The Flash!

[commandercup]

I'm going to be starting a more extensive case mod for the Maximum PC ComicCon competition... although I have no plans to win lol

Anyways...

The idea is to modify this case:

and to turn it into a "Speedy" machine!

For starters, I've disassembled everything except for the main chassis

*Pictures will come soon*

Thus there is no longer any of those cheesy "wing" design peices or the mesh grills as well as none of the weird insignia emblems etc.

I'll be starting off by engraving a picture of the Flash onto the aluminum front door panel part... which is where my first question comes... Should I paint the piece first? or should I engrave it first? My idea is that if I try to engrave the prepainted piece, the paint will chip off...

Anyways, thus I'll be painting all parts of the case Red with a super paint job, atleast as good as I can do

I'll be wet sanding, using multiple layers of primer, using a whole lot of layers of super glossy red automotive paint and some super glossy krylon for the plastic front bezel of the case as well as any other plastic pieces, I'll even consider buffing the finished product after all the wet sanding is done

After painting, I'll be setting up a design for the lightning bolts that will be on the side of the case (sort of in the fashion the wing thing is now) so that I can cut them out and then mount yellow acrylic behind it. The lightning bolts will go on either side although the left side of the case will be supplemented with a full feature window above where the lightning bolts will be... (I might consider just etching the Flash logo instead)

After all that I'll be replacing the stock lights on the bezel (3 or 4 blue LEDS that are stuck into one of those clear tubes that make the light spread) with some red LED's (maybe yellow, or maybe both) to accent the engraving of the Flash

After that I'll be cutting out 120mm fan holes for the exhaust and the intake which will then be covered using custom made (probably modified) grills that will feature a hollow circle and a lightning bolt mounted on top (flash logo). I will also be getting RED (yellow if I can find them) LED fans so that the grills will light up (the lightning bolt will be yellow acrylic as well)

Well thats all I have for now...

Don't expect much work to get done soon lol, painting will begin this weekend if I'm not lazy and the engraving will be completed sometime next week

 

[commandercup]

All future pictures can be found at the Flash FLICKR Album

The disassembled A-Top Gladiator ATX Case

Here are some of the supplies for painting and prepping the case and the various parts.

Heres the front aluminum bezel that will be painted and engraved.

The aluminum bezel all ready to be painted, it was sprayed with primer and sanded lightly between coats.

The bezel and a mouse shell painted gloss apple red after the primer, 3 coats each.

Disassembled 350 watt Hipro power supply. The chassis will be painted red as well.

 

[commandercup]

The PSU has dried and has been reassembled

I'm going to be getting a new case for painting, dropping the current case because the front bezel does't line up correctly with the rest of the case with the adorments removed... I may try and get it working, but we'll see

Anyways... heres a HP keyboard being disassembled for painting

 

[Preacher]

Amazing work ! So it'll be red and yellow just like The Flash

 

[DawnOfDoom]

ohhhh i think this is gona be a good mod modding the keyboard and all eh? niice. although i think the next keyboard you mod should be a G15 i know their expensive but i think your good enough to where you wouldnt mess it up. but you can practice on keyboards like this for a while.

 

[commandercup]

eh, I won't be personally using this computer so I won't be modding my personal keyboards 0_0 (the hp one is just some generic brand I found around the house, as is the mouse)

I'll probably give it away on my site or just have it for show

I'm going to enter it into the MPC comiccon competition, and submit it to the modshop website and the evga mod website and the rig of the month in MPC

Hopefully it'll win something there lol

All the main features of the PC will be red since that is the main color of the Flash. All accents will be yellow such as the acrylic that will be backlit by some UV cathodes on the side panels as well as the yellow LED's that will be mounted behind the bezel and to light up the acrylic that will be on the top panel.

The inside of the case will be a beauty too, I've ordered yellow UV dye and some clear R-3603 tubing for a watercooling system inside the case. So I'll be fidning ways to make the tubing arrangedlike lightning bolts inside the case (probably a lot of elbows) in the later stages of the mod.
Anyways... here are some more pictures!

This last picture was during the spraying process so the paint looks a bit rough. The inside of the panel didn't go to well because the primer started sputtering (big globs started coming out) so I'll be sanding the inside and redoing it sometime in the future. The finish itself is pretty decent though.

 

[commandercup]

I completed a boat load of work so far... I didn't have time to work on Sunday because I was out of the house, but I did pick up a bunch of supplies and tools!

BTW! I got my first dremel! Woohoo!

Heres the paint I've been using.

Some supplies from RadioShack and Homedepot.

The thermaltake fan grill that will be sliced up and customized into a "the Flash" fan grill with lightning bolts. It will be painted red and have yellow acrylic lightning bolts backlit by a red LED fan.

Heres the silver bezel attachment disassembled. The fins will be cut off and it will be painted red, the little mesh piece will be painted yellow and there will be a yellow acrylic lightning bolt attached to it.

I got some supplies from FrozenCPU! Weird looking box... seems like it was recycled at their facility 0_0, but great packaging anyways. I got some Tygon R-3603 tubing, a sheet of cell-cast yellow acrylic with accompanying u-channel, some UV Yellow additive etc.

THe thermaltake fan grill has been cut.

The stuff I'll be using to cut the fan grill out of the bottom of the case.

The stock fan mesh will be cut out and the custom grill will be attached instead.

The mesh is cut out!

 

[commandercup]

Some random stuff being painted yellow to accent the case.

The stock side panel before its cut.

Prelimenary cutting is done on the panel. After the lightning bolts are cut out the yellow acrylic will be mounted behind it and lit with some LEDs.

The little bezel thing thats going to be cut.

The bezel thingy is cut.

Front view of the painted chassis.

Back view of the case.

 

[Preacher]

Great Solid work ! Were those snowboarding goggles ?

 

[commandercup]

thanks

nope, safety goggles that were modeled like ski goggles

I wear glasses and thus couldn't get regular safety glasses without being uncomfortable 0_0

I'll probably be doing some more work on that side panel later today, giving the dremel a break because it was starting to smell

also, uploading some videos of the dremeling and of the unboxing of the FrozenCPU goodies.

edit:

here are the videos

FrozenCPU Unboxing
Eh, I have to edit the dremeling video, it'll be up later.