came up with the idea for a Star Trek themed case about the end of December last year. I had a few concept drawings and what not but did not have the time or a big enough case for what I wanted to do. My case at the time was a little Lian-Li PC-6070. Just a touch small for doing a big mod ;). I bought a new SilverStone TJ09 case back in the middle of June. I was happy with it, looked great, lots of room, but the plain black case was boring me. It needed some color to it. Time for a paint job! I started playing with some colors and themes. I took a quick look at some of my drawings and ideas. A Borg themed case was right at the top of the pile. I had the time to do a large scale mod now, and I really liked the looks of this, plus I am a Star Trek fan so I decided to do it :). I did a few more drawings, figured out paint colors and what supplies I would need.

On day one of the project I went down to Home Depot, got a few things I needed for some of the more unique aspects of the mod, went home, and pulled out the tools.

Picture time ^^

Simple idea for doing those plugs in the borg ships. BX cable and a rubber plug. Worked very well.

I am going to have LEDs running inside the BX cables and I want it to show through holes. Took out the Dremel and went to work. It was rather tricky to do because if you make the cuts too big the cable will just break. Good thing I have lots of it ;).

I took the whole case apart for painting. Nice thing is that there are hardly any rivets, and the few that are in the case do not need to be drilled out to take it apart. Made life way easier since all I needed was a screwdriver.

Took awhile to get the paint the way I wanted it. I am pretty happy with it right now. There is still a bunch of painting that needs to be done after I get the entire case built. Going to pull out the airbrush and do some detailed work.

I painted the inside of the case a steel grey.

Wasn't sure how well the BX cable would take the paint. Turns out it works just fine.

That was the end of day one for me. Painting it took awhile, but turned out great. Day two, the fun begins... Had to put the thing back together.

Started the day with a Coke and some etching. Every case needs a name, and now this case has one ^^.

Trying out some LEDs in the BX cable. Two problems with it. First, feeding 5mm LEDs into BX cable and getting them to stay where you want them is a bugger to do. Second, it didn't turn out too well. I only had two super bright LEDs left and well they didn't show up very well with in the cable, and I forgot a resistor. When they got hooked up to the 12volt the kinda got fried... The only LEDs I have left are some crappy dim ones I use for hard drive and power lights. I pulled some EL wire out of another case and gave that a try. It seemed to work, so I ordered some green EL wire for the cables.

Anyone who was seen an episode of Star Trek that has the Borg in it knows their ships have a rather unique design. Big flying boxes. They almost look like they have holes all over the ship with the layered metal hull. I wanted to recreate that look on this case. I ran down to the model store to find a Borg Cube plastic model. Sad thing is, for what ever reason the company that owns the rights to Star Trek models doesn't seem to be doing a very good job at making a large variety of Star Trek ships. I looked in three different stores for the cube without any luck. When I asked at the front desk to see if I could order one in, I was pretty much told good luck finding one. On a good note, I did not come back empty handed. One of the stores I went to had some VERY interesting things. Mainly 12Volt motors. If I can figure out how, I might just add a motorized side panel door to this build :). I am taking ideas on how to go about doing this as I have never worked with electric motors before.

Ok so no Borg cube model. But I still wanted to recreate the layered panels... I pulled out some wood shims that we use for leveling cabinets and doors. I cut a few up and gave it a shot. It appears I have just found my panels! I will screw plexi glass to the outside of the case where ever I want the layered panels, and then epoxy the wood to the plexiglass. I would have just screwed a base layer of shims to the case without the plexiglass, but the shims are so thin that they like to split when screwed, drilled, cut, even touched ;).

So after messing around with the wood shims I remembered what my main goal of the day was... Build the damned case, not all this little stuff.

All the little screws that I had so neatly sorted had some how dumped all over the floor. Took far too long to figure out what screw went where. But after a bit of work I had it built by the end of day two.

I went back to my room to fiddle around and think of a few new ideas for the case. Looking around the room I found a perfectly good powersupply that worked just fine but it has been bugging me for ages. The moelx plugs on it like to fall out of stuff… So I grabbed a hammer and screwdriver and decided to ruin something instead of fix it for once :).

And that is when I found these inside of it. Some how they look perfect for this case, now I just need a place to mount them.

Here are some pictures showing my plans for that BX cable.

I have not drilled the holes for mounting the plugs at this point so packing tape had to do!

Ok so on day three I ordered the parts I needed. LEDs, cable sleeves, heat shrink wrap, molex plus and so on. I would have bought the LEDs and what not here, but the only place I could find super bright LEDs sold them at $5 a pop! Nearly shat myself over that because I have found them ten times cheaper online. I most likely would have bought them if I only needed one or two, but I need 20 or more, plus a few extras for later projects.

Did not get much done on the third day. Had cabinets to restore so my case went on hold for a few hours while I did that. I built a spiffy little case for my LEDs to hook up to. Wired it all up, had my resistors in there and all the rest of the goodies so that I don’t fry my LEDs again.

Only to tear it apart in anger because the stupid LED on the switch did not work. Have to take it back at some point.

I went to drill the holes for the BX cable mounts, but for whatever reason all five of the drills in the shop including the one I bought for myself were all taken to a job… So I was stuck. I sat on a pale of drywall mud and played around with my layered panels.

I cut out a pile more of those shims and painted them. I didn’t think they looked very well but at this point they would have to do. Without a drill I was kinda stuck still. Waiting on the electronics to get here and until then I am at a stand still.

I got all pissy at the fact that I was unable to continue on the case at the time I went down stairs to search the web for a Borg cube model. I found one model out of the many sites I went on. Made me extremely happy when I found it. It is made up of six 8”x8” panels and is exactly what I was looking for. So I pulled out the credit card thinking there is no way it could be more than $50 ( all the other Star Trek models at the hobby stores were in the $20-$50 range.) So I take a look at the price and I almost died. $125US plus shipping. I REALLY want to get it, but spending $125 on a model only to chop it into little pieces seems so wrong. Also the fact that I am way over budget on this mod had something to do with me deciding to wait a little bit to get it. I will be buying it at some point, just that it might be a week or it might be a month down the road. Anyone care to make a donation? ;)

Tomorrow I might drill the BX cable mounts, or I might hold off on doing that sort of stuff until the LEDs get here.

Anyways, that is the start of my mod. In case no one noticed, I have kept putting the drilling and cutting of the case off. I had just spent $340 on it and well, its like the model… feels so wrong to spend a decent amount of money on something only to chop it up LOL.

I am open to any ideas some of you might have. Like I said, I have yet to take a power tool to the case so there is still time to make a major change with relative ease.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cookies N' Milk

Anyways, that is the start of my mod. In case no one noticed, I have kept putting the drilling and cutting of the case off. I had just spent $340 on it and well, its like the model… feels so wrong to spend a decent amount of money on something only to chop it up LOL.

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I too, feel the same way about cases. I cannot justify (at the moment anyways) spending a rather sizable chunk of money on a case just so I can chop away on it.

I do like your theme for this mod, along with what you have accomplished so far.

+rep, and I'll be watching!

Thumper

Nice work, looks like it's going to be an interesting case.

Lookin good so far...:up:

I've been thinking of a Borg mod for a while now, so gonna be watching this with interest.
Good Luck. And keep up the good work.

Remeber

Resistance is Futile, you will be Modded!

Sorry, couldn't resist :D

looks good so far...

looks good, I like the cable idea.

this mod has some potential there. you might want to cruise through ebay from some of those star trek models at lower prices :D

This looks pretty cool.

Got the internal goodies for this mod. Specs are below:
Evga 680i SLI Mainboard
Two Evga 8800GTS 640MB graphic cards
Intel C2D E6600
OCZ Platinum DDR2 800MHz 2 gigs
Two Seagate 320GB hard drives
Enermax Liberty 620watt PSU
Windows XP/ Vista dual booted, XP on one hard drive, Vista on the other.
Coolit Eliminator cooling system from my last build.

I had to RMA the mainboard... It died on me when I was doing some overclocking. And the Coolit system needs to be RMAed too for the second time... I just got it back and already it is screwing up. Something is wrong with the control board on it :(

I didn't have time to do any work on the mod today but I am hoping to get something done on it tomorrow... Like maybe mount that BX cable ;)

I mounted the top BX cable today.

Trying out the BX clips.

Painting the BX clips and doing touch ups on the cable.

All that needs to be done are a few touch ups on the cable and clips. I will paint the screw heads at the same time just so that they don't stand out so much.

I will mount the side BX cables/plugs tomorrow and maybe if I have a chance I will get some more paint and do the touch ups.

Last night I came up with an idea for a back fan duct that I may do if I get the chance. I am going to do drawings for it and post it later.

A quick template for the back fan duct.

Hopefully I can get some sheet metal tomorrow and do the cutting for it.

All the LEDs and stuff should be here within the next week. I will have almost everything else done on the case by then except the model panels which I will be ordering very soon I hope.

Side panel cable is on now.

I'm cutting the back fan duct tomorrow.

lookin good !!! (reminds me of thegreatsatans' matrix case...)

So I found a bundle of UV green cable sleeve and a thing of Green EL wire that is sound sensitive :o I guess I didn't need to order those parts in... Could have saved myself $30 but oh well.

Once I get the other EL wire and LEDs I can finish up most of this mod. Here is my list of things to do.

• Resleeve all cables
• Make rear fan duct
• Run the rest of the EL wire through a cable coming off the fan duct
• Wire and position LEDs
• Mount Borg cube panels when I get them
• Do detailed painting

If I feel like it I will do a motorize side panel door. But I would have to do a lot of research to get that to work ;)

So last night while talking to a friend on MSN we came up with a great idea. A borg control panel made out of plexi, mounted to the front of the case. I would have a white CCFL behind, and one of the buttons would be the power switch.
Here is the control panel I am talking about:

That would be mounted right here:

I would have to round the plexiglass, and have parts of it blacked out.

:)

Border around the control panel... made out of cardboard.


Now what do I make it out of :?? I was thinking some sort of plastic but I dunno :dead: Anyone got any idea?

You could take your cardboard mockup and fiberglass it, or you could use a whole bunch of bondo.

This is coming together nicely, +rep!

I have it on good authority that polystyrene is a good material for shaping, it would be ideal for making that border. I am going to order some out of the website Eclecticos listed in the modders supply thread in the chatterbox, it's actually reasonably priced.

I found a lot of this stuff in the shop. Have no idea what it is used for but nobody said they needed it so its mine :rolleyes:

I'm going to give it a shot for that front part. This + Bondo should work. I hope :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cookies N' Milk

I found a lot of this stuff in the shop. Have no idea what it is used for but nobody said they needed it so its mine :rolleyes:

I'm going to give it a shot for that front part. This + Bondo should work. I hope :D

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That'll work. Shape it, and bondo over it. This is looking really good. + rep.

Done shaping it. First time I have ever done this and it looks pretty good.

I won't ever do this again in my room... damned stuff makes a mess. Anyways, I will bondo it later tonight.

Next question. How am I going to secure this to the case? Shoulda been thinking of that from the start lol. I think an epoxy of somesort would work but I am not sure.

I just thought of a great idea for the front panel. Rather than get all fancy with trying to recreate the Borg control panel buttons, I took these:

Cut them up... and poof! This is what I got:

That worked really really well and saves me a lot of time.

Old keyboards are so useful :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cookies N' Milk

Next question. How am I going to secure this to the case? Shoulda been thinking of that from the start lol. I think an epoxy of somesort would work but I am not sure.

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A couple ways should work--super glue or hot glue, then bondo, and seal the edges up with the bondo.

Epoxy might work, if you have some of the scrap left, I would test it out on that first to make sure it's not going to eat it.

This is gonna be a killer mod once you're done with it. +rep as soon as I can.

wow, cookies n milk you read my mind. i was thinking of incorporating an old gutted keyboard with a window mod :D you beat me to it

nice shaping for your first time. looking forward to seeing more of your work in the future, keep it coming bro!

:D

Just gonna wait for the super bright LEDs before I mount that. I am going to have two of the dimmer LEDs always on in that and then two super brights will flash as hard drive indicators. Should be a neat effect. Other than that I will put a fancy LED bulgin switch on there for the power button, and paint it :D

That is such a great idea with the keyboards! +rep.

I may even steal that idea for a mod later.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bucko

That is such a great idea with the keyboards! +rep.

I may even steal that idea for a mod later.

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And to think I was going to throw those keyboards out! It turned out so well that I think I will be using this idea again xD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cookies N' Milk

And to think I was going to throw those keyboards out! It turned out so well that I think I will be using this idea again xD

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I think this could catch on as a trend in case mods. I saw it and was wondering where I could do something like it. I might not though, if it becomes too popular then it will defeat the purpose of some of my builds.

Quick video of the Sound activated EL wire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rapssde1Ry8

I messed up and the plexi cracked while I was drilling a hole for the power switch. Any way I can fix that? Or do I need to the the plexi out of there, shape a new one and bondo it in?

i'm not sure how well it would work, but you can try using plexi cement or weld on i think its called. it might fill in the crack and seal it. otherwise your going to have to replace it i think.

+rep for the overall look thusfar and that keaboard idea thing.. very nice!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spawn-Inc

i'm not sure how well it would work, but you can try using plexi cement or weld on i think its called. it might fill in the crack and seal it. otherwise your going to have to replace it i think.

+rep for the overall look thusfar and that keaboard idea thing.. very nice!

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I will give that a try. I might just have to redo it.

I found a better light source for the panel, but it is too long.

Scanner light anyone? It puts off a much nicer green than those LEDs. If I can't fix the plexi on the current one, I am going to redo it, but this time make it slightly taller. That way I could use the scanner light :devious: I also thought of adding notches in side the form so that I could have a BX cable coming out of it as well as a place to hold the HDD LEDs in place. Just one more reason to try again I guess :p

After taking a closer look at the crack in the plexi I don't know if it can be saved. It is almost all the way across :dead:

If I can't save it I will try making this instead:

That would be a 1:1 scaled drawing :) 18cm wide, 25cm tall. I might not do the BX cable coming out of it but I got it in the drawing just to get an idea of what it would look like.

Anyways, tomorrow I will try and find something to fix the current plexiglasss with, and if I can't then I need to go buy more.

From the looks of it . .you could cut the plexi in half and sink the ccfl down the middle,
. .and dremel the cover off the back side so it lights both sides of the plexi.

As for repairing the plexi. . you will see the cracks regardless of what you use to mend it together.

Well since I have nothing better to do I decided to pull out the model paints and do some of the more detailed work on the BX plugs.

It adds a nice little touch to the case. Kinda hard to see unless you look closely at it. If I don't like it when it is done I can always spray over it when I do the touch ups on the side panels.

Also one quick question. What do you guys think about sticking a piece of plexi between the side panel and the BX plug? The EL wire would make it look rather interesting I think.

Anyways time for bed. Gotta save the plexi tomorrow ;)

Small update...
It has been a few days since I have done any work on this. Got a few more things for the mod.
I got a bunch of UV green cable sleeve, some more EL wire (I love this stuff now), a rocker switch for the LED lights, and some black molex plugs. I got two more packages on their way, one of them should be here in the next day or two. That has my LED powerswitch, AC Ryan mesh and UV green plexi. The other package has a very expensive model, a Borg cube that is going to be cut up upon reaching me :twisted: I finally decided to just buy it after spending far too long looking for a cheaper one that would work.
Here is the page that has the model on it:
http://www.federationmodels.com/mode...ls/default.htm
It is the 6th one on the page. The detail on it is quite impressive and should look good on my mod :)

And today I got a new toy for this mod. The first fan controller I have ever bought :D

A Scythe Kama Meter that I picked up from the local computer store. Now all it needs is a paint job and cable sleeves ;)

My mesh and UV plexi should be here tomorrow or the day after. Once I get those I can break out the dremel again and get this mod close to done :)

damn thats a sexy fan controller. any worries it will not match the UVgreen acrylic or does the backlight change to green also?

+rep`ed

elbarto241, the lighting does change: theres like 10 different colors. Wow, I've been wanting that fan controller for soooo long! I actually don't know why I haven't bought it yet... Can't wait to see it in the case!

-Indybird

The fan controller has 7 colors, plus one color that changes every second. AND it has three face plates :p The only thing I do not like about it is that the button to change the colors sucks. Half the time It won't change when you press the button. Other than that I love it.

This is coming along nicely, +rep. Keep it up man!