“Do not trust people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments, and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible, and when I leave you will finally understand why storms are named after people.”
VERY inventive! I'm gonna have to get out my steampunk project yet, you know...
It's looking great Blue!
Good to see it coming along. I like the PSU cover; makes wire management a snap.
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Lots of pics in this update, be warned. I have *finally* managed to get just the finish I've been chasing after all this time!! New finish on the PSU cover:
I am SO glad I finally got the formula sorted out. I've got other things to paint and now at least I know I can make anything look like real rusted iron. The formula turned out to be:
Primer (for plexi I used Krylon Fusion)
Spray-on base coat of American Accents rust paint (this gives it rusted iron texture also)
Wash-on-and-dab off diluted coat of American Accents rust paint (they come together in a package)
Use a solvent brush to splatter on two shades of blue-green paint: Lost Atlantis and Hanging Vine. Apply sparingly and immediately dab off with a paper towel. Do not wipe, dab. Get as much of it off as you can just a few seconds after you put it on. This part should be subtle.
Dab on large blobs of Modern Masters Metal Effects iron paint. Just large random blobs, keep the edges clean but not sharp like tape.
In an hour spray those area with Modern Masters rust activator. Again, randomly. Do it again in another pattern in other places in half an hour.
Done. Looks good, no?
Anyway, to the real work of the night. I wanted to give this thing a few more modern elements, as mentioned previously. I'm going for a Jules Verne feel, old but advanced. When I started planning this build I wasn't going to use any lights. It's old, we don't want CCFL tubes in it! But I thought of a way to bring light to the box. Vacuum tubes.
I lucked into two large boxes of vacuum tubes of various sizes and configurations, over 200 of them, and all in their original boxes.
I love these things. They convey a sense of the old, and the insides are just very cool to look at. The plan originally was to light them from underneath with red LEDs. That looked OK, but I really wanted the filaments themselves to glow.
I bought some small 120-volt halogen bulbs that I found that had very loosely-wrapped filaments, planning to insert them into the body of a vacuum tube and turn them down with a dimmer switch. Those looked excellent, but I was forcefully reminded of one aspect of halogen lights: they get HOT. I might as well put a fire inside my computer. Needless to say I felt stupid.
So here's the answer. First off, check these out:
These are very cool, but I needed to light them from the inside. Take a look at these examples of what you can find in these little jewels:
Just amazingly complex assemblies in these things. I wanted the inside to glow but I couldn't get the light source into the tube with the insides there. So I hollowed some of them out:
I'll tell you, getting the insides out of a 50-year-old piece of thin glass that's wrapped around a vacuum without shattering it is not easy. I'd say I had a success rate of about 10%. Glad I had a lot of them!
So I hollowed them out, then I took some other, smaller tubes and just broke the glass and took out the interesting insides, whittled the glass base down enough to fit, and put the hollow shell of the first tube over the insides from the second:
Now they look cool but they still don't light up. I got to play with EL wire for the first time tonight. This stuff is awesome. Anyway, finished pics:
Woo hoo!!! And to top it all off, I found this awesome plaque on an old piece of electronics I got at my local flea market for $8:
"Department of the Navy - Office of Naval Research" "Special Devices Center". I couldn't have ordered a better sign. I added the stamped plate in the middle, a nice name for my fictitous power source.
All in all I think it came out great. I'm not entirely sold on the large EL wire on the front, around the plaque, but it's in there in such a way that I can take it out easily if I decide I don't like it.
“Do not trust people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments, and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible, and when I leave you will finally understand why storms are named after people.”
Damn man that looks awesome, the vacuum tubes add an amazing piece of detail to the build, I envy your luck in getting hold of so many that were intact. And that plaque, that plaque is so cool, I wish I had one.
A word of warning though, EL wire tends to burn out very quickly but before it dies completely it will keep getting duller until eventually there is no light source. Also is the purple your final colour choice? I would have thought an orange, a red or a white would have suited the theme better. Have you tried experimenting with LEDs? By the looks of things the center of some of those tubes is just large enough to hold a single amber LED .
Amazing work so far mate, keep it up, it is looking beautiful.
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Appreciate the info on the EL wire, I knew it died eventually. No big deal. And yes purple is my final color choice. I actually started with orange, but I thought the purple gave it more of the Jules Verne feel I'm looking for. I can tell you I'm *not* taking it all apart any time soon. When that EL wire dies it will stay dead.
“Do not trust people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments, and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible, and when I leave you will finally understand why storms are named after people.”
that EL wire looks awesome! +rep
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Ah ok. The purple reminds me of the new Wolfenstein game is all haha.
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I'm sorry blue, tbcs rules clearly state that this much awesome is not allowed in single post.
The rusts effects were amazing enough but the el wire tubes are insane! The plate had me grinning too.
If I might offer a suggestion on the el wire on the side of the psu, run it insde of polyethylene tubing (ice maker tubing) for a neon / plumbing look, maybe even rust effect it too?
Love the watermark btw.
Thanks guys! Getting this part of this thing done has gotten a HUGE load off my mind. It's starting to keep me awake at night again. (Or during the day in my case.)
That is an interesting idea. As I mentioned, I'm not sold on it myself, it's not as straight as I would have liked, but the tubing never occurred to me. I'm working with limited space there due to the side fan, but I'll definitely look into it, thanks!
“Do not trust people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments, and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible, and when I leave you will finally understand why storms are named after people.”