your work is amazing bro. wish I had the skills to mod something like this one day. I couldnt resist so I saw the final project already, but its still sick to see the rest of the work. Great Job and hope to see more projects like this from ya.

D.B.

I just peeked at the finished creation. Wow! Doesn't look like the pressure got to you at all SuAsDU

Thanks for the compliment Pressure? What Pressure?!?!

Modding w/ such limited time was so nerve racking. When something didn't work, or didn't fit.. well.. put it this way.. there was a lot of cursing in the garage

I still need to do some final touches on the case to finish it up, like the GUI and stuff, and rerun the plumbing a little differently. After seeing the Danger Den stuff at the LAN, I have some great ideas on how to run the WC

Ok.. expect an update probably later tonight. I'm stil trying to hunt for some missing work log photos

SAD

Heya Sad!!!!!

I don't make it over to the modding sections too often, but when I saw you had a new project, I thought I'd take a detour and stop in to say hello, so HELLLOOOO!

I like what I've seen so far, great theme and concept, I love the honey comb work you've done on the panels, very tedious and time consuming work, but it will look kick ass when your done

really glad to hear that it won the contest. Now that leaves me even more excited to see the case!

Hey Folks,

I thought the priming and base painting post would be longer, till I looked at the pictures I actually took. I was so busy painting I didnÂ’t get that many photos; so I will make a short update with the pictures I do have available.

For the case I really wanted the paint to stand out. So what that meant was I really had to plan a color scheme that would work well, and prep it accordingly. With all the parts that needed to be painted, it went the typical preparation, clean the parts w/ denatured alcohol, sand with 220 grit, and then clean again. For the primer, I use a couple of coats of Rustoleum Automotive Gray primer, which worked well. Here are most of the parts after it was primed and sitting to dry.

After the primer dried, I applied several coat of gloss black to the frame, and the peripherals (keyboard and mouse) to go with the hornet theme.



For all the side panels, I applied Alsa’s Nevada Silver Base coat. Here is a picture of the paint cap. This is the base paint before it is reduced. You can see the high level of metallic flakes. This metallic flake will really help the paint “POP” in the light



Here is a picture of the hornet side panel primed and painted. The top panel is painted with the Silver base coat, and the bottom is just primer. Since it was getting dark, and I didnÂ’t have the flash on, itÂ’s hard to see the sparkle.



Here is a picture after all the parts have been painted will a couple of cots of the Silver Base Paint. It actually looks a bit plain sitting out to dry.



The next post will cover the color portion. The next update will be fun

As always, any comments or questions are always welcome

Regards,

SAD

Wow those cuts look awsome. I would have sworn they were lazer cut if I didn't see the log, excellent work. I need more, this is too cool.

Hey Folks,

Time for another update, and this will be a big one Hopefully this update will be as much fun as I had doing it. I will break it into a few sub section for clarity.

Candy Color Mixing:

In the last post, I covered all the panels with a metallic silver base coat. The next part is to give the panels some colors. So I will be applying a candy coat to it. A candy coat is basically a color tinted base coat. The hard part is that you have to mix the candy color to get the right shade you want, and the color of the base coat effects the final color.

To test the various colors, I used several speed shapes. These speed shapes are basically blank samples you can paint to see how it will look at various different angle.

Here is a picture of the speed shape before the base coat and candy are applied. Nothing very exciting:



Each of the speed shape was painted with the metallic silver base paint, then covered with various combination and mixtures of candy coat. I actually only used two different candy color, at different concentration and mixture levels.



After I was done, I thought this was the best candy shade for the side panels. Please note that this is completely dry, but the candy color makes it look nice and wet.



Here is my ghetto candy mixing up. The measuring cup is great for mixing different ratio of clear coat to hardener. The Dollar Store is a great asset for modders



Here is my paint gun filled with lemon yellow candy and ready to paint anything in its path.



PC Peripherals Painting:

In the last post, you saw I painted they keyboard frame gloss black. I actually got a second keyboards, and painted the keys with the candy yellow paint. Since the candy is a clear coat, I get yellow keys, but the all the text is still visible



Its now time to paint the Logitech G7 Laser Mouse to match the theme of the case. This is an awesome gaming mouse, but silver and metallic green paint doesn’t match the case at all.



Here is the mouse being disassembled:



The green frame was painted gloss black, and here is the silver portion before it was painted with the candy



Here is the cover after the color candy was applied. You can still see the Logitech logo and the G7 text.



Here is the mouse completely reassembled. It seems to match the hornet color scheme a lot better now, and still looks sharp



Frame Painting:

Here is the motherboard tray painted candy yellow. You can see it looks better then the original aluminum version



Here is a close up of the paint. You can see the metallic flakes from the silver base coat



Ghost Hive Painting

I really want to make the Lemon Yellow Candy to stand out, and not look just like yellow paint. So the best way I thought I could achieve this was by making a ghost hive pattern. So here is how I applied a ghost hive painting.

Before I painted the 1st coat of candy, my wife cut some hexagon shapes for me out of shelving paper. Once the shelving shapes were cut, it was applied to the case. It was then painted with 4 coat of candy yellow.



Here is a picture after all the hexagons were removed. Very nice clean line, and the hive is very visible



I then applied a couple more coats of candy paint. As you can see the hive pattern is still there. If you look at the panel at a different angle, the hive pattern completely disappears. I thought the ghost hive was just cool and something different



Here is a picture of the front panel being prepared for the same type of ghost painting treatment.



Well, that was a pretty big update. Hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did painting it

As always, any comments or questions are always welcome.

Regards,

SAD

Quote: Originally Posted by SuAsDu Hey Folks, Well, that was a pretty big update. Hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did painting it As always, any comments or questions are always welcome. Regards, SAD

I am coming to your House to Paint my next Project

PAINT ON!

i think that it looks fantastic. Keep up the great work bro!

Can i make love to your case?

Thanks for the compliments

Kosterman - the answer is "No".

SAD

Where did you get the paint, I was thinking of getting a paint gun for my compressor and using it on my next project.

Quote: Originally Posted by IcEMage Where did you get the paint, I was thinking of getting a paint gun for my compressor and using it on my next project.

Icemage,

You can get the paint from most automotive paint store, or directly from Alsacorp.com. I think automotive paint it the way to go. The hard part is that it is more expensive then the rattle can, and takes more prep work. To use a rattle can, all you have to do is shake the can for a few min then spray, using automotive paint requires reducing paint, mixing, adjusting the gun, regulating the air psi. But over all, I love painting with HVLP. I think it is just funner

SAD

Quote: Originally Posted by SuAsDu Icemage, You can get the paint from most automotive paint store, or directly from Alsacorp.com. I think automotive paint it the way to go. The hard part is that it is more expensive then the rattle can, and takes more prep work. To use a rattle can, all you have to do is shake the can for a few min then spray, using automotive paint requires reducing paint, mixing, adjusting the gun, regulating the air psi. But over all, I love painting with HVLP. I think it is just funner SAD

Thanks bro do you know of any good guides on line for someone just strating.

EDIT

O man I have been looking around there site, Thanks a bunch that is some killer stuff!

Icemage,

Yup.. Alsa has some of the SICKEST paint additivies and stuff. On my previous projects, I have used their Crazer, Candy, Base Coat, Eclipse. I have some Crystal FX I plan to use on a future project.

SAD

Fantastic work there, SAD, I loved your 'test-mice'! A project is just that much more pimp when the peripherals match the case! I commend you on your effort, that project definitely isn't a quickie...

Hey Coelacanth,

THanks for the complements I really wanted to paint the LCD monitor also, but I didn't have time to. And as this project being a quickie.. umm.. its was a quickie project. It was completed in 30 days, and made its debut at the LAN as planned. I am currently doing a backlog posting of my worklog, since all my spare time was modding.

SAD

Quote: Originally Posted by SuAsDu And as this project being a quickie.. umm.. its was a quickie project. It was completed in 30 days, and made its debut at the LAN as planned.

It may have been completed quickly, but I quite doubt you skimped on the man-hours.

Looking good. Cant wait to see some more posts.