Project: Hellcat

[prosser13]

Introduction

I've been on the forums for a while now, so most of you will know me - to those who don't know me or I don't know, hello and nice to meet you To be honest, I've been wanting to do a case mod for a while though; my first thoughts on when were about a year ago when I saw Crimson Sky's work on TheBestCaseScenario, and I spent a few weeks planning it all out (the idea was a test bed style display case, maybe a future mod?) but I never got round to work on it due to lack of funds. However, after reading the amateur worklogs on a number of forums (CPCFF and Overclock.net being the main two) and having a bit of encouragement from masters like Mashie and other people who have done their own mods, I've decided to embark on my first case mod adventure! So, thanks for reading and I hope there will be more pictures from here on in (I love the pictures too)

Mods that have inspired me

Thought I'd make a list (ever expanding).

Monolith - craigr1982 - CPCFF
Goby's TT Armor LCS Build - gobygoby - Overclock.net
Extreme - 3xtr3m3 - Overclock.net
RelatiV Mod - D3DAiMtwo
Skull's First Mod (Irridescent paint job) - Skull_fcuk - CPCFF
All of Cyberdruid's mods (and no, I'm not listing them) :roll: - Overclock.net
BGAIOC - CrazyModder - Overclock.net
All of Mashie's work logs - Mashie.org
High Roller - Stu King
All of TheModNation guy's mods (especially the Harley Davidson and Pink Floyd mods!) - The Mod Nation
T2's Spinner Case - THRASHER2 - The Mod Nation
Dream - 3lfk1ng - The Mod Nation

As I said, the list is ever expanding, so I'll add mods as I remember/see them

Plans

My plan is to mod a partially modded Chieftec Scorpio (see pics here) into a sleek, elegant but large case. I'm going to adapt and mod the existing fan mounts to take 120mm fans for the majority of the case, and a 140mm for the top of the case. My colour scheme will be red and chrome with a black interior and blue/UV lighting. I plan to relocate the hard drives above the PSU (don't forget its a full tower case) and completely replace the front with a aluminium sheet (I have plans for this, don't worry!) - I'm guessing replacing the front will be one of the hardest bits. The large shelf across the middle of the case will be removed and replacing with crossbracing, as I feels this gets in the way. Other mods include a top blowhole and window, a new side window, and a PSOne LCD

My planning thread can be found here: http://www.overclock.net/case-mods-g...-un-named.html

As I do each mod I'll post pics and detailed plans.

PC Specs

The components which will go inside the case are (as of the current time):

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ with Scythe Ninja (in the post, still waiting!)
DFI RDX200CF-DR
2GB G.Skill HZ PC4000 (2x1GB)
Sapphire X1900GT (again, if it ever turns up in the post, if not Leadtek 6600GT or a better card)
Tagan 480W PSU (lots of wires!)
Pioneer DVD burner
PSOne LCD
Zalman 5.25" fan controller (4 channels)
Creative Soundblaster Value! Live (can't get my onboard sound working)
3mm LEDs (blue and UV)
80GB Samsung Spinpoint and Seagate Barracuda 200GB (latter may be replaced with second 80GB for RAID0 or 1)

Painting

As I've seen in many mods, a good paint job can easily make a good mod great or, on the other hand, a good mod much worse. Because of this, before I even went anywhere with my mod I chose a colour - red. I love red Its not seen on too many cases (like blue), and goes well with black or silver, or even white. After a search on the Internet for different car paint colours and a trip to the local Halfords (an automotive shop which stocks lots of car paints) I picked up a 500ml spraycan of white primer and a 300ml spraycan of Peugeot Diablo Red Pearlescent Spray Paint. The lid of the paint can actually looks nothing like the paint (typical Halfords :roll: ) but after reading up on line I was pretty confident that it was the colour I wanted.

To test it, I sprayed the removeable back of an old CD-RW drive with a single coat, just to see what it looks like. Some pics:

Dim light:

Brighter light:

Medium light:

I was blown away TBH :o Seriously, I'm really annoyed I can't pick up accurate colours - the paint is pearlescent and in bright light the pearls are nicely visible and glint, while the colour is a proper bright "red", and shiney, but not too red.

Larger pics can be found here: http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...er13/Painting/

I plan on doing several coats of both the white primer and the red paint, along with a couple of coats of clear coat (the single coat scratches very easily, so I think this will be vital)

Lighting

After seeing the RelatiV Mod, I decided to definitely go for LED strips - instead of his method though, I plan to use two different colours - blue and UV, with the LEDs in groups of two. More info coming soon, but I've got the blue LED and resistors and they look sweet. I plan to switch between the two colours, and switch the lighting on and off, using two switches

PSOne LCD

The PSOne LCD has already been modded and setup, so incorporating into my mod will simply involve a new bezel to put it on the front of the case (I'm surprised at how good the viewing angles actually are).

More to come, so keep an eye out!

[moOmL]

Sounds like a solid plan. I really like that red color. Keep us updated!

[Fear.Sin]

I look forwarding to watching Hellcat come to life. Sounds like you have put a lot of thought into it and I am sure that it will turn out great!

<---- Don't know why...

[prosser13]

Sounds like a solid plan. I really like that red color. Keep us updated!

Cheers If I had a sentence to describe it, without the camera, I'd say its a sparkly, shiney candy apple style red (But cheaper )

I look forwarding to watching Hellcat come to life. Sounds like you have put a lot of thought into it and I am sure that it will turn out great!

<---- Don't know why...

I was actually planning this mod to be started in June, after my exams, but you know how things 'turn out' so I'm going to start now

In response to bunny:

[prosser13]

Fan Grills - Primer

A while back I picked up 6 silver fan grills on eBay for £6 delivered - new as well :o I was well pleased

A picture of the fan grill:

Full details can be found here:

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2702.html

Anyway, I decided that, while the standard finish is nice, I wanted something to be a bit more unique So, I decided to paint them

First of all, I taped up the whole mesh area (it took a while, but ah well)

I then scuffed it lightly with 800-grit sandpaper, and sanded the whole thing down with some very fine, micron-rated paper (from my lapping kit
)

I spray paint in the garden, as we've not got a workshop, and then take it up to the house to dry. However, moving it after the first coat:

(Bottom left) Whoops! Nearly dropped it and touched it, pulling the paint off.

So I waited 15 minutes, sanded it down with a light micron, and did another coat:

Its impossible to tell in that picture, but in the bottom left there were definite bumps. Heres a better pic, its hard to tell again that there was THAT much wrong but it was pretty obvious (thats the problem with white paint!):

So, I waited another 15 minutes for the coat to dry, and whipped out the 800 grit sandpaper, and sanding right back down (sorry for the bad pic!)

Finally, I sprayed a 3rd coat of primer on:

Which finally I am happy with

Gotta wait 23 hours (been an hour since I did it) before I can sand it down lightly and start with the metallic red!

Thats all for now

[Fear.Sin]

So you had to paint the grill white before applying the red you have?

I am new to TBCS community although I have been reading worklogs for quite a while. So that means I will being asking some noob questions to get an idea of why you are doing some things .

I have a good understanding of most of what is going on so don't get me wrong but everyone cannot be proficient in every area so.....

[moOmL]

The white paint was a primer coat. The primer will ensure that the red paint will look nice.

Nice start prosser.

[XcOM]

So you had to paint the grill white before applying the red you have?
.........

Yea, standard procedure, always sand and prime anything you intend to paint, Priming just allows the paint to stick better and get a smoother finish. Also use a light primer for light colours and dark primer for dark colours, (Although you can use light primer for dark colours, its recommended to follow the rule)

Ask your n00bish questions, rem, we where all n00bs at one stage of our life, we only learn my asking questions,


(Oh and having accedents and slicing you finger in half. OUCH THAT HURT, stil got scar)

[Fear.Sin]

Okay so if I have it straight, a primer is just a base coat of paint that is applied to help the color you actually want to paint the object stick and stand out better.

For instance if I want to paint say a fan grill a light green then I would first sand and clean (I am guessing sanding is the cleaning process?) the grill. Apply a lighter coat as a primer such as the white Prosser is using then after the primer dries apply the coats of green I want for the grill color.

How many coats do you need for the primer stage? Do you have to match the number of primer coats with the actual color you intend on painting the grill?

[moOmL]

You are correct. Sanding something before you primer or paint it helps the paint stick better. After you sand it, you want to clean it so that you aren't painting over any particles left over from sanding.

Personally i use about 2 to 3 coats of primer, but i've had as many as 5 coats. You'll know when to stop applying coats once the entire surface looks smooth and equal.

No you don't HAVE to match coats, but generally (for me at least) I have about the same amount of primer coats as I do final coats.