Mod of the Month Project: APASF ("A Post-Apocalyptic Steampunk Future") CustomPC Update!

Hello everyone.

This is my new "Main" project, after two small projects, one for a client and the other one being the tutorial project, this being the first main project since Fallout Cause SP back in December 2011.

I´ve had this idea in my head for years now, and you could say all of my projects in the last year and a half have simply been "tests" for techniques, both paint and structural modification in order to get ready for this one.

The concept is as far as I know something that has never been done before. Mixing the post-apocalyptic style with the steampunk style in a small slimline case (the same model in fact as I used for the fallout cause sp project). The reason for this is that it gives me a compact canvas to concentrate details and because the parts do not fit, they give me a modular look that I´ve always liked since I saw the original thermaltake Level 10 case (the first one, not the redesigned GT version).

This project is being sponsored by:













Some are new and some have been with me since the begining, either way I´d like to thank all of them for their support and amazing products!

I don´t normally list the hardware I will be using on my projects, but for the first time, this project will actually become my main PC so here are the basic details.

ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3
Intel i7 2700K
Kingston HyperX 16Gb DDR3 1866Mhz
2x Kingston HyperX SSD 240Gb in RAID
2x MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti TwinFreeze OC 2Gb in SLI
NZXT HALE90-M-850w
B-Move Slim II Case

As for the rest of componentes, cooling and accesories, you´ll see them as they get mounted.

Let´s start then.

I´ve started with the structural modifications I need done on the case, the B-Move Slim II. I really like this case, it´s small, simple yet stylsh.









I´ve taken it all apart, I won´t be using any of the frontal conectors (except frontal USB & Audio) nor buttons or led.

For the design I have in mind to work, I need to cut the cover in parts, fit the upper and lower parts permanently to the case so the door is just the side, so here goes.

First part done:







And the second:





And now a test mount of the side panel:





It all fits fine, mostly because they have grips underneath that grab the frontal side of the case. This way it doesn´t become flimsy or weak.

Now the frontal of the case. I´ve removed everything from it as it has to be cut down in order to be made completely square and straight (which will later be filled to suit my frontal design).





First, cutting the left side so that a drive sized device can fit through it (originally it´s designed not to as it has a trap door with a open close button). Second is cutting all the elevated parts in order to make everything perfectly staight and squared. It will later be sanded down, and filled up to make it a solid block.

















Now I´m going to be modifying the lower part of the case to suit the power suply, I´m using a used PSU for refference as it´s exactly the same size as the NZXT psu that will go in. In order to accomplish this I need to cut part of the lower section and modify the grip on it so I can still be fitted without the rear screw.





And done.



and the PSU fits nicely now.

















Now I´m going to start customizing the PSU.







I´m going to be using a wood "look" vinyl, mostly as a design base so I have the lines and typical look of wood to work on.



And now the first stage of it´s paintjob, which in this case is mostly a mixture of inks, and ageing effects. Here´s the first stage:





And the final stage:









And the brass detail on the side that will be poping out of the case.

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The camera flash shows what it actually looks like:





And finally a comparison shot between the standard vinyl and the "modified" one:



More to come soon!

 

Today´s work. Power suply finished.











More tomorrow hopefully, also, last minute change, the MSI graphic cards where no longer avaliable so have settled for 2x Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP 1GB GDDR5, it seems that fate always brings me back to asus for one reason or another. In any case, hopefully delivered tomorrow and can fo more body work over the weekend.

 

Oooh, a steampunk project.
I'll be watching with interest. Carry on my good sir, carry on.

 

hope you like it : )

 

as do i! love the steampunk!
Great start, i also like the level 10 a lot more then the level 10GT...

 

I know! Not sure why they dimmed it down so much with the GT.

 

no kidding, got like any other case with a handle... :/

 

quite a shame, as its what made the 10 so special, well and the absurd pricetag haha

 

Oh wow! That vinyl work is amazing!

 

Cool idea! Mixing post apocalyptic with steampunk will be awesome!

 

thanks guys, and I sure hope so Bladesingerz, it looks good in my head but still trying to figure out how good or awfull is the copper rust going to turn out (since copper rusts green)

 

looks amaising looking forward to the rest of the mod

 

Love the PSU, looks like genuine aged wood, can't wait to see what happens next.

 

Time for an update.

Unluckly the new GPUs didn´t come on friday so I couldnt do much on the weekend, but they came today and as luck would have it, it was only a half day at work as I did overtime on Friday.



Right, time for a test mount.







The frontal bay system does not close by very little, so I´ve trimmed down one of them so it does.





As for the watercooling, I will be using a full copper pipe system for this project, which while it looks really good is rather complicated for two reasons, first, I need plumbing fittings, luckily I found out that 3/8 is a common size for that, so i got some G1/4 to 3/8 fittings and problem solved.

The second problem, or not really problem just, complicated fact is that there´s no flexing, here, so all the measurements have to be exact at every point, so once all the liquid cooling bits and bobs are in their place I will get the pipes and cut them to size so everything fits, nicely. Meanwhile, here´s a preview:



Right, now the case modifying for the GPUs.







I trimmed this section a bit more to make sure there´s no contact, tomorrow I will clean up all the cuts:



Right, because the fittings are so big, my original plan of taking the pipes out the back is scrapped and I have to come up with an idea to take them out the side panel and still be able to open the case as needed, so here´s the solution. I cut the side panel so I can unlock and slide downwards in order to open it.



And to cover it up, and old school grill which I´ll cut to let the pipes through, this way in order to open it, I just unscrew the grill and slide open the side panel. Problem Solved.



More tomorrow hopefully.

 

Update.

Today I´ve started to cut and test mount the side covers. While they look like wood, they are plastic and they are not the final look, they simply come like that from the store, I will be using vinyl and ageing process so they match the PSU. The same treatment will be done on both sides of the case.

Originally I was going to use rubber covers for the cuts so they don´t look sharp, however in order to add more "wood" to the design, I will be using the same parts cut in half as on the side, this should increase the wood/copper ratio of the final look.

I´ve also ordered all the liquid cooling stuff I need, and it will hopefully arrive on Friday so I have the weekend to mount everything and start and finish the front of the case so on Monday I can go to the plumbing suplies shop and cut, test mount and buy all remaining fittings and copper tubing to complete the loop.

If the parts don´t come by friday I´ll have to delay the plumbing details till tuesday or wednesday which will only give me a 2 day painting window to finish the project, so it´d definately cutting it short, but I feel confident at this point.

Aniway, photos!















Hopefully more tomorrow.

 

Quick Update.

It doesn´t seem like much but it took me all the time I had to spare today to do this, the steel on this case is really stubborn (specially on the back where it´s thicker)!

Aniway, the screws I ordered (yes I had to order them, it seems no one locally had 3mm x 50mm screws) arrived and I they did the job perfectly, now the GPUs are properly secured.



And all the borders have been cut to size and test mounted. Some trimming left to do on them and adjusting for a perfect fit, but it´s really starting to take shape now.









Aniway, more tomorrow hopefully.

 

It's looking good so far, sub'd.

 

cheers : )

 

First update of the day...

To freshen up your memory, this is what the front looked like once I had cut out everything I didnt need out of it, remember that originally it had 2 doors and all sorts of things.



So I cut a further section to incorporate a new idea I had for the front (which you will partially see by the end of this update but not completely by a long shot till, with a bit of luck, the second and final update of today (i.e. tonight).

I then filled it all up with epoxy filler.









Once it was dry I started with what will become a couple of hours of sanding.



That´s how it looked yesterday before I called it a day and went out for a drink as I needed to disconnect badly.

Today, I started fresh this morning at around 10am and continued sanding until it was ready.



Next I used a bit of filler for the places where it had created air bubbles and ended up empty and continued sanding until it was as ready as it was ever going to be with the limited timeframe I have left (I no longer feel my hands lol).



Next I cleaned it up and aplied the vinyl (yes the front will be going in that wood look, the same as the PSU).

I thend modified the picture frame I had bought so it will simply slide in and "hug" the bottom and sides of the frontal.

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Lastly and more importantly, I aplied all the ageing effects to both the vinyl and the frame and put them togueter.

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Later today I will be triming the leftovers and keep on working on the rest of the design of the frontal.

Until then.

 

I know I said only one more update today... but I´ve just finished the front of the case, or at least until the package from Lamptron arrives, fingers crossed it arrives before friday or I wont meet my deadline.

Point is, I´m in love with how it turned out so I wanted to come upstairs and post it so you guys can see it.

So what I did is, using the back of the back plastic of the frame, I sanded it down and throw some matt black paint on it. I cut it down to size and fit it in the opening. I then added two screws on the back of the middle of the frontal of the case to hang the 2 mini-pocket-watches from. I then stack them to the back plate using a bit of hot glue.

Mounted the frame on the case to make sure it all looked ok before I screwed the frame in (with it´s glass).





All good, then I put the glass in and screwed the frame on to the frontal and aplied the same paint effect to the screws so they would not be visible. I also added the same effect to the borders of the glass to make it look old and stained.

And the result...





3rd and last update for today later on.