Case Mod - In Progress Cosmos 1000 Flash mod

Hello everybody

Okay, so I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and I finally started. This is my first case mod of any sort, but I have worked with metal and stuff before, just not on anything like this. The theme for the mod is The Flash like Flash Gordon flash, I like the colors (they match my room) I like the character, and there are some other reasons for picking it also. It will be done almost purely with a B&D rotary tool and a dewalt drill. I might go to the metal shop (where I happen to work) and get some parts cnc'ed. I laugh at myself for having access to a whole shop, yet doing this with limited tools at my house. well I can jump on this whenever i like then because it's here, and when I'm there I work. enough of my rant

I really like the cosmos 1000, it has good aesthetics outside and in, that is why I bought it in the first place. Now i'm going to mod it, but I will try to keep the features I like about the case (ie the door and the hdd bays). any thoughts are welcomed

Onto the pictures (sorry there's not more but you really don't need to see me cutting)



The flash symbol is going to go here on the side panel, I will put a clear piece of acrylic on, and then A yellow lighting bolt on top, (the first time/ rotary tool job edged will be covered with u-channel molding. But I kinda like the hand done/original look.)



The bolt

On the front side of the case, behind the door I will showcase a hdd, maybe an ssd once I get the money



The plastic that covers the front

IT will get cleaned up and painted red, and the mesh grill that comes over it (but doesn't do anything) will get painted yellow. The hd will get mounted in red acrylic.


on to the top. I cut out an extra fan hole, but had to shift the original one over to fit it in. Leaving me with a mounting problem. I made a bracket (man did it eat up my cutting wheels)



Here is the custom braket, which didn't turn out good at all since I kept having to move mounting holes and it's made out of thin metal, maybe one of the parts I cnc' latter.


The plastic cover that goes over the top exhaust fans


Will get painted red, and an aluminum mesh that goes in the hole will get painted yellow.

The other side panel


I'm thinking a red flash on there and then somehow do a rough circle around it (no edges just spray paint) and then having the rest of the panel red. The windowed panel will also be red. the plastic border's of the case will be yellow, and the handles/feet will be red.

Any thoughts, comments, questions.

wish me luck

 

Good luck.

Welcome to Bit Tech.

Anyways, make sure you grind down the rough edges.

 

I guess I'm not the new guy anymore.
Welcome to Bit Tech.
Very interesting mod so far. I will be watching. Mod on

 

Thanks Guy's

Yeah I'm working on those edges, it's hard to get crisp clean cuts using just a rotary tool, especially when I'm pretty new with it.

Hey shadow, I took your advice and came here, I will do the TH one to though, and I made sure to put your name in the "who referred you" box.

More stuff tomorrow

 

Thanks man! Anyways, keep us updated.

 

Good and good/bad news

Some good news, got some more stuff cut out, i think all of it

the mesh grill in the top

I think it turned out pretty good. Had to create notches in the underside of the plastic for it too fit but it fit's great and will be epoxied in once i'm done painting

Just A hint at what the hdd showcase will look like


and my bottom fans , there is mesh epoxied on to add more ventilation to the psu.

One thing I learned doing this bottom part is it is hard to get good fan holes cut out, trying to use the fan itself as the stencil. So a one fan is only screwed in by 2 or three screws. Granted part of the problem was the hdd rack which made it impossible to drill well. I need to get some wire fan grills, and use those. I have some paper stencils that I printed out but there just to flimsy to be accurate on hole placements. ohh well At least it isn't too visible and i'll learn from this mistake.

Ok now the good/bad news, the weather here is not so great depending on how you look at it, it just snowed 10 inches and more is on the way, which is not helpful for painting especially when that will be done in a garage with an open door or outside. But i get to go skiing on some sick snow

 

Okay I've got some opinion questions, which paint scheme do you think will look best on the non-window side panel
option 1


note: the circle will be round or ovular not weird, and the guy will be the flash character, but with no detail just a silhouette
option 2


Now out of those two schemes their are more options, the circle edges can be rough and just hand spray painted, or I can use an edge and make them fine. Also For the guy I can, glue/tape this painted red instead of just having a silhouette. Remember the lightning bold on the other side panel will stick out a little also, so I thought it would be nice to have a little match??.

Anyway what do you think.

 

Welcome to Bit-tech my friend!
A word of advice though, give attention to details cause this is what it matters at the end and if something you do its not so nice, do it again until you see that is good enough!
Check out my latest worklog in my sig and see how many times I canceled things I did and redid them again! Mod on!

 

^+1.

Anyways, I think option 1 would be good.

 

Thanks for the advice, I have made sure to keep sanding and filing to get nice edges, but some stuff (ie those bad cuts in the case) I just can't redo with my budget.

Do you guys think I should use the metal flash cut out, or just to a silhouette painted onto the side panel?

 

I would say go for the cutout. Perhaps give it a yellow or red acrylic accent?

 

have the same case, gonna keep an eye on this one.

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/peripherals/2009/07/05/the-best-way-to-clean-your-keyboard/1

The mod looks good so far, keep it up.

 

Thanks for the support everybody,

And the accent is a great idea, I'll do a yellow accent since I have some yellow left over from the lightning bold, the guy will be red so it will look better, the only problem is that I'll have to do two parts and mesh them. But since I can mesh them on the straight factory edge it shouldn't be a problem.

I think I'll also cut out a flash out of the side panel, so the acrylic can go behind the side panel to accent the metal cutout. If I do this I can light it and it will look sick, and this way the the guy won't stick out too far.
it will hopefully look like


in case your wondering the picture I'm kinda trying to emulate is


To bad I'm not a talented enough artist to do the small individual lightning bolts

In the meantime, I just got a snow day, so I don't have to go to school on Friday because of


And there is more to come. And now that I have more cutting to do, I don't have to paint, yet.

Thanks again guys

 

I like #1 too. Go with the cutout it would add a little depth to your mod surface. The acrylic idea sounds good too. mod on

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

So since I'm going to do this lit acrylic background how does painting the whole panel red sound (instead of leaving a circle in the middle so you could see the guy) it might end up looking like this.

paint number 3

 

Hmm... that's interesting. But imo, that's too much red.

 

Looks very communist that one, Personally i prefer the red with the yellow glow in option 2

 

You Figured me out, oh no

any way thanks for the opinions and support guys

Here's the panel cutting process. The guy is bigger in actuality than in the pictures so the red might not be too overwhelming, in option 3.

With option two I can't do the lighted acrylic accent as well, because yellow would blend in with the circle and red with the guy.

Option 3 might be the best just because during the cutting and sanding process I scratched the panel a tad, (it's just hard to cut so detailed with a rotary tool in this thick of metal)





The edges are cleaned up in that picture, but there is some tape residue left over on the sides which makes it look bad. You can see those surface scratches I was talking about on lookers left ear and right hand.

Next cutting out the backing acrylic and then onto painting.

 

Dude, you shouldn't have cut out the bit between Flash's left arm and his torso. Now he looks sort of fat