Case Mod Project: Bio-Mech

[SPQQKY]

Project: Bio-Mech
I decided to start another project. I've been toying with On the Fly just to keep busy, but decided I wanted to dig into something a little more my style. Something I can really sink my teeth into. I had picked up an Ultra Aluminus a while back for $30.



I had already had some ideas for the inside and starting hacking the case about two months ago.
The first thing I did was rip that Ultra logo plate off and then removed the hard drive rack.


However, due to the design of this case, the hard drive rack provided support for the case as you can see, it was still relatively strong though.


But I still needed to secure those u-channel supports, so I cut some pieces from the bottom of the hard drive rack I had removed.


For now this case will be air cooled, however, down the road I will be water cooling, so my plan is to ditch those little supports and make a solid plate that I will eventually be able to mount a reservoir to.
One thing about this case I noticed right away was how light it was. It's the lightest case I have ever come across. You can lift it with a pinky...


I really wanted to start the front panel though, this is the more artistic part and something I'm a bit more used to. I'm still a fledgling case modder. I've been playing with ideas here and there. Making sketches with pen and paper. Then I remembered I had a mirror in a box somewhere that was quite unique and made from resin. So I went ahead and cut this from it.


I'm a big fan of H.R. Giger even since I first saw Alien when I was 13 at a rerelease showing in 1982.



I love his bio-mechanical style and did a super quick sketch for my idea.


From the sketch it's hard to tell my full idea about the 3D effect this will have, and since I didn't want to waste too much time sketching and get right down to the nitty gritty, let's have a look at what I have done so far. I hope you'll get a better idea of what I am going for. There will most likely be some changes to the sketch, I like to draw ideas out of the back of my dark, cobweb filled brain as I go.

I needed a blow hole in the bottom center of the case and I was going to have to eliminate those ribs. The door on this will be totally eliminated (didn't shut right anyway). So I stripped down the front.


I then cut out the area to make the blow hole. I did end up rounding it out more, but I kept forgetting to take pics throughout my work ('cause I'm tho thmart )


Since this needed to be 3D, I needed to bring the blow hole outward, I used one of those side panel ducts we've all seen.




Glued it in place with plastic epoxy bond.


Next I had to fill those rib areas. I washed the panel down and I started out with Great Stuff expanding foam so that the bondo had something to set on.


While that was drying, I started to work on the top part of the panel, again, because I'm tho thmart, I forgot to take some pics. I used good ol' MDF for this. The skeleton needed to be resessed. Here you see how I cut the form of the body (it's mis-shaped a bit because the body of the skeleton is and has a pony tail down the back), I test fit the piece. It's not exact fit, but that won't matter much as it will all be filled with bondo and eventually sculpting clay.


Dropped the skeleton in to get an idea here. As you can see, I hacked the arms off, I'll fill you in on how that is going to go tomorrow hopefully.


Here you can see I cut the holes for single optical drive, power and resest switches and secured the mdf to the panel with some small lag screws.


Once the foam was dry I cut it away flush with the panel, again, forgot some pics, but you get the idea.


Here you can see the first layer of bondo applied


And finally for now, a bit of sanding and a little more bondo. I also dropped the skeleton in one more time for a quick look-see because I'm anal.


Only the sides of the panel need to be smooth really. I will be doing plenty of sculpting, hopefully start tomorrow. Since I can't bake it because it would melt the plastic panel, I'll be using either Sculpt-It or Crayola air drying clay, whichever the store has in stock when I make my run tomorrow. I'll also be using some Milliput epoxy putty and it'll be nice and messy.
I'll also show some ideas for the inside and side panel(s) tomorrow depending on how much time I can spend on the project. Hope you likey so far. Any and all suggestions and feedback welcome. And if you can think of a better name for this project, let me know, I'm not too sure about the one I'm using. Cheers.

[Noobkiller]

oh snap! That looks awesome! I'll watch this one!

[HeXeN]

SpQQky as U said I like this one, I'm also fan of Giger and there's chieftec ... But this fan hole in front is 120mm ? if not change it :P BTW good IDea !!

[SPQQKY]

@ Noobkiller, thanks.
@ HeXen, again, thanks. Yeah, the fan behind the blow hole is 120mm (it has it's own mounting bracket and sits back from the hole, plus there is intake room underneath) and the blow hole is 80mm. I will still get good air flow, but I didn't want the hole to be too overwhelming and take away from the scale of the skeleton. Plus it gives me more room for artistic application.

I've already had some changes in mind. As you can see from the power and reset button holes I made, this won't be as symmetrical as the drawing.

[HeXeN]

:> that's hell good thinking ... somethimes symetrical means borring that's my opinion

[ComputerKing]

DAMIT!!!!!!!! WOWO How the hell I missed this!!!

dude your work is amazign and your idea is crazy, the Front is kickass

well done so fat.. keep going, show more work

[SPQQKY]

I worked a lot on the front panel today. From the update, it sure doesn't look like much, but it was a lot of work. I had never worked with air dry sculpting clay before and I probably never will again. It may as well have been play-do....basically, it sucked. So I ended up using all epoxy putty for the build up. This entailed a lot of mixing and trying to work fast. It made it pretty difficult. I had to mix a little at a time. The best epoxy putty around is Milliput, but even that only has about a 20 minute work time. So I had to make a small batch, make what I could out of it, then move on to the next. And because it has such a short work time, this meant the pieces couldn't be shaped very well before they dried.

Anyway, here is what I did today.

First I mounted the skeleton to the panel with a few small lag screws.


Then again I filled the open areas with Great Stuff expanding foam.




Then I used a bit of bondo for a base coating and it was on to making the figure I had sketched out. There was a lot of sanding and filing, sanding and filing, puttying and mixing, sanding and sanding and yada yada yada......


I didn't take many pictures again, and not really because I forgot, but once I started going, I didn't want to stop. Besides, my fingers were plenty dirty with putty and there was plenty of dust around.
At the end of the day my hands were tired. Without using standard sculping clay and the mix of colors between the bondo, milliput and another quick dry putty, it was hard to tell exactly where all the rough spots were. I decided to give it a coat of primer to tie it all together. I was out of gray primer, so some black primer had to do. Here are some shots of what it looks like.






I think it looks pretty good and I'm happy with the way the top is blending with the bottom and the figure is starting to come to vision. As you can tell though, there is still a lot to be done. There will be plenty more shaping, filling and sanding, filing and puttying, etc., etc.. Lots more detail to be added.
There probably won't be much of an update until next weekend or the following, but that's because I won't bore you with the tedious work of filing, puttying, sanding and sanding and shaping.........can you tell I've done a lot of that today? LOL. It's all worth it though as I think the results are going to be kick ass.

[dacust]

WOW! Great start! Can't wait to see the final result.

[ComputerKing]

lol I don't like it now that thing it's crap on my view but you did kcikass work to fix it with the front

your work is kickass well done and show more soong takre care

[lost_modder]

SPQQKY nice work! Skeleton is looking hella awsome.

[SPQQKY]

@ dacust and lost_modder, thank you.

@ Computerking, I really don't know what to say to that. To each his own, I guess.

[razzta010]

SPQQKY Keep on!!! I like this front .. and The Alien style looks great.

[wbdog206]

coming along nicely.

[ScottY_]

Very nice. Looks great.

[Lupo_IM]

wow!!! great work!!!

[DoOb's]

Mental work this wow, when i did my RedDevil mod, i was thinking of molding a skull on the front panel, but was too much work and resources, otherwise GREAT Work this one

[MoRBiD]

dude that looks FARKIN awesome!!!!!!
I so wanna do this now to mine ...

[HeXeN]

SpQQky that what i like ... I will admire your work update after update ! it's gonna be hell nice one !

[Scirocco]

This isn't my favorite theme or style of mod, but there's no denying the imagination or quality to the start of the work. Definitely looking forward to future updates.

[Franklin]

It's a good thing we all have our own style that we like, but even when you don't like this style you can see that this front is done in a great way. If you don't like something find a worklog with a case in your style, or even better start your own casemod and worklog.