I have never modded a case before, nor molded anything, nor do I know that much about modding in general, so this will probably end up being a horrid idea but what the hell, worth a shot. I love very detailed mods, from fancy colors and lots of tubes to strange cases. I have may ideas but this one falls under strange cases. I want to build a sculpture of one of the characters from the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic then build a computer inside of it. Simple as that. I am not so much worried about dimensions right now as figuring out a way to actually build it so I am going to keep that out of the thread. I have no clue how I am going to do it, but I WILL get this build done, even with my very minimal experience. Thing is I have no clue where to start, I know what I want but not how to get it. I want the sculpture to have a smooth finish, but not breaking the bank. I have never sculpted before but am willing to take the time to learn. The way I see it, is if you screw up you can always fix it. My question is, how should I start? What materials should I use? I have heard people say paper mache but I am not sure if that can get the finish I want or if it is even a good material to use. I am leaning toward fiberglass molding around a pre-bought base (probably a kids rocking horse or something) then hollow the whole thing out. Will that get the smooth finish I want? Plastic would work best but that is a big build. ( I figure 3 1/2 feet would be ideal, what do I know though?) and that would take A LOT of plastic, money, and screw ups. It all seems to bring me back to fiberglass but a friend told me to ask here to see what you all thought and so I am. Any thoughts/ideas/tips would be greatly appreciated, I am going to need all the help I can get.
While i know of 2 casemods based on My Little Pony are featured here on Bittech, you'll be the first to actually scratchbuild a pony for a case. I would say your inexperience will get the better of you and you should think hard about going ahead with this ambitious idea, or start off simple and modifying an existing case. But if you're crazy enough to go ahead, here's some advice. First off, sort out what computer you're going to be putting inside of your pony. use a cheap case to scavenge things like a motherboard tray, hard drive cages and PSU mounts. work out how big your computer will be and then plan your sculpting around it. As for sculpting, build a framework out of plastic tubing. you may want to look at things like drainage pipes from a hardware store for legs. Then use car body filler to shape out details and curves. failing that, glue together a few blocks of building insulation foam, and carve/sand out the shape you want from that, then coat in a lot of coats of Gesso artists primer.. I've never used Fiberglass before, but i would say that's the closest you'll get to a hollow shell that's tough enough to support it's own weight. for the smooth finish you want, you'll have to cover the fiberglass shell with car body filler, then sand smooth and paint.
