Gigantea-CM Elite 130 casemod [Completed]

[nmil]

Very nice!

[Snooli]

So... What happened to the Elite 130? Was it eaten by the worm you're building?

[InsolentGnome]

13 hours ago, Trav_X said:

Can't wait for the completion on this, it's going to look absolutely beautiful! (And frightening)

Muahahahahahaha!

6 hours ago, nmil said:

Very nice!

Thanks!

5 hours ago, Snooli said:

So... What happened to the Elite 130? Was it eaten by the worm you're building?

There's a few Elites in there.  Right now, they are providing the base of every section and 2 of the front panels will feature on the head and tail.  I've been meaning to go through my box of parts to see what else I can put to use.  It isn't easy seeing as there isn't much to an Elite 130.

[InsolentGnome]

UPDATE TIME!!!!!

It feels like I'm slowly plodding along, but I'm to the point where I can make a list of things to do.  Definitely better than the "OMG there is sooo much to do!" feeling.

First off, I'll start with the back armor.  Giant centipedes have it.  Every evil robot who knows anything about being an evil robot has it.  So Gigantea has it!

I've had an idea of what the back armor would look like from the beginning, but I wanted to test it out to see that it made sense for looks and in function in the semi-reality where Gigantea would exist.  Break out the paper!

It's going to slightly overlap and the bends in the spine are going to be interesting.  I might have to cut them down a bit so it looks right.  After a bit of work in SketchUp, I cut out a few of them from some 1/8" acrylic.  It gives them some bulk but will still be easy to bend.

Haven't gotten around to bending them and figuring out the mounting yet.  Mainly because of what's next...Reservoir Time!

If you've kept up, you're probably wondering where the heck are you going to mount a reservoir on this thing?  It's stuffed pretty full.

How right you are!  There are a few spots a bay res might fit, and space for a custom reservoir, but not really a spot for a 200mm tube res with a D5 on the bottom.  Hmmmm...well let's check out the res.

One of Monsoon's new MMRS setups.  Very pretty with the frosted reactor tube.  The standard mounting brackets don't really help me, but they do hold the lighting kit for the res, 2 CCFL bulbs.  So we'll be keeping those.

What I will be using to mount this are the extra holes tapped into the top and bottom of the res that allow you to offset their mounts.

This is all fine and dandy but where's it going?  Well, since there isn't a good mounting spot, Gigantea is just going to have to hold it, lol.  

I wanted it to look like it had just found this amazing item and it was holding it up.  So we need to customize some legs.  I had to pull them in tighter so it would look like they were actually holding the res.

Almost, just need to cut some of the angles a bit more.

Pretty close!

I cut the tips of the legs off and drilled a hole for the M4 screws to go through.

Once you slip the screw in through the base of the leg, the threads pop out, but the leg holds the head.  It's a total pain to screw together since you have to use pliers on the threads, but it works well and I'm not planning on taking it apart too often.

And the finished product.

And a closeup of the mounting.

Still a lot left to do, but I'm so happy that this worked out like I pictured it in my head!

[Trav_X]

interesting watercooling placement, but I think it will look great once finished! Great job, you've made a ton of progress and it looks absolutely beautiful!

[nmil]

That looks pretty epic!

[InsolentGnome]

On 4/16/2016 at 2:14 PM, Trav_X said:

interesting watercooling placement, but I think it will look great once finished! Great job, you've made a ton of progress and it looks absolutely beautiful!

 

1 hour ago, nmil said:

That looks pretty epic!

Thanks!  Yeah, it'll look better with lighting and fluid for sure.

[ShaunC]

Holy SH*T that look awesome! I want it! haha

[InsolentGnome]

23 hours ago, ShaunC said:

Holy SH*T that look awesome! I want it! haha

Haha!  Thanks

[InsolentGnome]

More progress!  I finally got the body sections and legs finished up!

I had most of the body sections done, but ran into a tight spot at the bend by the head and the design had to be tweaked at bit.  An extra angle in a couple of pieces and shortening another section got it to work together.

It's a pretty tight spot and Gigantea claimed it's first victim, my knuckle.

But I did get a preview of how the blood red I'm planning on using will look.

Trying to fit the last 4 legs and 2 jaws in that little space with the 2 legs that were already there was a nightmare.  I definitely feel for centipedes after this, getting all those legs to work together.  Of course they have a socket joint at the body which would have made my life a whole lot easier.  Since I'm not getting that crazy, I had to play around with angles and positioning to fit all 8 limbs in that tiny space.

It's an eye poking hazard.

All that was left were the jaws.  I figured I'd show you the progress of how I make one of these.  After figuring out the angles I want and cutting sections out with a bandsaw, I'll throw it in the vice and grab the torch.

I start at the top just because that's the easiest time to bend the point.  Applying the torch to the base of the prong, I'll take some pliers and apply pressure until it starts to get soft.  Then you just squeeze the prong in and work your way around all four of them, bringing them to a point.  After that, I'll use the pliers to grab the top and hit the back side of the notches with the torch.

And then you just apply some pressure till it bends right over.

And you get this, ready to have it's joints brazed.

With these jaws done, it was time to finish up the limbs.

With 8 limbs all on top of each other, there really isn't a camera angle that makes it make any sense, especially with everything all shiny aluminum right now.  IRL, it's a little easier to follow what's going on, and I think paint will help too.  

I will say, in person, it looks like something you don't want to mess with.

Next up is the back armor.  I cut my original pieces down a bit to where they cover the body sections but don't overlap.  It just made life easier working around the bends in the body.  But while drilling and tapping mounting holes, this happened.

My 6-32 tap just couldn't handle it.  And I didn't have any luck in getting the tip out.  It's about impossible to drill cause it's hardened and I really can't go after it without risking breaking something.  Once I disassemble everything for finishing, I'll either set it up and drill it out in a drill press or take a punch and put it through.  And if neither of those plans work, I'll just fake a screw top.  It's one of 4 screws holding a piece of 1/8" acrylic so it's really for looks anyways.

Since my 6-32 tap was dead and not really cut out for tapping this bar, I jumped my screws up to M4 and mounted my pieces of acrylic.

Then I grabbed my trusty heat gun.

With a little heat application, I bent the armor pieces to give me a contour between the spine and the sides of the body sections.

I'm still debating on bending the little winged edges down.  That was my original plan, but I think leaving them alone looks alright.  At least for now.:)  

Thanks for following along!

 

[InsolentGnome]

Tiny update.  Got the armor completed!

That's pretty much it for fabrication except for the head and tail sections and some stands.  Speaking of stands, had a little accident that reinforced the need for them.  While moving Gigantea to the floor so I could work actually reach what I was working on, a leg joint braze gave out.  Luckily, the aluminum is sturdy enough to take some abuse.  So, after fixing that, I started on the stands.

I planing on taking some 5/16 threaded rod and threading one end into the spine, the other into small bases.  I'm just planning on these to hold weight and not balance the whole thing, so they don't have to be very big.  Luckily I ordered some thicker plastics to play around with so I've got a selection of 12"x12"x.5" acrylics and HDPE.  

Since I've never worked with HDPE, I figured I'd give it a go.  The snow white is not really useful, hopefully it will paint well.

Speaking of snow, this stuff leaves nice fluffy white chips EVERYWHERE!

And the bases are cut out.  6" round, or as round as my router will make them.  I need to look into that, but for Gigantea, angled polygons aren't that far out of line since it is covered with a thousand hexagons.  This is the bottom side, you can see the pockets for the nuts and washers to sit in.

Once I get everything disassembled for finishing and paint, I'll put some holes in the spine for the threaded rod and get the stands put together.  Thankfully, finishing and paint is next!

[8uhbbhu8]

Almost Done!!!! OMG Can't wait! (Also, I. REALLY. WANT. IT. !!!!!

[InsolentGnome]

On 4/23/2016 at 10:49 PM, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Almost Done!!!! OMG Can't wait! (Also, I. REALLY. WANT. IT. !!!!!

Yep! Started filler and primer today!

[mikeeginger]

Wow this a sick mod dude nice work

Hyped to see more 

[Guest]

I'm late let's make a joke...

 

Kill it before it lays eggs.

 

LOL TOTALLY APPROPRIATE...

nobody likes me

[Guest]

11 hours ago, MarthiniL said:

I'm late let's make a joke...

 

Kill it before it lays eggs.

 

LOL TOTALLY APPROPRIATE...

nobody likes me

I like how @starwarsguy99 actually agreed with me that nobody likes me...

*insert sad music*

[InsolentGnome]

On 4/24/2016 at 9:06 AM, mikeeginger said:

Wow this a sick mod dude nice work

Hyped to see more 

Thanks!

On 4/24/2016 at 3:53 PM, MarthiniL said:

I'm late let's make a joke...

 

Kill it before it lays eggs.

 

LOL TOTALLY APPROPRIATE...

nobody likes me

If this thing reproduces, I'm outta here!

[InsolentGnome]

Little update on what's going on.  Got it all disassembled and ready to prep for paint.  I think this thing has about a million screws in it.

Using filler to clean up the legs.

Why did I make something with 20 legs?!?  Another final coat of filler to catch some spots that got missed and these will be ready for primer.  

Most everything else has gone through a quick sand and is ready for primer as well, so it's time to get painting!

[Trav_X]

Can't wait to see the finished build  and when it wins the CM Modding competition

[InsolentGnome]

20 hours ago, Trav_X said:

Can't wait to see the finished build  and when it wins the CM Modding competition

Thanks!  But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, lol!  There are some great builds going on and even more still popping up.  Plus, I'm going to have to pull off some pretty good wiring to make it look nice.

[TheCamba]

Nice!

[InsolentGnome]

On 4/28/2016 at 3:02 PM, TheCamba said:

Nice!

Thanks!

[InsolentGnome]

New update!  Paint prep on this thing just takes forever.

So first off, I've got to get the rest of the fabrication done.  Have to, have to, have to.  

Mounts in the spine for the stands.  Some giant inserts for 5/16" all thread.  They require a 17/32" hole.  Has anyone ever seen that bit???  So I drilled a 1/2" hole and filed it out to fit.

Then I epoxied the two inserts in because the fit was a bit loose.

Next up was to finish the head and tail.  The thin gauge aluminum I originally used to stiffen the head and tail was way too floppy, so I replaced it with .08" aluminum.

Then I bent and cut some more .08" Al to make end covers for the front and back.  This back plate is where I'll mount my I/O brackets.

Right now it's just got 2 mod blocks holding it at the top because I ran out of blocks, but I'll get some more and put 2 more at the bottom.

Now we need some armor pieces to clean up the head and tail.  I'm using the same 1/8" acrylic as the rest of the armor.

Little heat and bending...

Finished product before paint prep.

Next up is our mystery part.  What's it gonna be???

Starting with a 4' long, 1" red acrylic rod.

I wacked it in half.

And then applied TONS of heat.  OMG it took so much heat to get this stuff bendable.  Torch level.  My heat gun was useless.

That's as far as I got with the acrylic rod so far.  You can only try to set your shop on fire so much in one day, lol.

With that stuff going on and getting finished, the paint prep has continued and I've even put some paint down.

I rattle canned some of the interior sections just because the finish isn't as important and it's easier as far as set up and timing.

I also managed to get the legs painted.  When I painted the legs on Scout, I used wire to hang them, but that was really a pain and led to issues with runs since it's hard to hold and manipulate the leg on a wire and still keep the gun distance, so I needed a new method.  So I made leg sticks!

I just chopped up some 1/4" dowel and stuck them in holes in a board.  Then I put the legs on those.  I worked pretty well, except next time, I'll make sure to leave more space in between.

After the primer and a little sand, it was time to try out my new toy, an Iwata LPH-80 with 3M's PPS cup setup.

It's just a little trim gun, but it's so nice!  I've been happy with cheap guns for getting into painting, but this thing seems perfect for the size of jobs I'm doing.  I can't wait to see how it does on a full panel.  And the cups make clean up so easy!

And yes, that is yellow.  Viper Racing Yellow to be exact.  Racing colors make computers faster, right?  I'm using a single stage urethane for everything I'm shooting.  I might clear coat some parts, but it's not really necessary with this paint.  Just shoot it and it's done.

This just makes me think of the table flipping over and running away!

Nice and shiny!

Hopefully with a little more painting, I can start assembly and wiring.

 

[CtW]

This is less of a case mod and more of a scratch build that uses parts cannibalized from some elite 130s. This thing is cool af.

[InsolentGnome]

56 minutes ago, CtW said:

This is less of a case mod and more of a scratch build that uses parts cannibalized from some elite 130s. This thing is cool af.

Thanks!  It definitely straddles the line between a scratch and a mod. But since the 130 was the base I started from, I'm still considering it a mod.  The evil robotic overlord of all mods.  Muahahahahahahahahaa!