Scratch Build – In Progress Thermaltake Invitational - Extermination by RandomDesign

Hi everyone,

its RandomDesign. For this season of the Thermaltake Invitational, I will be the representation for Germany. Contest will start about the mid of October. But I am already working heavily on the concept.

So here is a little teaser for you.
Still need to figure out some detailes and measurments.

 

Now, here are some pictures of my concept for this season.
I am going to build a Dalek from the famous British TV series Doctor Who.
The 3D model is not 100% correct, I definitly will make some changes while working.
But, you can already see a possible outcome of the project.

 

First parts for the water cooling arrived. Still need to wait for some more fittings and the rest of the hardware. But I should get it next week. Than I can go fully into modding mode

 

And there was a bunch of hardware arriving today.
Still missing some more fittings, But the essential parts are here. So Lets begin the work!

 

Now lets begin building the Dalek



First, I started out by constructing the bottom plate that will hold the entire structure.
According to my 3D model, I already knew the right measurments and could directly draw on the wooden plate.







After I checked if everything was symetrical, I cut out the shape with a jigsaw.





The borderline of thge bottom part is a seperated into two woodenpanels. Each with an 445 degree angle.
Therefore, I cut 5 cm wide panels to shape.





In order to make them fit, I directly cut them in a 45 degree angle.



Then, all the panels were glued into place. To achive an extra strong bond, I srewed each panel induvidually to the bottom plate.





And thats is the outcome so far. A lot more to do haha.

 

And a short update for the start of the week. I will try to make at least two updates each week on monday and friday.

I continiued with the panels around the bottom part and added the pieces with yet another 45 degree angle.
To make each part fit, I sanded the edges with the belt sander.





Then each panel was attached one by one. Like the other panels, I screwed and glued everything into place.







becase everythin was cut by hand, there are some little gaps in between some parts. But I will deal with in later. Next, I also will hide
the holes from the srews.

 

The last days I worked the bottom part.

I filled in all the small gaps with wood filler. I also covered the holes from the screws.





Then everything got a nice sanding. First with 80 grid sand paper and later with a sanding sponge.





Although, everything is build from wood it is my aim to hide the wooden structer and give it a more metalic look at the end.
Therefore, I sprayed on several layers of spray filler.



After everything dried, I used the blade from an utility knife to smooth out the last little gaps with wooden filler.

 

Can't stand Dr Who but I like this ! good skills man.

 

Thanks man!

Made quite some progress over the weekend.
Now that the bottom part is in its final shape, I could go one layer higher.

I constructed the wooden plate, that later will like the top layer of the bottom half.
After it was cut out, I marked the final position of the plate.





To get this plate in the right hight, I glued and screwed wooden beams in place and attached the panel on them.
Later on I also will attach a wooden beam in the front for more stability.







Just for fun, I already put the water tanks in position. As you can see, I removed the original water tank from
the pump combi and attached a bigger one. This will be looking better in the end I guess



Before starting with the doors, I created the panel that will hold the two radiators.
I used my belt sander to bevel the edges to make the doors later one fit perfectly.





I also made a short test fitting, before I cut the holes to make sure the radiators will definitly fit on the panel.





Then everything was cut out with the jigsaw.







Then the plate was glued into place. By gluing this part down, it creates more stability to the top panel as well as to the entire structure.
Lastely, the rediators were attached to check if everything is looking good.

 

And now for the doors.

I tried to construct them as best I could do and wrote down all the angles and measurements needed.
Then I cut all the piecec.





Also a fist test fit was done. It took some time to make all the pieces perfectly match each other.
Because of the angles, I got some excess on the end of each panel, but I will take care of it later.







Then, I glued all pieces together. To get enough tension on the glued edges, I taped down everything with duct tape.
In addidion, I used small screws to hold the paneles in place.

 

The Dalek is looking good.

 

After the glue dried, I started sanding down the edges.



Samller gaps were fille with wooden filler.



Unfortunately, one door did not hold as I wished. To achieve more stability, I cut horizontal slots
into the door at the edges of the panels. Then I push wooden block in to the slots and glued then in.
After everything was set. I gave the doors again a rough sanding.





Next, I cut the top edge of the door to length.







And again, the last gaps were filled and sanded down.





While the wooden filler dried on the doors, I also started to hide the wooden structure on the base structure.
Therefore, I also used spray filler and wooden filler.

 

Before building the door mount, I needed to make sure it will always close at the same position.
So I installed small wooden panels that should stop the doors at the bottom part.







Then, I cut all the neccesary parts for the door ount from aluminum.















It took some time to figure out the exact positions but it turned out very good I think.

And here are picture in closed and opend position.

 

Excellent craftsmanship with basic tools. That's not easy with all the complex angles you're working with. I'll be watching this.

 

Thanks!

As a next step, I primed the doors with multiple layers of sprayfiller to hide the wooden Structure and to create an even surface.



To achieve a little light effect on the bottom, I installed LED stripes and soldered all the parts together.















Next, I cut the "top" plate for the bottom half into shape. All the following constructions will be based on this plate, which later will be attached
to the bottom part.

 

Next up, I designed the details for the doors.



The outer rings were 3D printed to make sure I get the needed shape.







For the bulb in the middle, I simply bought decoration spheres.
Both part fit perfect together.







I sanded all the spheres down and filled them with expanding foam to make them more rigid.









Then everything was primed with plastic primer.



In the meantime all the rings were printed, they also got a first layer of primer.

 

Always awesome. I fear you may run out of storage space some day.

 

Some day lol ^^ I dont even know where to put this monster when its done.

 

Nice work.

If you had made it a little bigger then you could store stuff in the case to make room.

 

I added a second layer of black primer to the bulbs and rings.
Now I have to wait until my orderd color will arrive.





Then, I started working on the mid section. I cut polystyrene sheets into shape.
Because I had to use multiple layers, I sanded down the rough surface to make them fit perfectly on each other.





I cut every layer into the same shape as the bottom plate of the mid section.
Then, I simply tagged them together with double sticky tape.





The position for the next section was marked on top. Then I started to roughly trim down the edges.
You will get a lot of polystyrene flakes







To get the construction in its final shape, I used a rasp to remove the material.





I continiued the work and added all the detail lines and edges.



Then, I made a short test if the mid section fits the rest of the mod so far.





For stability, I applied multiple layers of glasfiber. I used a very light variation so I did not
lost the details.





After the galasfiber dried the fun part of applying body filler and sanding began.





Lastely, I removed the polystyrene from the inside. Pretty happy with the result. It still needs a little more sanding.
Also the inside looks a little rough but I will take care of it later.