Project : Lupine

**Tech-Daddy** · 06-14-2005, 01:16 AM

"As such, it starts yet again... with a thought... a smokey whisper of inspiration that quickly reveals a raging fire of actions and calculations...."
Tech-Daddy, 2005

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lupine
adj : of or relating to or characteristic of wolves
n : any plant of the genus Lupin; bearing erect spikes of
usually purplish-blue flowers [syn: lupin]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Lupine \Lu"pine\, n. [L. lupinus, lupinum, apparently fr.
lupinus belonging to a wolf, fr. lupus a wolf; perh. so
called because it was supposed to exhaust the soil: cf. F.
lupin. Cf. Wolf.] (Bot.)
A leguminous plant of the genus Lupinus, especially L.
albus, the seeds of which have been used for food from
ancient times. The common species of the Eastern United
States is L. perennis. There are many species in
California.
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For the sake of clarification, I'm not modding as a tribute to a plant... ok? I'm going to be dealing with wolves here. Beautiful, majestic.... and my wife's *favorite* animal ever.

Wolves...

So, I wrap up blingGreen... and she asks me, "So when are you going to make me a cool case like that?" , to which I respond, "What would you like?"

This started off as a "very" easy case.... but not much on the "OOoooo..." factor after I thought about it for a few days. So, I modded my plans, and have begun what will be known as "Project : Lupine"

Constraints:
simple color scheme (purple and black)
no "overly complicated" cuts
How best can I relay my wife's love of wolves while maintaining an elegant simplicity that reflects the dusk/night time environment that they are usually active in? (Again, the purple and black will assist here).

So, I start with a Coolermaster Centurion 5 (CAC-T05) in it's basic silver and black. They make it with a blue trim that appears anodized, which is what gave me this idea, dye the trim a violet purple. All aluminium on the front, the side trim, the button housing, the buttons, the lower port cover... make all of the the same beautiful shade of purple.
But dont stom there, match that up with the same shade going onto the frame of the case. I want to keep any exposed aluminium... exposed. I like the look of the brushed alu. The texture and lines are just classy in my eyes. So, anywhere there is alu that is silver in color, it will be treated to a clear primer, then subjected to a purple treatment, and followed up with several coats of clear (for durability).

The window is going to be cool. I have, in my mind's eye, a multi layer diorama where the scene actuallly starts by being cut out of the case side, with other facets of it residing in the acrylic to be lit up by off edge LED's. Specifically, I will have the profile of a howling wolf and the terrain that it is standing on (the top pf a rocky cliff...) shaped into the window's edge work on the case. Clear acrylic will be mounted behind it, but not just any acrylic. The acrylic wll have several high resolution imaged laser etched into the surface... a full moon (that the before mentioned wolf will be howling to), a ghostly wolf bust apparition off to the side, seemingly floating to the side of the window, and some fog/northern lights in the sky. The moon will be side lit with white LED's making it stand out all by itself. I am hoping that the glow of white from the Moon will also give a faint bit more resolution to the wolf bust in the sky on the side.

Color for the internal lighting is, yep, purple. I have matching purple coolermaster LED fans (80mm and 120mm) so the color will be consistant. I also have some purple (not UV) CCFL's on order, and we'll see how that goes.

So... after careful deliberation, and thinking... I dove in. Here are the initial pics of the carnage:

**Tech-Daddy** · 06-14-2005, 01:20 AM

unsuspecting victim:

Close up of the lower bezel and the ports:

Once I figured out how to safely get the front bezel off, this poor case never stood a chance!

Here I was reminding myself of where the cables routed so that I could put it all back together..

Out popped the switch and port housings, nice and easy...

The "emptied" front of the case.....

Topless!!!!

Taking off the side trim on the fron bezel (drop 6 screws and off they came! It was a dream come true.)

That is all I got to so far, I firmly believe that this mod is going to move pretty quicly, especially once I get the artwork finalized and the materials lined up to be etched!

Anyway, look out world! Here I come again!!!

**Tech-Daddy** · 06-14-2005, 01:21 AM

Now, on to the update:

After I had removed the panels, here was what I was left with to paint:

I laid them out on a piece of wood that I had put some screws through to hold the buttons off of the painting surface, then I hit them with 2-3 coats of the clear primer....

1st coat of color:

I then let them dry for a few hours, then I wiped them off with a towel to get some of the residue off.

2nd coat:

After a few hours, and a wipe down here is the result.

I'm testing the clearcoat out on a scrap piece of alu that I treated with this X-Metal. I just want to be sure that it does not cloud the finish. If it does not, I'll shoot these pieces with 2-3 layers of clearcoat, then some polishing compund to take any orange peal that might happen with the clearcoat.

This will be the same colors that the side accents will be on the bezel, and the same color of the internal chassis.

**Tech-Daddy** · 06-14-2005, 01:22 AM

The last piece is drying tonight for the front panel, but it is the logo piece, so here is the front of the Centurion5:

Before:

And after:

**TAZTG** · 06-14-2005, 06:06 AM

Very Nice Start and Scheme. The Purple and Black will match up very well. I was thinking about a Full Moon with the Wolf howling effect in the background for the side window. My wife also Loves Wolves and collects T-Shirts and Pictures etc. of them where we go. Beautiful Creatures and this looks to be a Beautiful Case. Keep the PICS Coming..

**rabidmoose171** · 06-14-2005, 06:59 AM

Sweet man, non stop cases coming from you...

You are helping actualy get some trafic flow back into this part of the forum.

Im totaly digging that mod, of course its not my style, im sure most of us would agree, but who cares what i like... right. That purple paint dryed.... hmm how shall i say it... majesticaly.

My parents have this same case, so maybe ill get some good ideas, ill tell ya, that fan in the back has to go, it pushes no air at all.

**SaturnBeat** · 06-14-2005, 07:32 AM

Wow you're making another case mod. That's awesome man, so far it's looking really interesting, I like the idea of the whole wolf concept on the case, I'm sure it's gonna end up looking magnificent! Good luck with the rest of it...

**Adisharr** · 06-14-2005, 10:16 AM

Nice man! I really like the color

**Tech-Daddy** · 06-14-2005, 10:56 AM

This forum (Sharky Forums) was actually my starting point when I hopped on to the web. I left for a few years when Alex left/got pushed/whatever and found a few other places to learn from.

Thanks to the Mod/Admins here, they let me pick my account back up and run with it! My previous "home" in these forums was in the Tech Support area... now I like to take up residence in the modding forums where ever I go!

So, if I can drum up the mods in my "original" home forum, well then... that is pretty cool! I'll keep on doing what I'm doing as long as I can!

I appreciate all of your feedback guys! If you think of an idea, throw it out! We'll talk about it! My mods are pretty dynamic, in that I have a general idea where I want it to go, but the plans are not *so* rigid that I cannot deviate. There are some key areas that I have finalized, but accessories, the visual treats that you dont notice until a 2nd or 3rd look... those are always welcome!

I look forward to adding what I can to the forums.... let's get this party started!

**Tech-Daddy** · 06-20-2005, 01:49 AM

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! :evil:

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...

**Tech-Daddy** · 06-20-2005, 01:50 AM

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!

**SaturnBeat** · 06-20-2005, 08:07 AM

Oh damn, nice update on this one. I can't wait to see this beauty all coloured in purple. Though I must say this metalish colour still looks very stylish. Anyway great job on this, keep up the good work!

**Mrfreddio55** · 06-20-2005, 01:47 PM

Wow, that chrome spray paint looks great! Not really chrome, but really really shiny.

How did you paint the inside of the case without getting overspray on other parts of the case?

**TAZTG** · 06-20-2005, 02:02 PM

Very nice... Be careful of the screw holes, don't want to get to much paint in them.

Keep the updates coming..

**Tech-Daddy** · 06-20-2005, 02:08 PM

Originally posted by TAZTG
Very nice... Be careful of the screw holes, don't want to get to much paint in them.

Keep the updates coming..

Are you talking about the grounding characteristics of the screwed in standoffs?

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