Case Mod - In Progress Project Harlot 5 Flight Data Recorder, SFF Case, Scifi Themed, 2 watercooling systems

Hello – it’s been a while since I posted here, or anywhere for that matter – did ya miss me?

First of all, lets start with this pic...



Lovely isn’t she….. Have I got your attention?

This is the is the pic that inspired the name. (since Red-5 was already taken) I found this while surfing the net, don’t know who made the pic or what its from – but props to the original artist. I plan on having some fun with her. err you know what I mean...

So anyway, I decided to get back into modding in a big way and I needed a warm up project. I have no budget and everything on this mod has to be something that I already have. Of course some small items will need to be purchased but I plan on keeping that to a minimum, a wireless network card is high on my need list for this project, maybe some paint, etc. But this is pretty much a recycled project and a lot of parts got a last minute reprieve from falling into the trash bin.

I have a bunch of bins of stuff that I was literally about to toss into the recycle can a few weeks ago but I decided to go ahead and build a pc and mod it out to the best that I can with out investing ANY dollars into it. So that means that you power hungry pc guys are going to be disappointed in the specs of this pc… cause they are going to be old as well. Near as I can tell – at least 4 years old. My goal is to complete this mod with at least 95% recycled parts.

I have not done any research here on Bit-tech to see what the current trends are – about the only thing I did was to check to see if my account was still good and if Gnone ever finished his WMD (love that build)… So since I have not checked with any of the current job logs I may be doing stuff that other modders have done, are doing or may just be out of style… don’t matter – this is an old school mod with old school parts.

My last mod posted here was for Project: Perforated, I won a Rig of the Month on Maximum Pc Magazine back in August of 2005. I mention it only because I plan on sticking with something that I already know, so I will be basically redoing that mod but only smaller. Here is a pic of “Perforated’. I noticed that the thread is still searchable here – just no pics… I have themk and maybe I will update that thread. I am sure that ‘Perforated’ will be donating some parts whether it likes it or not…..



As with ‘Perforated’, this mod is also going to be a Sci-Fi theme and I am finally going to get my wish fulfilled of making a Flight Data Recorder – BootupBuddha style…



Here is what a real flight data recorder looks like. My version is going to be nothing like the real thing.

The back story on this mod is that this is a flight data recorder to an aero-space fighter called ‘Harlot 5’. It was a ship from the 501st Tactical Fighter Group of the United Nations of America. Long since decommissioned and scraped. The flight data recorder bounced from one surplus warehouse to another. Years later, some dude finds it, buys it and builds it into a pc….. That’s enough back story – here is the build log.

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This mod started out as a Silverstone case model #SG01-W. Nice cube case that I got when I wanted to retire ‘Perforated’ and save on some desktop space. The motherboard is an ECS model #P4M800-M with 1 gig of ram. I will be installing Ubuntu Linux on it. A breakout box attached to the side of the case will contain a spare wireless router and I will be modding a keyboard to match the case. No plans to mod a mouse – but we see what happens later on – things could change. It will be water cooled, and I am entertaining a fantasy of putting two separate water cooling systems in the case. One for the proc and one for the really crappy video card that I have.



Above is a factory new case and below is mine.




I began by removing on of the perforated side panels and extending the opening to allow for a small radiator. I have a bin full of water cooling parts.

 

Part 2

Then I cut a area on top of the case so that I can mount a part of a crashed airplane that I found in the desert. I plan on leaving it unpainted as if it was a part that was later on added to the flight data recorder (for now on it will be just: fdr).

 

Part 3

Since this was an aero-space fighter, any buttons had to be protected, so I needed to allow for that and since this was a component in a ship that may needed to be pulled our for service. I plan on adding pull handles. Below is a mockup of what I on planning to do.



I pulled a piece of scrap metal from a bin in my work bench and made a cover to the large opening that I cut out of the side of the case. I will be mounting it slightly raised so that there is air flow from underneath it – I don’t what to lose the venting and I will also need to cut a round hole for the radiator exhaust.













My dremel skills are a bit rusty…

 

I belive this is going to be an exciting thread, looking forward for updates!

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

 

Part 4

I also removed a portion of the top to make room for a window, what’s the point of modding the inside if I can’t see any of it…











Once the cuts and filing are done I went over the case with an electric sander to smooth out the edges and get ready for painting.



I went ahead and bolted the safety bars to the face and attached the window and extra panel.







That pretty much completes the mods for the outside of the case. I will do the breakout box separately and add it later on. Painting and custom stickers will play a major part in the mod.

 

Great start! Never seen perforated before. This is going to be fun. sub'd

 

Sweet! Don't forget FDR's are bright ass red/orange for a reason. Makes them easier to find in the wreckage.

 

LOL but mine wont be.....

 

Forgot to show you the front of the case.

Opps one more, here is the front of the case with the handles all attached, the white rivets are covering an a miscalculation, but that's okay as this thing is going to look like its been around the block a few times and I would like it to look like its been modded several times as well.

 

Part 5 - painting

Time to paint – I am going to keep this real simple. I will not be using any of my airbrushes almost every thing will be done using rattle cans and stains of which I will be reaching into the back of my cabinet and using anything that I can find. I will use my vinyl cutter to make stencils and I will print custom stickers using my inkjet printer and printing onto glossy sticker paper.

The front bezel has this mirror background that has to go, so I sanded and painted it yellow. Note: the colors I am choosing are bright, for a reason. Since I plan on grunging it up – a dark colored base will just end up being a big brown lump of dung. But if you start with bright colors and then grunge it – you will end up with a nice contrasting palette that looks good, looks old and most importantly looks real…





Hanging in my homemade paint booth. I do a lot of painting with ‘Duracoat’ and this thing keeps the smell out of the house… (‘Duracoat’ really has a strong odor.)



Hazard Stripes – I love hazard stripes. Since the stripes are going to black on white – I went ahead and used the existing paint for the black. My gut feeling was to go with more stripes but I ended up making the area smaller.





I painted this area yellow so that I could place text over it and the text would be yellow when finished.



Both sides…



To make my text templates I use my vinyl cutter.



Here is what the text looks like just before I place it on the case. You should have the idea now – so I am going to skip showing all the other templates and just show you them when they are actually on the case. Here is a medly of pics showing the templates and some painting.











Here is a little Dura Coating in action, German Grey (WWII color) that I did for a client.



The case painting continues.







More hazard stripes!!!



I took a break from working on the case body and started working on the face. I ran out of primer and opted to go with out it. Remember - zero budget!!!

Getting ready to paint the front of the case.

 

keep it up lts is gonna be cool

 

love it, i spent ages trying to find your last project with no luck! Can you link to your last project, i loved the cut down dragon.

 

Click on the users name, go to the statistics tab, left side is show threads started by username.


I should teach Search Fu

 

Here is the link: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=68403&highlight=project+perforated

but all the pics are gone - I will try to update them this weekend. Thanks for the interest.

 

Part 6 Painting continues

Masked and ready to paint some candy stripes on the face. Actually, I am about to make a mistake at this point.



Painted the candy stripes. Sometime later I realized that I did not mask off the bottom of the face plate and had the candy stripes wrapping under the case – I should have masked them off at the bottom to match the side of the case. I ended up fixing it later on in the day.



I am sure I will make some more mistakes later…. Side ready for red stripes. See how the bottom is masked off. That’s what I meant.



And painted.



My assistant.



I pulled off the masking tape from the face and the sides of the case. Here is when I noticed my mistake on the face….





When I pulled the masking from the vent side, some of the paint pulled with it. Not a mistake – I actually was hoping for more to pull from it….. oh well.

 

Lookin' good so far

 

thanks

 

Part 6 weathering and stickers

The next series of pic’s is sort of a dress rehearsal so I can start to imagine how the I want to go about weathering the case. As examined the case from different angles I was able to start picturing what the detail elements should look like. I had some ideas from the beginning, but I know that it would evolve. You will start to see the evolution in the following set of pic’s.

I pulled a used res that I fooled around with and painted ‘coolant’ on it. But I had a solid idea what was going to be on it – not the word ‘coolant’. I plan on using that space to paint a web site address to a near future project.















Now I start to add some detail. First the United Nations Logo. Er, excuse me, that would be the United Nations of America. All your base are belong to us…. Hehe





Time to do a little work on the wireless router, I did not show any details on the painiting as it was a lot of what you have already seen.



After a quick dress rehearsal, I noticed that I was seeing double. That’s a lot o ‘Harlot 5’ action going on there.



So – time for a new window…. Goes with my its been modded before theme.





New window in place. I also started the weathering process on the wireless router. Just to get back in the hang of doing before I started on the actual case.



I ended up with a cool new key ring.



Time the start the weathering process in earnest. First some sanding to rough up the paint and put some wear lines on to it.








Now I am causing a can of black spray paint to spit paint. You do this by barley pressing the spray button – takes a little practice.



I also did this with silver spray paint.



There are more refined ways to weather with paint – an airbrush comes to mind – but I really wanted to keep this as ‘low tech’ as I could.. Besides, I had a lot of old paint I wanted to use up.



Then I opened my can of ‘crud’ and started to really age the case. Its just stain….











That’s pretty much the sides, now I started working on the details for the front of the case. Time to introduce my lovely lady – Miss Harlot 5….



And little extra detail for the side. Btw – the half grenade is how I mark all my custom paint jobs.



And here is my sticker sheet that I made for the mod. Its really these small things that make a themed mod believable for me.



And the stickers in there places.







And at this time is when I realized that the Harlot 5 logo was not working for me in yellow……..



So I was going to have to change it to red, then re-weather the text. Actually, turned out to be really easy – thank god for the vinyl cutter.





The other side as well.



Once was yellow – now is red.





Back to work on the front of the case.





Now I need to work on the cd/dvd player and the res.



That’s all for now – here is a nice pic to say good bye with.

 

looks like it has been on the sea bottom for 30 years Really nice!