Case Mod - In Progress Scout-A Robopocalypse inspired ID Cooling T-60 SFX[Completed Feb 21, 2016]

Awesome paint, but I really like that you duct-taped the door so you got ALL the fumes.

 

Hahaha! I had to do that when I was finishing the paint for Shinai. I was being invaded by Japanese beetles. There's probably a thousand of the little *******s stuck to that tape!

I do have a fan set up to pull the fumes out, which isn't bad for a little spray paint or some primer, but I need to upgrade. Spraying a whole case in one night kind of overwhelmed it.

 

-Build Log-
Jan 29, 2016

So, I have to be honest, I was very scared after getting the paint laid down. It looks good, but man that's purple!



Before I put a lot of effort into sanding, re-clearing, sanding again, and buffing, I wanted to get an idea of what the case would look like put together. If it was going to be that purple, I was going to go back to the drawing board. But...







The black and the greens really come back when the case is together. The idea was to get a color shift similar to some beetles, and this is exactly what I was hoping for!

I shot a little vid doing a walkaround so you can see the shift in action.



So happy with how it turned out! Now it's time to really bring the shine out!

--End Build Log--

 

Holy crap, that chameleon color shift came out awesome! Still photos will never be able to capture it, but it looks great!

 

Thanks! That's why I had to get a video.

 

-Research Log-
Feb 7, 2016

So we made a really interesting discovery today while studying the cases of some of the Scouts. Well, OK, we accidentally ground out a wire on one of the cases, but the results are crazy. We knew that they bodies had a special coating, sort of a chameleon effect. Very similar to what you would see on used on a car. The coating shifts between green, purple and black just sitting there. These photos give you sort of an idea.





The crazy thing is that once you apply power, the coating becomes active. Meaning that it doesn't just rely on light angles to produce a color change, but the Scouts can alter the color using different power levels to achieve different effects on demand. I knew Big Rob was sneaky, but this is a whole new level. Hopefully we can reverse engineer this coating. It would totally change the notion of camouflage.

--End Log--

 

-Build Log-
Feb 7, 2016

I'm finally done with paint...mostly. Four coats of clear with a sanding in between and then a good sanding and buff. Unfortunately, I kind of burned through in a couple of spots, which is why I'm not done. Plus, the legs...I'm not sure how far I want to take them considering they're basically 4 edges with some extra edges thrown in for good measure. I might just hit a few bad runs and call it good. They're just too easy for me to mess up trying to sand and buff them. Since the paint is out of the way, time to start assembly and wiring.

Luckily I can work around the two pieces I still have to buff. Mobo and PSU mounted.



And then putting the fans together. I thought about sleeving the wires since they were black red and blue, but decided since they were totally apart, that I'd just switch over to some black wire that I had. I want a more industrial look and going sans sleeving really fits the build well.




And the four fans ready to install.



Top pair mounted. You might notice that the fans don't have a 100% paint job. There's still some aluminum showing between the fins. I noticed this after the first coat and decided that I kind of like it. Gives them a little detail instead of being just black hunks of aluminum and it gives more definition to the fins.



And bottom mounted fans.



Since the motherboard only has two fan headers, one system and one CPU, I went with a little Silverstone fan hub to run the fans. I'm also going to use it for the lighting hub. There's some decent room around the PSU, so I just mounted it to the PSU's side with some double sided tape. Did the same thing with my EL wire transformer except on the bottom of the PSU.



And then the wires! Like I said, no sleeving for a more industrial look. My thumb and index finger are loving that decision. My standard tape for wire measurement and pinouts.



And a mostly completed.



The top fans and the 4 pin CPU run go under the motherboard, just to make working on it later that much more difficult. LOL! But it does really clean it up, which is going to be important when I put that giant cooler on. I'm waiting on some short SSD cables before I can start working on getting them wired. Same with the lights. And the GPU will be the last of the wiring, since it's so much easier working in the case without it being in the way.

--End Log--

 

-Build Log-
Feb 15, 2016

Welp, you know the one step forward two steps back saying? That's how this project has felt the last few weeks. I finally got all my exterior pieces smoothed up and buffed, and then it turns out that the bottom and the back panels were powdercoated and the paint flaked right off even though I scuffed them up. Notice I say were. They've been sanded down and the last coat of paint is drying on them right now. I also stripped the motherboard tray just in case. Turns out it was painted steel so it didn't need it, but better safe than sorry. But what have I done while huffing paint? I've managed to get a lot of little details worked out for the final assembly.

Front panel is put together.



Green Darkside strips looking down over the grills I swapped the blue LED of the power indicator for the red LED of the HDD indicator. I'm hoping it works cause it didn't come apart very cleanly. But if not, it just won't have a lit power button. Oh well.

Also got the SSD's installed in the side panel.



The SSD covers are clear with the tops painted black(originally they were the chameleon color, but they didn't contrast well). Then I drilled a little hole in the of the cover to mount a green LED in each. The plan is that when it's up an running, the edges of the covers will glow green. Fingers crossed.



The silver paint on the LED isn't pretty but it's hidden. The idea is to cut down on light bleed.

The covers are meant to fit snug without tape, but I went ahead and used some double sided tape. No chance of them moving around now.



Everything ready to be put in. Wires have to go on before you put them in because there is no way to access the plugs later.



Slipping the wires through and getting the first one mounted.





And number two mounted.





Finished up by splicing the power wires together.



--End Log--

 

OOh! That setup would have been great with a hot swap connector.

Paint: That sucks. It's not like they were designed to be a Teflon-coated porn server.

 

Never even thought about a hot swap setup. Damn!

As far as the paint, bravo to them for using a durable coating, I just wish I hadn't wasted the time painting it and had just touched up the spots that needed it.

 

-Build Log-
Feb 20, 2016

The home stretch...finally. Pulling it all together.

The bad thing about mITX cases...wiring with no space. That USB 3.0 cable was a pain, but a little clip helped.



Putting the last piece of the body together. Looks like a turtle on it's back.



Now to fit the cooler in once all the wiring to the mb is done.



It's interesting trying to work on something that has legs.







It definitely fills up the case! Now it's time for the custom side panel with the EL wire in it.



Since the cooler is a bit tall, I need to knock a hole in this panel to fit. And even if the cooler did manage to squeeze below it, it would still need to an intake to breath. The nice thing about using 1/8" acrylic for the bottom of my mold is that it leaves me a nice piece to work with as a template once it's pulled apart.



Originally I traced the fan to the acrylic.



This would work, but I had doubts as to how perfect I could get it. I wound up finding the center of the fan using the mounting screws and used a 6" hole saw instead, and then notched for the mounts with a scroll saw. Once I got the template worked out, I transferred that to the side panel and...





Still have a little cleaning to do on the hole, but works perfect, just how I wanted it. I was debating on what to do for screws for the panel since the originals are too short. I flipped the original feet and used them for nice and chunky washers for some standard M3 screws. Little black paint and they'll blend right in. All that's left now is a little touch up paint and cleaning up the side panel edges, but I'll give you all some teasers of the finished product.











--End Build Log--

 

Without the legs that is one of the nicest, coolest cases I have ever witnessed.

With them? not so sure. It's kind of like an oxy-moron. "Hey look at this incredible tiny little case made huge by these leg things".

 

Thanks! I'm still trying to figure out the best way to fit it on a table at a LAN, LOL!

 

Why, upside down, of course. It'll look like the helmet of the raddest knight final boss. The other option would be to stab the legs into the ceiling drywall.

Sideways pic: Eye pro + nut pro.
Last pic looks like a game screenshot. There's some definite scanning of the ground going on.

 

I am probably going to hang it from the ceiling by it's butt to save some space in my workshop, make it look like it's crawling down the wall!

The photo shoot for this will be interesting. I think I might have to go get some little green army men and have a war.

 

"Major! Our guns aren't hurting it!"

 

hahahaha brilliant ! my wife will be in here in a minute asking me what I was laughing at so loudly

 

Finals!

































Thanks for following along! And a bit shout out to Bill Owen and MNPCTECH! Thanks for the case!

 

This pic here w/ the reflection. I'm pretty certain the whole thing would have disappeared if you put it deeper in the tree line. You could of had us playing "find the Scout before it kills you!"



Mal

 

Great looking case. I love the toy dinosaur and army pictures. I is nice to see people having fun with their creations.