Hi everyone, I have been asked by a good friend of mine to do a case mod based on her best friend's favorite Mass Effect character; Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. It is her friend's 21st birthday in August and she has come to me to make her a special birthday present I was very excited to start another mod and it wasn't the money that drove me to start this project in such a hurry, I would have done it for free purely because I love modding! I started of course by doing some research, both into Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and possible case options. Eventually I decided on the NZXT Phantom 410, I have worked with the original full tower Phantom and I was excited to see it's smaller sibling I wanted to get Tali's mask airbrused onto the front of the case but a quote of roughly USD $850 for a local airbrush artist quickly drove me away from that idea. So I decided to just stick with following the colour scheme for starters. I bought the black version of the Phantom and as soon as it arrived I proceeded to dismantling it to take to the powdercoaters. Tomorrow I'm off to the local hardware store to buy some primer, some gold and some light purple spray paint to do the plastic parts and the rear expansions card brackets. But for now here are a few photos of the case before and after dismantling: Those are the colours I will be using to best match Tali's uniform, the dark purple sample sheet is from the powdercoaters, that is the colour the chassis will be, the lighter purple will be used for the plastic trim on the Phantom and the gold will be used for the fan grills as well as the expansion card backplates. Yesterday I went and ordered 1mm aluminium sheet to construct a PSU shroud as well as a smaller sheet which I will be using as a plaque, my client wants me to engrave a personalised message for the final case owner I also bought some finer engraving bits for my Dremel tool so I can do finer, more detailed engraving. My first fit test of the PSU shroud, I realised I would have to make a few minor cutouts so the shroud would fit in nicely. It fits! I'm very happy with the result, next step is to decide where I will be placing the plaque, I want to place it on top of the shroud so it can be viewed through the case window but not directly above the PSU as I want to engrave through the plaque and have backlighting. So I will have to place it in front of the PSU and make a cutout in the shroud so light can pass through. I cut out that horrid fan grill and now there is space for a large case window That is all for now but the next update shouldn't be too far away, I'm working furiously on this build!
I have an update! I've finished painting most of the plastic trim and grill on the front and top of the case as well as a few other things. Here are some photos of my progress: I also made a cutout in the PSU shroud for the plaque that my client wants me to make. It will be raised slightly with a personal happy 2st message on it. I plan on having lighting under the plaque and that was the reason for the cutout I also did some practice engraving as it was my first time, I'm quite happy with the result That's all for now but I hope to bring another update very soon
Wow nice engraving! I've only tried it once and I just made a mess. Looking forward to seeing the finished plaque.
Thanks guys! Sorry, I have been very busy with work lately that I haven't had much time to work on my mods. Here are some shots of what I've done so far: I painted some of the accents gold. I decided to make a faceplate for the side of the 5.25" drive bay to give the case a cleaner look but I messed up the cut so I might give it another go later. But the big change is the case has come back from the powdercoaters! I love the result! The purple is even more vibrant than I expected Here is my final result for the engraved plaque, I'm not extremely happy with it but the client loves it and that is what matters And last but not least, here is a shot of the build next to my other mods
I thought the gold would be a horror show, (It never seems to work right,) but it looks good on the accents. -Nice color scheme all around.
Nice work! And btw, have you got a worklog of the right case? I see a huge cooling sistem. Please, give me a link if you have a log.
I was worried at first as I've never painted plastic before but I'm very happy with how it turned out. Silver Blade? I do indeed http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=230360 And don't worry about your English, it is fine!
Hi everyone, I have another update. Updates are few and far apart due to the fact that I'm working on four builds in my spare time. First off I have installed some LED strips in the case, they were marketed as UV LED strips however when they arrived I knew instantly that they were just purple LED strips. I'm not too bothered about it though, they shouls still light up the case quite nicely. And we have lights! I propped a white acrylic panel up on the motherboard tray to test how it reflected the purple light. I also started sleeving my 24-pin extension with MDPC-X sleeve, I'm slowly improving. My next step was to find a way to rout the 24-pin cable neatly to the connector. I was very happy with the way the white acrylic reflected the purple light and gave the case a very clean look so I ordered a lager piece and made a cover for the motherboard tray. I then drilled 24 holes for routing the 24-pin cable through the piece of acrylic. This would make the cables come out neatly and look very organised. I started with a 1.5mm drill bit and drilled 24 pilot holes in a grid. I then moved on to a larger 4.5mm drill bit which was the perfect size for the sleeved cables to pass through. And here we have the end result with some shots of the cables passing through and the motherboard tray cover installed in the case. That is all for now folks, but there will be more coming soon. The dead line for this case mod is fast approaching and I still need to make a stencil to paint the spirals on the side panels.
Really great idea with the cable. Since few days I am thinking how to make same to my project(holes for the cables or one big hole so the whole cable can move through it). Keep the good work
I was concerned with the colors at first but you made it work. Great job on that custom sleaving. Any gold sleaving going in?
