Case Mod - In Progress Project: ALIENWARE ALX Case Mod...Final Assembly

Col looking alien heads. LOL painting your nails now aye.

 

Thats Brad's fingernail, life of a painter.. These are stills taken from a video tutorial I'm working on with Brad.

Theres a lot of opinions of what basecoat color or paints should be used for creating a carbon fiber effect. Theres also many different colors of real carbon fiber, So I encourage you to take what you see in this guide and experiment on your own (note: many different cf patterns exist as well)

If you don't have a spray gun/compressor, you can use spray paint (rattle can) instead.
We'll be following Mnpctech's painter Brad Galvin as he walks us through the stages.

The key component in creating the carbon fiber weaved effect, a sheet of Non-Slip Tool Drawer Liner



The base coat paint is PPG, Bright Platinum Metallic, (other suggestions, gun metal grey metallic, dark grey metallic)



Brad uses a HVLP airspray gun (w/ air compressor) and is doing 1 to 1 mix of the Bright Platinum Metallic and PPG DT860 reducer


Pouring Paint (after moxed with reducer) into HVLP spray gun

 

Wow... it's so shiny... (seriously, I love that colour)

This is why I wish I lived somewhere that wasn't surrounded by sheep and Hardware stores that don't know their own stock

 

I have a spray gun for our air compressor, I should really start to use it to paint. I have used them at school but only for wood varnish. You get a much better finish than a spray can IMO.

 

Larger array of color finishes too, I plan to record a video with Brad explaining the basic equip needed to do your own painting. A lot of people have been asking us

 

Yeah that would be great.

 

I must admit, this one is growing on me, I could see this case on my desk after it's finished, all flat black is my style..heh.

Heres a reference of what the case looked like when it arrived at my shop


To keep curious fingers, pets, etc from entering the case thru the vents, plus it looks cool! I'm mounting Honeycomb Modders Mesh Behind the side panel air vents, everything will be painted Flat Black. I first make a paper template for cutting the mesh, crease the paper over the crevices and edges, then cut it out and lay over sheet of mesh.


After the mesh is cut, I form it inside of the vent by hand.. You then clean the mesh of any dirt or oil with Laquer thinner, then sand the surface with medium grit sandpaper to prep it for the Flat Black paint later


After forming, cleaning, and sending the mesh, I use cable or zip ties to temporarily fasten the mesh onto the vent


To mount the mesh, I will use 3M's Scotch DP-190, 2 part epoxy, this is a special applicator gun by 3M, so you squeeze equal amounts. Then you need to let DP-190 cure for at least 24 hours, before we paint the vents

 

2 coats of Bright platium metallic basecoat


Lower portion of Alienware ALX side panel


Non-Slip Tool Drawer Liner, easy to cut with a scissor!




HoK Shimrin Black






Couple of light coats to blend in pattern




After clearcoat

 

Wow!! thats really awesome... cant wait to see this built

 

Great skills there duder

 

Thanks for tuning in! More to come, Thanks posting your comments

 

Thats a pretty decent paint job. I've sprayed the inside of a case before and it didn't come out half as well as that

 

Insane work on the paint bro. looking good as.

 

Wow, using rubber drawer liner as a template to create the pattern is brilliant!

Bravo Bill.

 

Thanks gang! I'm just waiting for the epoxy on the side vent to dry, I will have some pics tommorow

 

The effect turned out beautifully.

 

Thank you dude! Heres our little mascot

 

It's all in the detail.

 

Nice head. Alien head that is. lol. Love the effect your doing. cannot wait for a update on the case.

 

Thanks guys! another pic, after applying Flat Clear, to match the Flat Black finish.