"As such, it starts yet again... with a thought... a smokey whisper of inspiration that quickly reveals a raging fire of actions and calculations...." Tech-Daddy, 2005 -------------------------------------------- lupine adj : of or relating to or characteristic of wolves n : any plant of the genus Lupin; bearing erect spikes of usually purplish-blue flowers [syn: lupin] Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Lupine \Lu"pine\, n. [L. lupinus, lupinum, apparently fr. lupinus belonging to a wolf, fr. lupus a wolf; perh. so called because it was supposed to exhaust the soil: cf. F. lupin. Cf. Wolf.] (Bot.) A leguminous plant of the genus Lupinus, especially L. albus, the seeds of which have been used for food from ancient times. The common species of the Eastern United States is L. perennis. There are many species in California. -------------------------------------------- For the sake of clarification, I'm not modding as a tribute to a plant... ok? I'm going to be dealing with wolves here. Beautiful, majestic.... and my wife's *favorite* animal ever. Wolves... So, I wrap up blingGreen... and she asks me, "So when are you going to make me a cool case like that?" , to which I respond, "What would you like?" This started off as a "very" easy case.... but not much on the "OOoooo..." factor after I thought about it for a few days. So, I modded my plans, and have begun what will be known as "Project : Lupine" Constraints: simple color scheme (purple and black) no "overly complicated" cuts How best can I relay my wife's love of wolves while maintaining an elegant simplicity that reflects the dusk/night time environment that they are usually active in? (Again, the purple and black will assist here). So, I start with a Coolermaster Centurion 5 (CAC-T05) in it's basic silver and black. They make it with a blue trim that appears anodized, which is what gave me this idea, dye the trim a violet purple. All aluminium on the front, the side trim, the button housing, the buttons, the lower port cover... make all of the the same beautiful shade of purple. But dont stom there, match that up with the same shade going onto the frame of the case. I want to keep any exposed aluminium... exposed. I like the look of the brushed alu. The texture and lines are just classy in my eyes. So, anywhere there is alu that is silver in color, it will be treated to a clear primer, then subjected to a purple treatment, and followed up with several coats of clear (for durability). The window is going to be cool. I have, in my mind's eye, a multi layer diorama where the scene actuallly starts by being cut out of the case side, with other facets of it residing in the acrylic to be lit up by off edge LED's. Specifically, I will have the profile of a howling wolf and the terrain that it is standing on (the top pf a rocky cliff...) shaped into the window's edge work on the case. Clear acrylic will be mounted behind it, but not just any acrylic. The acrylic wll have several high resolution imaged laser etched into the surface... a full moon (that the before mentioned wolf will be howling to), a ghostly wolf bust apparition off to the side, seemingly floating to the side of the window, and some fog/northern lights in the sky. The moon will be side lit with white LED's making it stand out all by itself. I am hoping that the glow of white from the Moon will also give a faint bit more resolution to the wolf bust in the sky on the side. Color for the internal lighting is, yep, purple. I have matching purple coolermaster LED fans (80mm and 120mm) so the color will be consistant. I also have some purple (not UV) CCFL's on order, and we'll see how that goes. So... after careful deliberation, and thinking... I dove in. Here are the initial pics of the carnage:
unsuspecting victim: Close up of the lower bezel and the ports: Once I figured out how to safely get the front bezel off, this poor case never stood a chance! Here I was reminding myself of where the cables routed so that I could put it all back together.. Out popped the switch and port housings, nice and easy... The "emptied" front of the case..... Topless!!!! Taking off the side trim on the fron bezel (drop 6 screws and off they came! It was a dream come true.) That is all I got to so far, I firmly believe that this mod is going to move pretty quicly, especially once I get the artwork finalized and the materials lined up to be etched! Anyway, look out world! Here I come again!!!
Looks good so far! Subscribed! I look forward to seeing how the window will turn out, but until then; keep up the good work!
Very Interesting The more I see of these Centurion Cases, the more I like them for their potential. It is definitely on my list for my next rig which will be mostly internet and spreadsheet work for me and my g/f. Right now I have to finish my gaming rig which is a Lian-Li. I actually am a big wolf fan also and have been trying to come up with a design for my Lian Li's window and had kicked around either an etched wolf head howling or a stencil of the howling wolf on a rocky cliff. But after reading your idea, you have made me humble and not want to do that without trying the whole moon idea. I definitely want to see how that turns out. Good luck with the mod!
Thank you all for the kind replies! BShep26 - Please, do your work! Just because someone else does something like what you are doing, the executions will be different. Our creative differences will make for different decisions and different outcomes. Heck, I should not have made blingGreen, due to the common theme of the flames, but I did anyway, and I believe I came out with a very unique and inspiring mod! ... even though it *did* use flames! So please... mod on! (I expect to see your worklog started in a week or two, ok? ) Now, on to the update: After I had removed the panels, here was what I was left with to paint: I laid them out on a piece of wood that I had put some screws through to hold the buttons off of the painting surface, then I hit them with 2-3 coats of the clear primer.... 1st coat of color: I then let them dry for a few hours, then I wiped them off with a towel to get some of the residue off. 2nd coat: After a few hours, and a wipe down here is the result. I'm testing the clearcoat out on a scrap piece of alu that I treated with this X-Metal. I just want to be sure that it does not cloud the finish. If it does not, I'll shoot these pieces with 2-3 layers of clearcoat, then some polishing compund to take any orange peal that might happen with the clearcoat. This will be the same colors that the side accents will be on the bezel, and the same color of the internal chassis.
I really love the color mate. I've been working on a PS1, and have been spraying that a metallic purple as well. I love this color much better, what brand and specific color are you using?
This is Krylon X-Metals purple. I have sprayed a scrap piece of alu with the Duplicolor Metalcast shades of blue, green, yellow, red, and Duplicolor chrome, as well as the X-Metals purple. I know that Duplicolor has a purple, but I have not tested that one yet. It really is a nice color! Thanks for the response!
*howl* (that's what they call the sound a wolf makes right? ) like the paint, like the case, like the project, (would) like to see more cheers!
I was browsing the wallpapers over at Deviantart and saw this one and thought of your project. Nice wolf and its in purple. It won't load on my computer but may by just mine. http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/9805321/
kLLr - more is on the way, I promise! Graeth1 - I can't get the link to come up either. would love to see it!
I don't know why it isn't loading but if you google DeviantART+Deligaris and look in his gallery you can see it, just can't bring up the full image. Here try this link, its his homepage http://www.deligaris.com/art/color30.jpg
Oh my God... THAT... is just about PERFECT!!!!! Wow! Thank you! If I orient the moon properly on the etch (to the left of this) it will simulate the highlights that are present in the pic on the wolf's head.... OOooooo Thank you very much!