Thanks for the compliments! I have painted enough stuff to qualify as a professional after all these years . I use iwata, aztek and badger airbrushes. I also use Binks and Ingersol-Rand full size automotive spray guns. The painting books I have seen over the years are very light on useful details, they usually have a very generic overview with a few useful tricks. I have found that just painting and screwing up was the best teacher of all. I also watched other painters work, I avoided asking them questions directly as most trade workers are very protective of thier work secrets and won't give them up freely in a conversation, but they don't seem to mind if you watch them work. If you have a specific question about painting I can probably answer it though.
I dont think I can put a price on this project as it is very personal to me, However the range of prices for cases I have made was from 500$ to 6000$.
Since this case is being given away in a contest I am keeping the insides a bit more on the simple side so whoever gets it can be sure thier hardware will fit inside and then they can do some additional work on the interior to make the case thier own. I did sand the entire insides to a nice matte finish with a scotchbright pad, which i prefer to shiny metal.
just incredible... I bet you can sell a few of those for a nice profit... now if only my wife would let me make an offer...
I have a ton of images for the mechwarrior case, from concept sketches to finished case, it was made for the man who designed and built my website a few years ago. Here is one image from the project and a shortcut to the full gallery. Thanks for asking about it . The house and trees in the reflection are over 50 yards away as I mentioned in a previous post. The paint is a custom mixed PPG Dark Blue Metallic base coat and 3 coats of clearcoat. Gallery Shortcut: http://bonzai-mods.com/index.php?act=gallery&do=1&cat=mechwarrior&st=0
Really amazing work !!! I had a few thoughts about a car themed front bezel, any chance of a how to on the fiberglass over foam, how you made & cast the mold for the urethane copy?? Please
Nice Job! Great work man, I myself use House of Kolor mostly, I use my good ol' binks #7 and a paashe vl, I'd upgrade my brush to an IWATA if I could afford to. Great job man. Keep it up! (sorry for my 2 cence of just blabbin)
I have used HOK in the past on non-pc projects like guitars and helmets. I like thier line-up when it comes to custom colors and options. I maintain a collection of thier paint chips to use when mixing, especially the Kandys. I also like the higher quality clearcoats, high solids, great film build, incredible gloss. You would think a paint product that is a clear film would be as glossy as any other clearcoat you can buy, but after using many brands you can see what real gloss looks like with a high solids clearcoat. Good clear makes the cheap stuff look like a mud puddle by comparison. Believe it or not I learned to airbrush with my 13 year old aztek brush, it is so easy to clean and the nozzles are just great. I still use that brush to this day for a lot of general spraying. Right now my favortie quart sized gun is made by Ingersol-Rand, I would like to have SATA or DiVillbiss for my full size gun but the ones I like are 400$ and up . I personally like gravity guns which my I/R is, but for flake jobs my Binks suction feed is king.
One of the best cases I have ever seen. You should be very proud of all your work and your fine craftsmanship.
This is one of the most amazing spray jobs on a case I have seen. Very cool, but what happened to the chrome grill that I saw in the sketches? Or is that on the way?
That is a very nice project you got there. Ireallylike the hotrod stylelooks really good Sincerely ZeroHerO
I've suggested this gets featured on the main site, since it definitely deserves it, let's hope we see it there soon!
WoW truly amazing! You have captured the whole feel of a roadster look to that case. Keep up the great work
Thanks again everyone, such kind words, i really appreciate it. I am almost done, just a few more bits and it is done. A grill and a grill. I abandoned the rods in favor of the more accurate look of slats. The slats are 1/8" thick and 1" wide. I had to cut and file each one to fit. I also added the bead edge around the perimeter of the grill space. The slats and bead edge are silver leafed to look exactly like the polished metal slats found on the cars. The bezel grill is entirely made of plastics to keep the weight reasonable. The 120mm front intake with grill:
Thanks for that, we can always use the exposure. I have also been asked to submit photos of this case to a few magazines recently.
