This is the worklog from the old TBCS website, copied and pasted here. Photos of the completed project can be found here.
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September 3, 2003
My latest and by far most ambitious case mod is inspired by the 1999 feature film The Matrix. The project, named The Matrix: Rebirth 8.0 vividly captures the pivotal scene in which the enigmatic Morpheus explains the true state of humankind under the control of the machines.
The system will be in the mini ITX form factor, using the Via Epia M10000 motherboard, an amazing 1GHZ mainboard barely 7" square. The board comes courtesy of Via Technologies and Mike Hermon, tech guru over at X-TremeModz.com. I'll start here with some screen captures from the movie to give you a sense of direction the case mod will take.
Looks like the concept they were going for here was sort of a "tree" ...you have a main trunk and branches, and the "fruit" is the amniotic sac.
There is that "stalk" or trunk or whatever that holds the eggs..I've started building it by
taking a clear acrylic tube and kitbashing parts from 2 diff Alien models, a giant frog model (the green plastic) and various Plastruct architectural parts. The putty colored stuff is bondo that I've drizzled on so I can embed parts.
Those little white posts will have wires coming from them that wrap around the stalk...sort of like sockets. In the movie, there are these creepy-crawler centipede creatures that wind their way up the stalk..I'll cast a few of those from plastic toys.
I spent the evening finishing up the model of the "stalk" that holds the egg pods. I spray painted it black and gave a temporary drybrushing of white acrylic just so you can see the detail. Drybrushing also helps me rethink parts I don't like. The height is 15" at the longest twisted branch at the top.
Close up of the tendrils that can be seen at the top of the stalk.
If you notice in the screen cap, there are thick tubes filled with pink liquid that weave in and out of the stalk. I started installing the thickest hose first, creating small 90 degree nubs and posts from Plastruct architectural parts. The thickest hose is 1/4 OD, and the thinnest is 3/32.
After the model is airbrushed and resin coated, I'll use a hypodermic needle to fill the hose with tinted pink resin, because it's the only substance that will actually cure inside the tubes!
I'm thinking of crafting the "Nurse Spiders" by hand using clear acrylic and a heat gun...sort of like glass blowing with plastic.