Imperial At-at

[ASPHIAX]

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Hello everyone,

With the Modyssey having a stroke of bad luck with logistics and lasercutted plexiglas arriving broken to pieces and with the biggest LAN Party of the BeNeLux approaching very quickly, I decided it was time to do a special build.

With Star Wars up in my all time favorite movies and the IMPERIAL AT-AT being one of my all time favorite models from the series, the idea had been circling my brain for quite some time. I asked around in the SCIFI OCD group if there was anyone who had access to a 2010 HASBRO IMPERIAL AT-AT that i could buy, but unfortunately noone had one and buying it from Amazon or Ebay was just crazy expensive.

Untill I got the email that changed my universe for ever. I could aquire a AT-AT for roughly the price of a Coolermaster Cosmos II, about half what I had to pay before. A mini-ITX was soon scored after and the build could commence !

So what have we got ?

An IMPERIAL AT-AT, i7 2600k, Zotac Z68 Wifi-a, CPU GPU, Mosfet and NB/SB Waterblocks Crucial SSD, 2 x 240 Radiator and a XSPC Pump. Around 250 pics, 30 minutes of rough video of the build that I need to edit and a whole list of small stuff I need to do in the last days.

I will be posting a update on the work involved every day for the next 2 weeks or so.

Hope you like it!

[ASPHIAX]

This was the picture that sold me, could immediately see the potential and the creative energy was flowing !

And these are the parts to work with !

Another update to come soon !

[ASPHIAX]

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Here is the main body. I had to get a lot of stuff out of there to make room for the mini ITX board.
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With the interior out of there I could get a better view on how the fit the hardware.

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The location of the reservoir was quickly found. The space was exactly 60mm. I was expecting to have to restore the model a lot here, but i found a very nice 60 mm res that fitted perfectly.
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The inside of the leg. I needed to fit a lot of wires, cables and tubing in there as I wanted NO visible cables !
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The start of the base, and figuring out the locations for the radiators.
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I am going to need a bigger office soon !
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And that was it for this update! With the rough build thought out its off to the finer parts !

[ASPHIAX]

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Hi all, here is another update of the work that I had to do for the AT-AT!

With the hood removed I could start thinking on how I would mount (and cover the non attractive parts) of the hardware!
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Had to cut out the middle section of the models interior baseplate without messing to much with the fixation points that provided its structural strength.
Cut away to much and it would not be capable of supporting the hardware.
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Replaced the frosted plexi with a piece of UV red I had laying around. This will fit better into the overall lighting scheme.
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Playing around with the location of the pump !
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This looks like an easy job but actually took a couple of hours getting it to fit exactly with no luight from the interior shing through on the sides, the hood needed to to fit perfectly and the pump had to be taken apart to fit into the hole in the vertical piece of plexi. Must have done 50 test fittings in total.
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One of the main design criteria was that it had to look original from the outside, so the pump had to be well inside the model for the backdoor to close. (unfortunately this also meant my GTX580 was 2 cm to long)
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This was the original idea, the hardware on that location was soon changed to the I/O plate!
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Well that was it for now !
Next update will have my first ever build video (let me know what you think!)
Laters

[ASPHIAX]

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Hi all, here is another update of the work that I had to do for the AT-AT!

Started work on all the cabling that had to be extended through the legs and into the body for the pc hardware. The 2x240 radiators and PSU will come in the base.
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Had to cut out a lot of plastic to be able to route all the cables through. But I had to do that again without compromising the structural integrity of the model asa AT-AT that continuously drop to its knees wont destroy any rebel bases soon!
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Also had to route 2 x 3/8th Tygon tubing to and from the rads into the legs. This was a very tricky point. I do have some restriction in my loop now, but the cooling works beautifully!
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When all the wiring was done, I had to trace them all to be sure I wouldnt connect any of them incorrectly!
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All the cabling installed! What did I install in total:
2 X 6 Wire GPU Pwr
4 + 4 Wire Mobo Pwr
24 Wire ATX Connector
4 Wire Molex
HDMI
USB2.0
CAT5e
2 x 3/8th Tubing
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Also installed a little fan, its all watercooled (except for the RAM) But having some airflow is never a bad thing!
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The connection to the base. This way it can move around the base a little but is still firmly attached (this is actually one of the first thing I will change; get a full modular psu)
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AT-AT Chainsaw Massacre --- There's legs everywhere !!
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Anyone got a wiring scheme???
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Luckely I had some tiny helper hands for them hard to reach places!
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That was it for this update !
Laters!

[ASPHIAX]

I would REALLY like to know what you guys think of this !
Is this something you would like to see more?

[TLHarrell]

Very nice routing work. The mis-routed one is a fairly easy patch.

[ASPHIAX]

Thanks ! How do you mean misrouted?

[TLHarrell]

The one you don't like the way the wiring comes out. The spot you cut is an easy fix, and won't be in an easily seen location.

Can't wait to see what you do with the paintjob.

[ASPHIAX]

Ah, yess, I thought you had found a error in the wiring itself! LOL
Yes the spot is easily fixed with a piece of styrene and some cement.
I have come to the conclusion that I am NOT capable of airbrushing.
I can do airpainting, like one nice coat of the same colour, but the artistry behind airbrushing like the cases from BLUEHORSESTUDIO's Biohazard and the new Iron Man case is just soo far away. It will take me a couple of hundred hours practise to do something decent, I can build 3 new cases in that time! So I will most probably outsource that work.