Project : Lupine

[Xato]

That looks pretty nice.
and Nothing is complicated if you put enough time and effort into it.

[temmink]

That is looking fantastic! I'm still keen on the wolf silhouette but just had a new thought, what about one in stainless (look at least) metal on the front grille. I made this from a picture on google to give you an Idea of what I mean

Feel free to use that as an outline or whatever if you want. Anyway, it's looking great so far, so keep up the good work!

*EDIT*

I was feeling a little creative so I actually mocked up what I was thinking about with one of your photos... enjoy

[Cymae]

yes, that looks brilliant. maybe a moon in the top right corner?

[jonopaul01]

I really like the silhoutte, it should look great. The only problem, (in my opinion) is that at the moment it looks a bit squashed. The wolf looks as though it has been crushed a bit by the side panel. It would look fine if the case was just 2, or even 1 optical bays shorter. But this is just my opinion and I realise that this is just a mockup so I look forward to seeing what you actually do. Good luck.

[Tech-Daddy]

Wow guys! Thanks for the ideas! That looks awfully nice! I'll need to give that some serious thought!

(And I think you might have the same image I was going to use for the side panel window cut out! I'll need to compare once I get home!)

Thanks for the replies folks! I'm gonna keep rolling on this!
Very good ideas!

[Tech-Daddy]

Your front bezel wolf has inspired me to approach another take on the wolf references on the front bezel...

This was my inspiration behind the case (Smooth Creations BEAUTIFUL case painting link... )

And if you notice the art work on the front bezel? I'm not going to use paint for that, but likely some form of brushed alu/paint and lighting... maybe a power LED or hard drive light?

Using a similar technique that I used on bling with sanded acrylic beneith the paws that are cut from alu? Might use spacers between the two layers... dunno yet... but man the ideas are flowing!

THANKS GUYS!!!!

[Tech-Daddy]

Let me just say, that Coolermaster likes rivets!

9 of those little boogers on the 3.5" drive rack alone! And they were *strong* too! Broke one of my new bits while I was trying to whittle one of the rivets out!

Oh well...

Here is my story for what I am doing right now.
The frame is going to match the bezel colors. It will also hopefully match it's smoothness (this is likely to be the death of me, but we'll see...). So, to match the color, the base metal needs to be about the same brightness as the alum on the front trim.
Uhmmm....

That ain't it....

So... how can I brighten this thing up! Start off with a good dose of Adhesion Promoter, then a dark grey primer coat:

let that sit for a hour or so.... lightly sand it with some 220 to get as much of the heavy texture down on most of the viewable areas, then I use what I never *ever* thought I'd use on one of my mods... rattle can Chrome paint... :lol:

There is a time and place for this kind of paint, and I just found the *ideal* place and time to use this stuff! We all know that a truly chrome finish is impossible with this stuff, but I remembered that this stuff, if given a decent base, will reflect pretty well.... and *that* was all I wanted!

....a decent reflective or bright surface that I can apply the X-Metals paint over, so that it will reflect like the front trim! or a bit more! I'm not looking for a Chrome finish, I'm looking for semi reflective, but imitating a metal surface... and I got that in spades! I'm going to pick up another can of the Duplicolor chrome to even up some of the spots, but after this dries, and I wipe it down, I'll cover up all of the shiny frame bits with the purple X-Metals paint!

I think the case frame is going to look niiiiice this time tomorrow!

[Tech-Daddy]

Well, I mocked mine up, to test out the fans placement and noise, as well as to see how well the components fit together. *Please* pay no attention to the unevenness in the internals color. I only wanted a basic covering on the internals, as I have another plan for that area. This was just to see how well the fans lit up the case, and see that the colors worked well together.

2 quick surprises that are going in this machine (hopefully) and my other machine (blingGreen).

I think these just look... SO COOL! (Totally, no pun intended...)
More later!

[jonopaul01]

Very nice so far. Keep it up. Love the colour scheme.

[Xbrid]

the internal paint is nice