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
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.
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Originally Posted by Cookies N' Milk
