Star Wars Old Republic Mods

Ok, here's two more mods I'm working on for Thermaltake, based on their Chaser MK-1 and Armor Revo case.
Theme obviously is Star Wars Old Republic, with the Chaser case as the Dark Side, and the Armor Revo case the Republic. The cases are very similar in style (both use the same chassis), and were perfect candidates for the two-sided theme.

Light sabers will be modified 12" CCFL's and will protrude out of the panel to enhance the 3D look and feel of the imagery.
The front hologram effect will be achieved by employing 3D etched crystals that will be lit from below. This will be the first time I've attempted to incorporate this into a mod, so hopefully it turns out as good as it looks above!

Artwork will be supplied by Steve Nunez. Case panels have already been sent off to him, so stay tuned for pics of his airbrushing magic! :)

Finally getting visible progress on these cases. :)

Working on the Trooper helmet for the side panel. Cutting some acrylic pieces to make up the frame.

Here they are assembled and glued together.

Using expandable foam to fill the spaces in between.

Once cured, I trimmed it down to the framing.

A quick trip to the hardware store to pick up some helmet parts lol.

I cut up the washer drain hose and fit the pvc elbows and barbs on each end to create the air supply lines.

Next I'll be covering the whole thing with plastic resin to bring the whole thing together. Hopefully take care of that this weekend.

I also got started on the holo emitter that will be mounted on the front of the cases. I designed it up in Illustrator, then had the parts cut.

I was happy to find that my measuring was good and all the pieces fit together. woot!

And it actually fit perfectly into the front bays.

Now here's the cool part, covered in awesome sauce: In order to re-create the holograms as seen in the game, I knew that mere 2D etching wouldn't be enough, so I had these 3D etches made up. And they turned out awesome! The images are not etched on the surface. They are actually inside the blocks. :D

You can see the characters a lot better lit up, but it still doesn't do it justice. I will have to take some video and pan around them so you can see the depth.

I had to see how they looked in the case on the holo emitter. I'll be wiring up some leds to light these things from below which should complete the effect I was going for. :)

*drool*

SIIIICK!!! +sub

That is awesome. It's only too bad that the front of the blocks aren't round. That might have added to the effect.

Thanks guys.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by d_stilgar

That is awesome. It's only too bad that the front of the blocks aren't round. That might have added to the effect.

---

Yeah I looked for cylinder shaped ones, but they didn't have any. I'm thinking they might need to have a flat surface or else the laser would refract and not produce a clean image.

Wow, Bod. Seriously. It's not often I see a whole new concept come onto this scene that makes me say that.

Freaking awesome idea.

+rep (as though you need it)

The blocks could be cut, ground and polished so they are round. But it'd be a big pain. Yes, the reason they are cubes is because the laser is a double beam on an X-Y-Z drive. Where the beams cross, a fracture is created inside the block. If they were round, the beams would be refracted out of place. It is theoretically possible to account for the divergence in software and make it work, but not every company wants to go to that much trouble.

ZOMG Progress pics from Steve:

:shock:

More airbrushing goodness: