Greetings to all that may cast their eyes upon this! Might as well start off with saying that if anyone has any suggestions then please comment away! Secondly, I appoligise for the length of this post, I don't really know how to trim it down yet still have it serve the purpose of a place to collect my ideas and inspirations! So, the plan: I have been watching the anime Bleach since episode 32 aired, and it's now up to episode 166. Needless to say, I like the prog a lot, and especially the design of the main character, Kurosaki Ichigo, and his funky abilities. To those of you that don't know the show, it's basically about these dudes called Shinigami (lit "Death Gods") that all have katanas with varying special abilities. The main character doesn't start off as a shinigami, it just sorta "happens" at the start and the show follows his progress and the evolution of his abilities. The main bad guys throughout are called Hollows, ghosts that have gone bad and start attacking people, characterised by monsterous appearances, strange abilities and, in particular, masks. Ichigo, for some reason, starts to develop some of these abilities along with a strange mask of his own that he can call out when needed in battle. This masked form is referred to as a Vizard. Put simply, I think he looks badass with it! My potential case mod is based around this full on mask form, and some elements and logos of the show in general will be incorporated. So, to start with, here's some pictures showing the inspiration: This is the mask as of the most recently aired episode (the markings have evolved throughout the story): Better view of the markings on the left side of the mask: I would like to incorporate the markings from this into the front panel somehow, not sure how yet, am fiddling with some designs atm and will post a few later. Side profile showing how the mask "ends" at the sides: This one I would like to either have as an engraving at the right hand side of the case window/side panel, with the red areas painted with UV red paint, and the yellow iris painted in UV yellow. The plan is to have the side window/panel lined with black one-way tint, with the "mask" area cut out of this, then the details engraved and the red parts painted. This picture... ...from earlier in the series, when the mask first started forming, shows the kind of colour scheme I'm intending to incorporate; Black and red predominantly with the red parts "flowing" around - perfect for using red coloured lighting and water cooling fluid! For fan grills, I would like to somehow use this design: as the front top fan grill (exact way of doing this not decided) and then this design: For the front lower fan grill (again exact way to do this undecided) Alternatively, I might get hold of a Lian Li fan module for the upper front fan, then have the flame skull on the lower front, and the second logo on the side panel fan. This depends on whether I can be arsed to mod my own 3 x 5" bay 120mm fan mount or not... Overclockers.co.uk have the fan module for sale for 20 quid... On the drive rack, I intend to engrave the japanese for Kurosaki Ichigo (黒崎 一護) and Vizard (仮面の軍勢) vertically down the centre. Because I intend to water cool the graphics card(s) as well, I'd like to be able to see the coolant in the blocks, so I intend to have the mobo mounted "BTX" style, with the power supply at the bottom, supported by pillars on the floor of the case. I already have a clear acrylic case I intend to use (non-branded, I think it's an Akasa one without any logos) and mod reasonably heavily. For lighting, I intend to have one 30cm red cathode behind the mobo to give a flood effect, and the same from under the PSU with a 10cm red cathode. 2 30cm UV cathodes on the back and floor will light the tubing and painted details. Hardware is a relatively secondary concern at this point, hence not mentioning it so far, the only requirements are a Blu-Ray drive, WD Raptor X, Black Ice stealth I and III for rads, Xilence power supply (as I have had them recommended to me and they just happen to fit the colour scheme), Xilence red wing fans (same reason as PSU), XSPC DDC res + pump (the one on the sketchup component collection that I modelled). Everything else will be "what I can afford at the time" After many hours fiddling with sketchup modelling the case design and layout, getting a new idea, changing it, again, and again etc, this is the current plan I have come up with: and with the side panel removed (so the side panel 120mm fan isn't blocking the view!) I was bored earlier today so decided to model all the tubing as well - did that with a 1/2" ID 3/8" OD, 10mm chunk that I just places/rotated/copied to make up the tubing. As you can see, if the cables are routed well, there's plenty of room for airflow despite the case being relatively small. The majority of cables will be hidden behind the HDD, the rest behind the mobo (the standoffs are nearly 20mm from the back of the case! plenty of room!) and behind/underneath the PSU. The Motherboard, and the acrylic panel it's mounted, to will be supported from behind by a sheet of black aluminium, just in case. A section of the left side panel will be cut out so that I can access all the cables (and screws for drives) without taking the entire side panel off. Air-flow: Front two fans and side fan draw air in. One of front fans draws air through 120 rad then across HDD mounted to see the funky innard of the Raptor X. Side fan mounted to blow air at the HDD and also, through the theoretical vector addition of the airflow, direct the air towards the RAM on the mobo. PSU fan and rear fan exhaust air out the back. Top front fan draws fresh air inwards at the top to be exhausted by 3 fans pulling through the 360 rad in the roof. Even with the g-cards blocking the way, this should hopefully also have a certain degree of upwards flow... Water Cooling: Proposed water cooling route (in case it's not obvious from the model) will be Res/Pump -> 120 rad -> CPU -> G-card 1 (-> G-card 2) -> 360 rad -> res/pump. I do not intend to use a fancy mobo like 680i, 780i or 790i, so hopefully air flow should be sufficient to cool the mobo (please tell me if not!) I would like to use the EK Supreme CPU block in the end, but a pre-made sketchup model of that doesn't exist so Fuzion has been used in the model for now. Right, so, that's the plan atm... anyone got any suggestions?
Unfortunately, the project's on hold for now until I have suffiecient funds to buy anything to use for the mod! Should hopefully be able to start in a month or so! Pesky money obstacles...
Should be cool I'm a big fan of Bleach (enjoying the lastest fight between Ichigo and Spoiler Captain Amagai and I'm gutted that the next episode isn't being aired until the 7th October) and I'm looking forward to how this turns out, although I prefer the "Hollow" Ichigo's appearance to his Hollow Mask. The fan gril logo is the image from Rukias glove & the base of Uraharas Zanpaktou used to pull Ichigo's spirit from his body isn't it? An image of "old man" Zangetsu (斬月) some where on the case would be good.
Agreed, but I preferred the fight between Hollowified Ichigo and Grimjow before the latest filler arc started! (and subsequently where the hollow mask screenshots above were taken) Maybe because that was a much fairer fight in terms of giving as good as he got. Spoiler With Amagai it was very much a "Eat this" *flick away devastating fire attack* "Huh? Eat what?"... The skull symbol is indeed from the gloves and staff - I've had a bit of a change of mind in terms of this design, so this may not even make it into the mod in the end... Zangetsu will almost certainly end up in the mod - probably by incorporating the coat into a way to hide the drive mounts (wide strip of black plexi with ragged edges at bottom, spreading/fanning out to the right towards the PSU) I might have the kanji engraved on this as well, possibly also adding "Tensa Zangetsu". If I can manage it, I might have red light radiating from behind there, or a strip of side-lit red plexi just behind and slightly offset... As may be obvious, I have a few new ideas to incorporate, so will be updating this post eventually when I get my ideas straight! Additional timescale update/reminder: This whole project is definitely in planning stages only, primarily due to the fact that I won't be able to afford to start anything on this until the new year! Plenty of time to plan and get things right before I start!
