Project: Rivendell

[Loki]

I like the topic on this mod!!! Want updates, or case sketches

[artoodeeto]

I'll provide them at some point. I have a very clear picture in my head of what it'll look like, but since I'm going to exhibit my sandcrawler at the Exploratoreum museum in February, I need to get that done first before I can shift focus to this project. If I can pull off what I see in my head, this one won't disappoint

[artoodeeto]

I like the topic on this mod!!! Want updates, or case sketches

Well, it's only been a bit over a year. I've returned to this one, at least for the moment. The supplies to finish it will be pricey (clay, epoxy, brushable latex, tree/foliage materials, etc etc), so they'll have to wait til I have a job again, but I thought I could at least finally make the case itself. The design is, at the moment, somewhat simple and spacious. The idea is to leave some extra room so if we switch it over to water cooling there'll be room for a pump, res and radiator. It also needs to fit along the top of my fiancee's roll-top desk and/or my hutch top on my desk, both of which are well over 2 feet long and about 11 inches deep.

The plan is to have the landscape sculpture of mountains, cliffs, trees, etc and the model of Rivendell buildings atop the case, with cliffs cascading down the front (with waterfalls) to a river below. The sides and back extend above the top of the case to give me something to build the mountains against; the sides only partially extend up since it would look artificially contained if the entire side piece went all the way up. It will need to have the impression that the canyon and river extend out to either side of what I depict in the model.

At this point I do not plan on the landscape extending down the outer sides of the case. This is partly because I'll have air vent holes on each side, but also so that I can mount a radiator to one side if I ever need to.

The only major design bit left to figure out is how to make the computer parts easily accessible so I can troubleshoot and upgrade without it taking all day just to get the case apart. I'm thinking of making the rear panel hinged, and then perhaps mounting everything inside on a board that can slide out. Any thoughts or other ideas are appreciated!

And finally...the sketches. They'll need some refinement, and I'll probably make the case just a hair bigger than it appears here. But for the moment, it's about 2 feet long, 10 inches deep (not counting the base that sticks out), and 7 inches tall with the rear and sides extending up to 12" high.

The stuff in the case - Abit ATX m/b, AMD 4400 dual core, Zalman 9500 CPU cooler, 2.5" SATA 160GB HD, SLI Geforce 7800GT's, Soundblaster, 1GB RAM, Samung DVD burner in external case w/USB, and a Mustek 600W PSU. The bits sticking off the PSU and HD represent the plugs, but not the cords since the cords are flexible. There's also 3 120mm fans in there - the two on the right blowing air in and the one on the left blowing air out. The PSU fan will suck outside air in from behind the case and vent it out the same side as the single 120mm vent fan.

X-ray version -

And with the top and front hidden:

[Munty]

Hey this sounds like a really nice project. As more of a modeller than a modder myself and as a big LOTR fan I'll be following this so I hope you've tied up all your other loose ends and can work on this one now!!!

Any chance of landscape sketches or are you still toying with possible arrangements? Would love to see a few if you have any!

[artoodeeto]

Hey this sounds like a really nice project. As more of a modeller than a modder myself and as a big LOTR fan I'll be following this so I hope you've tied up all your other loose ends and can work on this one now!!!

Any chance of landscape sketches or are you still toying with possible arrangements? Would love to see a few if you have any!

Thanks! I probably *should* do landscape sketches, yes... if you look back at the from-the-film shots on the first page of this thread, I have photos of the Rivendell model. That's more or less what I'm going for, but I'll need to do some adaptation for this case. Actual landscape construction sadly is entirely dependent on when I find a job. Could be a month, could be a year... I just don't know

I also realized I needed to make enough space for a full size video card, while leaving room for a potential future watercooling. You'll see in the sketchups below that I might have figured out how to make everything accessible. Again, thoughts/comments are appreciated

[Kayin]

Haven't forgotten about that offer, let me get back home (currently living away from home because of doctors) and I'll box up what I have and send it to you...

[Munty]

Looks like an ingenious arrangement! Should help you in construction too (theoretically) as the case and hardware can be worked on pretty much independently with your nifty drawer design!

I have the Rivendell pics open as I'm writing this and by God I wouldn't know where to start... The trouble is it's all one big complex so it's either all or nothing and to rebuild that much fragile elven architecture in such a small scale would be a killer.

How about the large building in the first image? It's been a long time since reading the book or watching the film so please forgive my ignorance but is that a stand-alone structure? It's still breathtaking and very intricate but working on just one structure like that would allow a larger scale and more scenery (and scenery is easier than buildings lol)

Tell you what would be a very easy (but far less impressive) construction project. Weathertrop... It's one of LotRs most recognisable scenes and I know plenty of wargamers have built it before!

But sorry I'm hijacking your thread, I'd much rather see Rivendell than something as dull as stone ruins! Think I may dust off my trilogy boxset and watch the scenes that show these buildings. Keep us posted with any more designs!

EDIT : Just checked the Google Warehouse for sketchups of Rivendell and found a few of varying loyalty to the film. Bearing in mind the film is of varying loyalty to the book I think that makes any one of them fair play!

The results are here http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...=m&btnG=Search but the one that looks most like your screen caps is too new for me to load as I only have V.6 and it was made in 7.

Check out the ones by Sauron89 for a film faithful but unfinished larger structure or 2 by wiccan for finished, low-res clusters of some very attractive elven structures.

[artoodeeto]

One last sketchup (I'll look over these other couple replies later - gotta head out the door in a few). I refined all the case pieces and laid them out on shapes representing a couple plywood sheet scraps I have, and a full 4' x 2' sheet that I need to buy. I wanted to make sure I only needed 1 more sheet rather than 2. The purplish parts will be kept until assembly is done, then discarded. I *do* still want to refine the measurements slightly - things like making the depth 11" instead of 10 5/8", that sort of thing.

[Mark_Hardware]

Nice to see I'm not the only one that takes a long a$$ break from a build lol

[Munty]

Looks good and at least you're looking to round UP case size instead of down! Should be no problem if you've got spare material! I'm undecided on material to use for my case at the moment, was thinking of getting my hands on some styrene sheet and building out of that. I won't need much but the base will need to be sturdy as it's quite long and only about 4cm deep lol What are the most common materials used around here by people building a case from scratch ratehr than modding?