Case Mod - Complete ⭐ Alita: Battle Angel - Laptop Mod - Zapan Edition

And up we go for yet another worklog. Yes, I know, there are still two unfinished ones...
But, I got this project with a very tide deadline, so I will just squeeze it in between the WOPR and X-Wing.

Lately, I watched the movie Alita: Battle Angel. I just thought the design of the character Zapan is really stylistic and unique. So why not taking it and transforming it into a laptop mod.



So the style of the laptop should be some what futuristic, technical/mechanical.

Acer/Predator not only provided me with a Helios 500, but I also got the 3D files of that laptop.
This is very handy, cause I can now model around the original shape and everything will stay in proportinos.

So at first, I took the basic shell and removed all unnecessary parts.







Then I blocked in the design with very primitive geomatric shapes, just to find my design.



Couple hours later, the basic design was done. Only some smaller details and the bottom half are missing. But you already can see where it goes.

 

great design, and great idea

 

Thaks mate!


Last week, I finished the work on the 3D model.









Always interresting to see the difference between the finished model and the first sketch.



Then the printing started.



I put the first parts into place, to see it they will fit.



While the remaining parts are printing, I started to sand down the printed ones
and prepare them for painting.

 

Now almost all parts are printed.



Also made some tests to see if everything still fits together.



After all parts were wet sanded, I applied couple layers of spray filler.





After the filler, all spots that needed some more attention got visible and
were filled with some spot putty.



Then everything was was wet sanded again.

 

Next, I worked on some small detail.
Therefore, I used a material called metal foam.



It was cut to size, to make it fit in the left halft of the case.







Perfect.



Then all parts were primed.





I ended up with applying another, darker grey tone, to give the following metalic color, a better
contrast.



Finished everything up with a layer of glossy clear coat.
But after the weathering it will dulled down again.

 

Next, I dismantled the entire notebook.



To create a better bond for the new color, I sanded the surface of the entire outer shell.



Then all parts were primed and also colored in silver.





Zapan has some mexican/inka/polynesian art on his body. I tried to replicate this
style. All was cut in vinyl and then dabbed on with a brush.







After the paint job was done, I reassembled the shell. The keyboard was not screwed, but glued with
plastic tips. I melted them back together with a soldering iron.

 

Lovely.

 

Next, I worked on the electrical parts.
Solderes and glued in some LED strips for a fading effect.





I got the power directly form the power supply pins on the motherboard.



The power supply has 19,8 V and I only needed 12 V so I installed
a small power converter at the M.2 mounting spot.


Next, I glued all parts on the outer shell using epoxy.





Finally, I made some more details.

 

hey random dude in a random land, here is your random brtish firend from a random european contry watching your random skills and the notebooks random development. my first random thought was to randomly say, well done, i randomly like what i randomly see.
keep up the random work and we will see eachother in some random place called taiwan.
nice work,bye n love to the gal.
do you know that beat............. rangadanga dindang random random, ranga dang a ding dang random random

 

More 'surgically precise' than random.
Didn't know you could find a little power converter like that. Neat.

 

Yeah its really great. It has quite some limitations so only like 5-24 V is possible. But for most LED or arduino stuff its more then enough.

 

And now for some final pictures:

























We also made a short making-of:

 

Lovely work...again.
Tell them you need another laptop so you can do a manga version.

 

Thanks!
Actually I got a second one

 

Very nice work. Great design, great execution.

 

o my....the paint is AMAZING

 

thanks a lot

 

your take your time but it's more then understandably seeing the results you bring.
You have a real eye for details and your planning is just amazing.
big up to you and your real quality work.

 

Love the metal-armor look. Turned out just amazing

 

excellent video of the project, stunning surgical modding skills and a fantastic and outstanding result even the bag is modded, ...you're a master