Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Blackwing Crypt 4/07/10 - New update and glowing pics

wow that looks really cool..

great work mate!

 

Thanks for all the great comments. Its been a while as my shed was broken into and all my tools were stolen...

But all was not lost as I had paid my insurance and this lot arrived a couple of days ago:
























Anyway what better excuse to use them than some modding ...





I finally go the two side panels done, they took ages to finish, pity the inside has yet to be done







now on to the roof. Im using some model sculpting foam to bulk out the roof section and to allow me to dremel in the detailing. I used all the off cuts I had as im going to be using a stone compound (posh cement) to give me the stone effect and this will sit nicely in the gaps and hopefully make the bond stronger.



Im using that super strong glue again to join the tiles to the roof. I know its overkill for some foam but after countless glues failing on me (we should have a glue strength thread btw) I decided better safe than sorry.

 

Had a little time to get on with my mod today. SO started on the roof of the crypt.





Im using a stone paste used for making walls etc on dollshouses. I will be airbrushing the stone the colour I want once im done shaping it. The stone paste is like a crumbly brick when dry. you can shape it with a chisel or a carbide/diamond dremel bit.





This was after a good sanding with P80 sandpaper.



and then carving in the pattern and shaping the stone blocks. Most of this was done with the chisel and its had a nice calming affect on me... or was it the fact its now one in the morning and ive had a few beers and too much coffee....







Pretty pleased with the results. I will need to repair a few bits as I went in a bit deep in places but I have work in 5 hours so I really must sleep now..

 

Well I had a great time at the Asus extreme design convention. Unfortunately My shed was broken into again..... So now I have no drill or bits again and no camera, I got a few pics off but ive lost most of my recent photo's.

I now have 3 locks and an alarm in the shed but I cant get on with my mod as I need my Drill
I have ordered some Fimo Clay and some more brick compound so hopefully the drill will arrive by the time that gets here.

 

Well im back again, not that I really went anywhere. Just been busy getting married and with work. Work has slowed a little and i got a little more time for modding now (yay) and the insurance paid out again so I have a new camera too.

So on with the pictures first:



Scoring these bricks out is really boring, last count I watched around 15 films on my Ipod whilst doing this.



Im using this textured primer as the basecoat for the brickwork, also helps to seal the brick compound as its pretty fragile when its unpainted. I was getting a bit too fussy about chips and flakes in the brick compound, I thought id just spray it a little and see how it turned out. Seems it looks better chipped and cracked.







The two skulls are actually a couple of candle holders I found in a local store. Ive molded them in using the brick compound and Im happy with the results so far





you can see a little better here how far I have got

 

Nice idea! Sorry to hear about all the break ins Nice tools though!

Is that as huge as I think it is??

 

Thanks, It certainly is that big, roughly 24" cubed. In retrospect its possibly a little large but will certainly make an impact in my living room when its done.

 

Great Work! Interesting concept

 

Thanks for the great comments, had some free time today and started on the window for the top of the case. I bought some 5mm thick smoked plexi from ebay and set to work cutting it out.










Handily I had a bowl which was almost the exact size circle I needed which saved a little time and hassle.



After a little shaping and sanding with the dremel the cut out fitted snugly into the ivy circle thingy.

It took me ages to find the logo I wanted, I finally found a decent vector image of it and enlarged using paintshop pro. I then printed this out and stuck it in place on the plexi.







I then cut this out using a pointed diamond engraving bit.





Using a fine ball diamond engraving bit I shaded the design into the plexi, this was really time consuming and gave me some serious cramp.









Overall Im pretty happy with how it turned out, Its not finished yet but other parts of the case need some work now...

 

well I woke this morning and can hardly see, have some wierd and not so wonderfull eye infection anyway I can still see enough to do a little modding and have decided to try my hand at some dry brushing.

After a lot of research on the net and with the help of some nice guys at the games workshop in Norwich I found the colours I needed and jumped straght in.





For those of you not familiar with the dry brushing technique, you basically load your brush up with paint and then wipe off a smuch as possible. You then paint the surface you want to paint and a very small amount of paint rubs off. You continue doing this and builing up layers and you end up with something like this.







I still have a lot more layers to go though and the camera doesnt show up all the detaill that well but you get the idea.

 

good work, I like the dragon head, very cool

 

thanks ringo, got some big plans for those dragon heads and also the larger one too. Loads of work to do before I get to those tho.

 

so all your old, dusty, used tools were stolen and insurance replaced them with shiny new dealies? sweeeet

 

yeah, thats pretty much the size of it. But then all the power tools were stolen again and replaced with new shinies too. Oh and they gave me an alarm for the shed and 2 meaty padlocks

 

Great to hear that insurance companies actually work for you, than try to get out of having to pay for what you lost
A friend had her clothes in a storage room in the basement of her apartment complex, all designers stuff. But the insurance company said that since she didn't have any recipes they just gonna pay up like if the clothes were 10 years old or summat. Which meant that she got like 3% of the clothes worth back.

Well I initially wanted to comment, just to say that you got an awesome project going, much too "screamy" to be put in my minimal apartment but the craftmanship behind it is topnotch
I didn't see, but hows the setup for it ? Aircooling, watercooling etc?

 

Thats real bad, the guy from my insurance co said I jave £1500 worth of tools so I can choose whatever I want to that value... which I did!

Thaks for great comment, we have all sorts of weird and wonderfull stuff in our house like waterdragons and weird art so should look pretty cool next to our TV.

The setup will be full watercooled with custom reservoir, 2 Thermochill 120.3 PA's and 2 loops maybe even 3. The only hardware I have decided on so far is the ASUS Matrix 285 GTX I won from the AX:GS event. Im hoping to go I7 (1366) for this beast too. Im also toying with the idea of a TEC chiller. So many ideas...

 

Had a real hectic week so far, still have my 2 blogs to write for the Asus ROG site but I managed to find some time to get some more of my mod done.

I also have a new sponsor,



thanks to Iain over at Asus I received a nice package today











Now you might wonder why the board comes with a USB cable... well for those that dont know its the new ROG connect feature from Asus. Using the usb cable you can connect another pc, laptop or netbook to your board and overclock in realtime while in windows. I was lucky enough to use this at the Asus extreme event and I must say I was impressed. We managed to get an i7 860 to 4.2ghz on air using it. The "go" button is also usefull, it lets you instantly apply a pre defined overclock. Kudos also goes to Asus for redesigning the memory clips. They now push down rather than rotate, a small thing but certainly less annoying to fit ram with a large graphics card.

More info can be found here and its also worth checking out the new Republic of Gamers site too.

So I finally managed to find a minature skull the size I wanted but at £2.99 there was no way I was buying 150+ so I got myself a silcone mould making kit from ebay.



it was at this point I got the feeling I was not alone.....











You can see in the the 2 moulds at the back were my first and second atempt, they work fine just dont look all that pretty. I was quite suprised how easy that stuff is to work with. I made 5 moulds which means I can make 30 skulls an hour. Im guessing I need 150 but Im sure it will end up a lot more.







As you can see my first atempt went wrong but Im happily churing the little buggers out now. Not looking forward to cleaning them up and painting them tho... Im really going for detail in this mod though so everything will be done by hand.

Thanks once again to the guys over at Asus for their kind sponsorship, they . Expect an update in the next few days once my next parcel arrives

 

So, another day another update. I have a new Sponsor today too in the form of Crucial. Thanks to Joan and the guys at Crucial for kindly donating a 4gb set of Ballistix Tracer DDR 1600 mhz.











These modules have some crazy LED effects and come in a range of colours. As you would expect from a company with Crucial's pedigree they also have a lifetime warranty. More info on Crucial and the Ballistix range can be found here

So not content with one package the postie decide to bring a few more







Those paints are glass paints, il be using those pretty soon but you will have to wait and see...



Still waiting on some very high power UV leds, these things were £3.94 each so im expeecting something pretty damn bright. Also waiting on maplins to get my damn red led's out to me, apparantly they were in stock but when i got my delivery it said they were out....

So after unboxing all the new bits (I love opening packages) I made a little progress on the mod too.





more pics to come tomorrow as the light in my house isnt great and I cant seem to get a decent picture at night.

Thanks once again to my Kind sponsors over at Asus and Crucial

 

Your lucky many sponsors .. dont like the shape of it looks a dog house .. but maybe the final look will conquer me..

 

Well once its full of hardware and ive got more than 10% of the case done should look a little less dog housey.

Should have a nice update done by the end of today, just need to brush up on my soldering skills.

I need to wire 10 high power LEDs together, can someone tell me if its better to have them in paralell or series? I have all the resistors I need, im just looking for maximum/uniform brightness.