Scratch Build – In Progress Mithril (9/2/09, I'm not as daft as I thought...)

In the days following the War of the Ring, as the Fellowship rested in Gondor, word traveled fast to all the peoples of Middle-Earth. In Lothlorién, Galadriel commissioned a memorial of the journey of Frodo the Nine-Fingered and Samwise Gamgee to Orodruin, the Cracks of Doom and the destruction of the One Ring. She commissioned her most cunning of artisans to design something fitting of the ones who had saved all of Middle-Earth. To them she gave much of the store of wealth of the Elves, to make a gift to the kindreds of Middle-Earth to endure throughout the centuries. Many and varied were her gifts, but among the most precious was mithril...

As in the days of Vingilot, Eärendil's ship that bore he and the Silmaril into the West and was set forever as a star shining to light a way in darkness, they chose of the finest woods. In the last of the war, battle raged ever closer to Lorién, and mallorn trees had fallen. Of this, the artisans selected those that bore a peculiar figuring, noting the last touches of darkness in the light, hard wood. Fitting then that these trees that were felled by darkness would live on in a tribute to the power of hope.







The wood for the side panels has already been pieced together from strips of spalted ash, glued and planed to approximately a half-inch thickness. Even so, each side weighs over 7 pounds, but there is cutting and profiling to be done yet.

I have the case skeleton assembled from 1x12 white pine, but it's with a more experienced woodworker, having a bow taken out of one of the boards (my apartment is apparently incredibly damp, and it's pretty detrimental to wood) and some router work done. I have more to see, but right now, my help says it's not quite time to work...



So I'll leave you with that while I find a scanner...

 

mmmm wooden ill check back when you have some designs/ have done some work to it.

 

Basically an update of post one, some project sketches, though they are kinda obscured-don't wanna give away everything...





I actually have this ready to put in some of the componentry, but as I said, it's with a friend getting patched up. He'll be taking the panels after they're cut for router work as well, so this is a project of patience...

No, I will not tell anyone what goes in the Leonidas.

 

hmm, reminds me of the HP Blackbird. Inspiration perhaps?
Interesting design though. I'm always a fan of anything using wood.

 

HP Blackbird was a definite inspiration. That case is freaking beautiful. However, it can't house all I want, so I must needs build my own. This is 14" wide with side panels on, as well as 20" deep and 27" high without foot. Getting closer to a cube than anything, but I need the space for liquid cooling what's going in there.

Besides, after I build this PC I would just about have paid for just that case. I figure this is a better deal all around. And, it'll be better than the Blackbird to boot.

For those not in the know...

 

whats up with the sparta bit

 

he's hiding a feature of his case

 

Course I am. I'm hiding lots of them.

"The artisans remembered the gift of Arwen to her beloved Aragorn-the White Standard of Gondor, a banner wrought of all the skill she had, to celebrate the return of the True King to Middle-Earth. They then took the mallorn, and engraved it with the standard, for the Third Age had ended, and the Fourth Age was the Age of Men."

And, my help looks kind of bored. He wants to chase the Dremel, but my wife wants to sleep.



And the real work, which took hours, even though I've been an artist all my life...





It's just pencil now, but I'm gonna carve it into the wood in bas-relief and then silver/gold leaf it. I haven't decided if I will give it the ithilden treatment yet... But, that's many hours of Dremel ahead of me. For now, I need to wake my wife with loud power tools.

For the record, this is the picture you're trying to see...

 

How about doing a "DOG-mod" ? Superglue everything onto the dog, and make him sit when you need the pc! Just make sure all the connections you need will be on his tail! lol
Sry... Couldn't help myself...
But I'm looking forward to this one, and yeah I agree, the Blackbird is crazy beautifull!

 

The drawing is Awesome

 

Yeah, that's fantastic. I didn't think anyone could make the Blackbird, but more beautiful...Subscribed!

 

Two and a half hours. Next move is old-style silver leaf, with sizing and everything...

 

i'd commend you on the detail you have done, but you have greater patience.

 

I dont realy see how is fantasy LoTR theme gonna fit with futuristic tekky look of the blacbird case. But then, i cant see what vision u have in ur head. Its interesting project, and ill follow it thoroughly.

 

Really nice Dremel work. That's going to look really cool silver-leafed.

 

Loking forward to see where youre taking this. Really nice sketches and killer carving!

 

Looks great! I will be following this as LoTR is one of my favorite stories.

 

No lore update, just some finished side and preview of things to come...









And this is what I've gotten from a miniature wargamer friend of mine...



I'll save you Mr. Frodo!!!



Server for backing this up so I can redo in 64-bit and RAID 5...



And I can't make this up, this is one of the molds I have for the next phase...



Until next time, laugh at the last pic-I go in for surgery tomorrow, it may be next week before I have any more content to show...

 

Really cool with the silver leaf. How are you going to finish the wood?

 

Very nice dremel work.
how are you going to remove the leaf from de wood ? or are you going to use the wood ?