this is also my first post, i dont have many progress shots, because i had little time to work on it when i did work on it. took me almost the whole summer to finish, because i got a new job right around the time i started building it.
This computer was built to be my mapping/compiling machine, so the theme is the hammer from Valve Hammer Editor.
the first part of my mod was the mouse and keyboard, a person from work, asked me if we had any purple keyboards when i asked her what color (black or beige) and it gave me an idea. i bought some purple pearlescent model paint at the local hobby store after being unsuccesful finding purple paint everywhere else i went.
i first painted the mouse cover, (wireless mouse so i didn't have to take the mouse all the way apart.
came out pretty good; i then painted the keyboard after taping off certain black pieces i wanted to remain black, took all the keys out wet sanded a bit, and covered it, did a second coat after some wet sanding a few days later. i dont have any progression pictures of that, because my parents took the digital camera on a vacation to Maine.
I had an excellent idea right before falling asleep one night, i would paint all the keys black, so i could learn how to type without looking better. I then though this might not be such a good idea because i wouldn't know which keys were what during the installation process. I then had the idea of uv painted letter stickers, and it would have worked if the paint didn't evaporate, plus i wanted orange lettering and the paint kept drying blue, then fading away to nothing. i put serran wrap all over the keyboard and plugged the keys back in and painted them all black. then had the folly of the stupid uv letters not working, my sister suggested using a highlighter to color the letters, and it worked but not good enough. I ended up writing all the letters down on the keys themselves and putting clearcoat over them. i had to to this quickly because the highlighter kept evaporating. It worked perfectly, without the uv lights is on, the keys look black, when its on they are a visible orange. I bought a uv led keychain light for the sole purpose of seeing the keys if i really got into some trouble.
finished keyboard and mouse:
with uv:
the next thing i started work on was the case, and it was a pretty stressful first event, cause if i screwed it up i'd have to start over, i decided to do front panel first, cause it was plastic, and i figured it would be easier to fix, i jumped right into it i first put a sucker stick into the holes of where the led lights went. the case badge area needed to be made flat so i put some plastic epoxy there, and sanded it down after it dried. the next day i cut the hammer logo into the front, i did it from a little sketch i drew on the front and memory. as you can see i messed up the front a bit by sanding too hard with too large of a grit.
this turned out to be the most frustrating piece of the case, i painted, and the rough sanding i did was extrememly easy to spot, i then in the course of about 3 weeks, wet sanded, painted, primered, until i couldn't see the godawful marks anymore, then on my final coat of black paint it orange peeled like a sob, worst orang peel i'd ever seen. so i repeated the process of sanding and wetsanding. the last and truly final coat was nerve racking.
during this process i took a hiatus from the stresses of the front, by painting the bevel the same purple as the keyboard, and making a hole for a top mounted temperature sensor, mainly for practice using the dremel on the case.
On one of my longer days after i came home from work, instead of immediately taking my clothes off and taking a nap, i put my work gear on, and went outside to do the case side, my dad said i should do the design with his angle grinder, but that proves to get too hot and i thought it might warp the side panel. so i went the dremel route; i couldve used his jisaw as well but it was too precise and i didn't want to screw it up. it took about 4 hours, because the dremel discs wore down really fast once it got hot.
although the computer was basically done i got all the components and put them into the machine and was running it for quite a while until i finally finished it.
i sanded the sharp edges off and dry sanded the whole side with a fine grit to get the bumpy orginal coat of paint off (i forget what its called) then i wet sanded it until it gripped my fingers and i couldn't feel anymore bumps. I them primered it, let it dry for 24 hours and did the first coats. it was apparently really dusty that day and alot of dust got on it. after about 3 days i wet sanded and put another couple coats on. it looked really nice and failry reflective except for a few parts where there was too much paint. i was going to redo it but later said screw it cause if it orange peeled i'd go crazy.
instead of having the holes in the case look directly inside i wanted the designs to have more of a glowing look, i eary on though i could get a metal mesh, but that ended up being harder and didn't look as good. what i really wanted was a slightly opaque piece of thin plastic. It took me a very long time to find such a thing, finally found it at an arts & crafts store by some stain glass window supplies. I put them inside the case front and just taped it there with white tape, to see how it looked before i put it more permanently inside, looked exactly how i wanted it to.
I wanted to stealth my dvd-rom cause i was really going for a low-profile look, and used double sided tape to tape it to the front of the drive, and used the smallest drill bit available and drilled a hole in the front so if i needed to open the drive i could stick a paper clip in (i otherwise just use the eject option in windows).
The original color scheme i wanted to go with was orange and green, cause on the VHE hammer icon its gold and green. the blue led light in the front of the case was there orginally and came with the case, and since i had it all put together i didn't want to pull it apart for that, i might end up doing it anyway though cause its really bright and shines into my eyes when i play games in the room in the dark.
finished mod pics:
and here is its temporary existence, it will be in the same room hooked up to the tv and widescreen lcd, but under the desk not in-between, as soon as i finish my parents new computer (of which i'm also modding)
messy room!
oh! i almost forgot the specs;
3.0ghz northwood p4 w/ HT
soyo plus dragon v1.0 mobo
380w antec psu that came with the antec case
maxtor 300gb 7,200 ata/133 w/ 16mb cache PATA
albatron geforce 6600 gt 128mb
2gb of Corsair XMS ddr400 4x(512)
some crappy dvd rom