The Green Ghost

[Commando]

The next big project. I'm calling it The Green Ghost cause I can't think of anything cooler.

Ok, I know you guys are starting to think I don't have a real job but I do. I'm just getting really good at managing my time for my hobbies.

I just built my new rig (to test of course). I did this to make sure everything worked before painting. Something tells me TigerDirect frowns upon returns covered in seven coats of paint from Auto Zone.

Everything does work. So that means we start tomorrow. Here are all the before pics. Oh yeah, here are the specs of my new rig for all the hardcore hardware guys:

Pentium D 930 3.0 Ghz
Shuttle SS30G2 Socket 775 Barebone
Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard
EVGA GeForce 7600 GS
Corsair CMSS1G-533 1GB PC4200
Logitech LX5 Cordless Optical Mouse
Ultimate Speaker Sicuro 2.1 RW-360XL Green
Maxtor 80GB Serial ATA HD


I just used my old DVD drive and my other backup Maxtor 250gig HDD

http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The_Ghost_002.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The_Ghost_003.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The_Ghost_004.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The_Ghost_006.jpg

Oh yeah and when I said I've gotten better at managing my time. That really just means I have to get this stuff done fast. So hang on. This is gonna be a fast project.

[Commando]

By the way, I know how ghetto my desk is. No need to point it out. You can see where my priorities lie though. Brand new house, brand new computer, 50$ desk from WalMart. My wife has a huge desk, big surprise.

[DaveW]

What you need is to make your own space man. Check out my own project The Integration Project (in the sig) to see my setup.

Go on, you know you want to! :D

-Dave

[Zephik]

By the way, I know how ghetto my desk is. No need to point it out. You can see where my priorities lie though. Brand new house, brand new computer, 50$ desk from WalMart. My wife has a huge desk, big surprise.

hahaha, I was JUST telling my dad about that being one of his bad habits the other day. He buys all this great crap, then he goes out and buys this desk from like WalMart. You know what happened? He tried getting it through the door and it busted! HA!

The Green Ghost huh? That sounds pretty cool to me! So... what are your plans? lol Why am I asking? I should just wait and watch, you have a tendency to impress me with your skills so far. You can air brush like you've been doing it for years ...you probably have now that I think about it. lol

Oh yeah, my younger brother has those speakers in black. How do you like them? I love em, they got some pretty decent SNR and they can go pretty dang loud too!

[SgtM]

Can't wait to see it come together. I know it's gonna be sick.

[Commando]

Thanks.

Heres a concept sketch. I've got the day off, so I'm trying to get everything started between my chores. I'll post some progress pics tonight.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/the_green_ghost_concept.jpg

[SgtM]

Do I see black and green flames!? SWEETNESS!

[Commando]

I've just been swamped at work. Yeah, yeah you've heard that before. I got the speakers and the case painted black. I got the Candy Green Paint I was waiting on. If the wifey will cut me some slack, I'm hoping to get some of the flame work done tomorrow.

[Zephik]

Dude... nice sketch! THAT IS MASTER SKILLAGE! lol Just playing with you, but it does look pretty stinking sweet! Can't wait to see this take off!

[Commando]

All right, I was able to get a solid 2 1/2hrs in today.

This is where we stand. I got the case done, the front panel done, the subwoofer done,and the speakers done. When I say done I mean painted and clearcoated.

Here are the front speakers.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/Picture%20006tg.jpg

Here is the front panel of the case.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/Picture%20007tg.jpg

The next three pics are the case.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/Picture%20010tg.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/Picture%20014tg.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/Picture%20015tg.jpg

Here is the subwoofer.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/Picture%20016tg.jpg


You can kinda see the speckled color in the black base color also. I used one layer of duplicolor black effects to give the balck some depth also.

Tommorrow I'm hoping to get to the monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

Excuse the slow loading pics. My webhost is being a little slow lately.

[GT40_GearHead]

bloody hell man, you shure you don't work for the chip foose or something

+REP

[Commando]

I got the monitor and base, the mouse, and the keyboard done today. Here are a few pics.

This is the keyboard. I just painted the wrist rest part.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/thg_001.jpg

Here's the monitor back.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/thg_005.jpg

Here's the mouse.
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/thg_006.jpg

[isunktheship]

I'm calling it The Green Ghost cause I can't think of anything cooler.

HAHAHAHAHA, funny.

Btw your paint skills are God-like.

[GT40_GearHead]

what hapened with the monitor cover, it looks like it has crack on it

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

heh can i send u my case to get air brushed??? lolz that stuff looks awsome :D

[DaveW]

what hapened with the monitor cover, it looks like it has crack on it

Yeah, i was looking at that too.

-Dave

[SgtM]

Those green flames are awesome Tony! Keep up the good work.

[Zephik]

Dang man! That looks awesome!

I was thinking this when I looked over your work... "Dang, those flames look ghostly!" Then I remembered what you are calling this project! lol Very well done!

[Jonny Axehandle]

That's some awesome work there. Heh, I think I am the only person on the forum that thought of this:

http://www.angelfire.com/ny/totrecords/greenghst.html

[agnat]

Damn nice paint job!!!
Wish I had the airbrush skills you have.
Thanks for sharing your pics of your project, it's
gonna look sweeeeeet when you're done!

[Commando]

Thanks for the props everyone.

Great eye on the small cracks in the paint. I was strapped for time and used a different enamel black base on the monitor only because I was out of Duplicolor black. Once I put the clear on I noticed it pulling on the color coat. It just gave the color coat a little bit of cracking. But the clear on top is solid.

Moral of the story. Use the same brands of paint for your base coats and clear coats. The Airbrush paint is waterbased and isn't an issue. It's just when the clearcoat hit the other brand base it didn't work.

I made sure to use the last of the same brand black on the mouse and keyboard because they were the most important to me for this project. So you can see the mouse and the keyboard are fine.

I'm constantly learning and at least this wasn't a huge disaster.

By the way, Samsung, not a big fan of people taking their stuff apart. It took me like 45 mins to get the monitor apart and even then it made me nervous. I was tugging and hearing that infamous sound of breaking plastic for asolid 30 min before I realized it's just the way it's put together and nothing was really breaking.

Thanks again.

[DaveW]

By the way, Samsung, not a big fan of people taking their stuff apart. It took me like 45 mins to get the monitor apart and even then it made me nervous. I was tugging and hearing that infamous sound of breaking plastic for asolid 30 min before I realized it's just the way it's put together and nothing was really breaking.

When i have time to start doing Reviews for TBCS, one thing i'll be doing is checking this. If it can be modded easilly and the quality of the engineering. Basically, what we want to know, not what the magazines look for. ;)

-Dave

[SgtM]

Congrats on making the front page bro. Keep up the good work.

[m4gnum]

I got my airbrush yesterday, (Aztek A430) so hopefully in a couple of years I'll be pulling stuff like this out of the bag.

[.Maleficus.]

Nice dude, that's frickin' awesome.

[Commando]

Thanks again everyone. I can't wait to get some time off later this week to get some more work done on this project.



I got my airbrush yesterday, (Aztek A430) so hopefully in a couple of years I'll be pulling stuff like this out of the bag.

Don't sweat it. You'll be pulling off effects like that in a matter of weeks, not years. You'll be happy to find it's not nearly as hard as it looks.

Since there has been so much interest in the flame effects I'm gonna do a full blown tutorial on the technique. I'm swamped with work right now but I'm planning on working on it as soon as I can. I'm gonna integrate it into my next big project.

[m4gnum]

Since there has been so much interest in the flame effects I'm gonna do a full blown tutorial on the technique.

You'll be plus rep'ed to level 60 in no time if you do.

I got a can of air today* until I work out which compressor to get, but I forgot to buy the adaptor so I can't use it.

*why when I write that down do I suddenly feel ripped off?

[d_stilgar]

When i have time to start doing Reviews for TBCS, one thing i'll be doing is checking this. If it can be modded easilly and the quality of the engineering. Basically, what we want to know, not what the magazines look for. ;)

-Dave

You should also check the printed circuit boards for people trying to make homemade projectors. I've taken some apart to find that the printed circuit board is on two sides and will not work. I know that there was a list started somewhere already on that aspect of LCDs, but it would be nice to know of even more.

[Commando]

Well here it is........

http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The%20G%20001.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The%20G%20003.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The%20G%20005.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The%20G%20006.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The%20G%20007.jpg
http://www.commandosystems.com/worklogimages/The%20G%20008.jpg

[SgtM]

Awesome!

[GT40_GearHead]

wonderfull !!!

PS: is the color whater based?

[Commando]

Yeah the paint I'm using for the airbrush effects is Auto Air, which is water based. The base color and the clear coat is enamel.

[jdbnsn]

Very nice, that came out great dude!

[Datamancer]

Very nice! Looks like someone's been studying Mike Lavalle? It still never ceases to amaze me how impressive the trueflame style comes out considering how easy it is to do. A french curve, airbrush and some patience and voila! instant masterpiece. Very sexy.
Hey, feel free to hit me up if you have any questions about clearcoat, paint, or sanding/buffing. I've worked in auto body repair/restoration/customization most of my life, so if you're going to use any more auto paint for anything, I might have some tips and tricks for you.
Keep up the good work,
-~Doc~-

[Commando]

Sounds good Datamancer,

I'm always looking to improve.

Yeah the TruFire effect is really easy. I'm planning on doing a tutorial when I do my next project because there has been so much interest. I definitely don't try to take credit for the technique. Oh yeah Mike Lavalle is definitely the man when it comes to flames.

Welcome to the forum.