Alright. I purchased a laptop from a fellow TBCS member before the school year and I've been using it for notes and sometimes gaming since. It's served me well, but since the day I opened the box, I've noted something.
I simply hate how it looks.
I have bumper stickers on it to cover up that horribly large blue rectangle on the cover. It's annoying.
Luckily, I got hold of another, although not properly functioning, Inspiron 5100. Same model and everything. The idea was to pull the panels off of the broken one, mod them, then when they're completed, assemble it onto the working one.
Another mod might be swapping the mainboards -- my school laptop has no functioning audio whereas the "broken" (it needs a hd and a battery, I have both, and the screen could use replacing, again, I have one) laptop might have working audio.
On to the good stuff, the design.
The mod will be pretty centered around this one patch, as it's the only real place that's visible at all times and pretty much worth it. I might paint the keys so you can only see the slightly raised lettering and I might put a design on the inside, but I really just want to do that outer cover. The multiple ideas I've had are:
Industrial-ish. Put panels and make them look like they're rusting. The only problem with this is that the laptop lives in a backpack with things like... spiral bound notebooks. I might be getting a new backpack (one with a place for laptops to be safe), but if I don't, this is a concern. I don't want it falling apart.
Camo paintjob. Simple, easy, effective. I'd do this, clearcoat it and off we go. Not the most unique thing but whatever.
Stenciled logo or something. Paint the blue section black or white (yet to decide, or maybe even a better blue), then make a stencil to put on it. It'd have to be something cool that I wouldn't mind having for quite some time.
All three ideas mean bondoing over the Dell logo (it's inset so this isn't a problem), as well as paint, sanding, clearcoat, etc.
The laptop looks like this:
and it's a 15.4" laptop iirc so I've got a bit of room to work with (13" diag probably, I'll get better measurements up later).
Any and all ideas and comments are welcome. Help me make my boring, bland laptop something that people will envy. Something unique.
If I get a good enough suggestion (and some dosh, although I have sandpaper, bondo, and razorblades here, three of the five things needed for stencils), I'll go ahead and kick off this project. Oh, and I'm taking an Art class now with a pretty chill teacher which means I might even get to use the school's supplies, which is a whole slew of stuff. As long as it can be clear coated we're good.
Cheers,
Omega