Hi all, I've been on this forum for a while now, waiting until I could start my own project log. I'm almost at the stage of starting but I thought I would ask you kind people for some design ideas first so I can make a good start. Im making an HTPC althought not strictly an HTPC it will contain our DVD collection and mp3s for music but no TV tuner as we already have a FreeSat DVR. The TV is black, TV stand has black glass, FreeSat box is black so I want the PC to be predominantly black to match although I would like some colour. The PC is going to be in an XBOX 360 case like below My painting skills are probably fairly basic but I'm hoping to add a simple design to the black. I was hoping to either have a generic "film" design or pick one or two films to create a design from. I particularly like science-fiction films like Star Trek, Matrix, Ultraviolet, Iron Man etc. I will be trying to come up with a few designs but I was hoping some of you might be able to come up with some simple ideas! Thank you all!
I might do, going to practice using a few techniques before I decide. I'm in the middle of coming up with a few simple designs but a second/third/fourth etc opinion is always welcome. If anyone has any suggestions they are always welcome! Thanks!
What hardware is going into this case? If you want to keep it mostly black then what about having some decals made of some superhero/theme u want? keep the case black, and have the decals just outlining the character. Very little detail but still giving the outline of a silhoute. To keep it subtle use a dark colour like grey just an idea
Im going to put an ITX board in although not an Atom version. Initially this will only handle DVDs not Blu-Ray although I want it to be future compatible and the Atom systems don't quite perform to what I'm after. I like the look of the Zotac 9300-ITX-WiFi board. I need to work out what storage I will need and am hoping to be able to fit 2 HDs in there, we'll see what space I have! Nice idea tuberc, I hadn't considered decals... The 360 case I have isn't an Elite and so isn't black yet so that will need to be sprayed. I'll do some experimenting painting some scrap material and decide if its good enough or if using a decal would be more suitable. Almost finished my first design idea then I'll put it up for some comments! Thanks all
I'm using the picture below as a base to create my designs... My first design is based on a generic "films" theme using the XBOX 360 lights as the outline of a film reel and a film strip trailing out from it (excuse my basic "mspaint" skillz), the final paint job won't be quite so primitive. I'm working on a few more designs and I'll put them up once theyre done! Any thoughts... Good or bad points? Thanks!
i think it would be better if you took out the yellow and change the green to the same colour of the green rings
just to say, if you are a newbie when it comes to painting, that any kind of stencilled graphic (especially that one!) will be impossibly hard to do, and will invariably end up looking like a total mess. what i can suggest is that you get some custom die cut vinyl stickers made up, printed on vinyl sheets as thin as possible, apply this to a base coat of paint, and then cover it with several coats of clear lacquer. would look a lot cleaner.
bagman: Yeah I agree, after posting I've gone off the colours but I like the design. Going to do a few more. Fod: You're right I'm fairly new to this kind of painting, where would I get custom die cut vinyl stickers? Just wondering about wrapping round the shape of the XBOX as its curved in various directions... Always willing to try new ideas! Thanks
I've had a change of heart whilst creating more designs. I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan and I had tickets to one of his first shows at The O2 in London. I decided the other day that I would instead use a Michael Jackson theme for the 360 design so I'm now concentrating my efforts on this. I haven't decided whether to use one of his songs as a theme or use the Moonwalker film or a combination. I'll knock out a few designs and get your opinions. Any suggestions?
Currently my media server is powered by the intel dual atom board, a mAtx psu, and 2*500gb seagate 3.5" drives, all housed in an xbox 360 case, it gets hot! I would go with 2.5" laptop drives and a pico psu if I was to do it over!
Sheiken: unfortunately I can't get big enough storage from 2.5" drives but I've had an idea to mount a fan at the rear of the case on the outside to create airflow acros the drives. As for the picoPSU, I've been looking at those lately & will probaby make fitting everything in.a whole lot easier! Thanks for the tips! I hope to get another design up later today!
Here is my latest design, this would also need to be a vinyl sticker or something but I thought the design went really well with the black background: I'm working on others but any thoughts on this design? Thanks!
Adding an extra fan on the outside would be a good idea, and as far as pico psu's go, they are somewhat expensive, but you dont need a whole lot of watts for the system you have planned, it seems the way to go. Your design is nice, but you have to make the vinyl fit over the entire xbox or match it exactly to the "greyish" color of the elite, otherwise it will look completely out of place.
Yeah good point, I possibly didn't mention that I don't have the Elite box, I've got a standard 360 that I will be painting so I could paint it to match the colour but that is definitely a consideration. The alternative is to simplify the final design I choose and then get a vinyl done with transparent where the black is.
Or maybe just a stencil? the gloss difference between the paint and vinyl will also be very difficult to match
Yeah stencil is a good idea, would probably give a better result than the vinyl sticker, I'll look into it!
I found a few places to gewt a stencil made so I've remade the previous design without the blue as this will be easier to get a stencil produced from! Any comments? Thanks!
I know I did not see that... This could open up for sooooo many MJ jokes... Personally I like the first idea with the film... Definitley add a fan or something to it though
You said you like the Matrix. I'm thinking it could look pretty awesome with something like this on the sides. It may look hard, but if you can get a stencil made it should be easy. Simply by spray painting over that could look really good. If you had a number of templates and layered them in different shades of green and white, it could look like in the link. If you're AMAZING you could dremel out the letters and then put some green plexi behind it. If you can get it lasercut, it would look brilliant. Engraving it is also a possibility. Just an idea though.
