Measure, cut, sand, glue, measure, cut, sand, glue... repeat 54 times and this is the result. The top has all the wood work done, just going to add some details tomorrow before it is ready to be painted. The plates are 2mm plywood while the ribs are balsa wood. The biggest advantage of balsa, it is dead easy to cut so a scissor was all that was needed. Then just put it all in place with some cyanoacrylate glue. I'm still a bit undecided what to do with the sides though. Armor plating is one option, just that it feels a bit waste of time considering they won't be visible at it's final location.
Great project, and super speedy work! How did you come up with the design for the basla wood on the top? All the pieces obviously have a specific location, and the effect is cool, but I can't see any specific pattern to them.
Thanks, Well I cut out a few pieces of plywood at a time and went with the flow. I had no plans other than to cover the whole surface and have 15mm spacing between each and every one with a piece of balsa in between. I did make a couple slightly different regarding the spacing though.
Great work coming from you as usual mashie! I really like the thing you are doing with all the tiny wood plates. Kind of a borgish effect imo.
Final update. After some more MDF cutting making a removable front panel the whole unit was painted. First two layers of MDF primer, then two layers of matt black acrylic and finally a bit of magic (drybrushing with brass and pewter colored paint). It is quite easy to make a ripple in aluminium mesh, just cut out a small piece with a wire snip and then bend the sharp edges inwards. Project Tranquillity is done! For those of you thinking cooling will be an issue, trust me, the nine fans in the PSUs generate a nice little storm across the case. You can also see the short mains leads that has been custom made to keep the wire mess to a minimum. The management network has been installed and another 10-15 cross-over cables will be added later. The red power buttons are illuminated and act as power LEDs. And finally, everything assembled and ready to be used. A clean copy of the worklog can be found here.
Amazing! (...As always with your projects ) So, whats up next besides Project Time Machine? Are we going to see any small form-factors like the Oenone again?
Wow, that paint had an amazing effect on the case! Looks really great,and the completion speed was impressive.