Gigantea-CM Elite 130 casemod [Completed]

Hackentosher · May 24, 2016

Do you ever see something and then feel really incompetent with your building abilities?

InsolentGnome · May 25, 2016

5 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

Do you ever see something and then feel really incompetent with your building abilities?

All the time!

Trav_X · May 25, 2016

20 hours ago, InsolentGnome said:

So before, I had shown off the 1" red acrylic rod and the bend I put into part of it. Well, I needed two so gas torch and tape to the rescue.

For as bad of a job as I did taping them together, they came out very similar. Next was to hit them with the portaband, die grinder, mini sander, and anything else I could find to get them shaped into points.

When it was all said and done, I wound up with two canes for gnomes.

Not giving away what they're for just yet though.

I also got some 90 fittings in so I could finish the res. And since it was all cleaned and rinsed, it was time to fill it with some Mayhems X1 in blood red of course.

The 90's really helped clean up the tubing. And with the lights out, the res is eerie.

With the res done and filled, I figured it was time to see what happened when I hit the power switch. Luckily, no blue smoke!

Relatively mild mannered with the lights on.

Little peeved when the lights start going out.

With the lights out, it's time for an exorcist!

I wish the PSU LEDs were a bit brighter, but they do a pretty good job of lighting the back end.

I also grabbed a video with the lights out. This thing looks freaky!

Just a few final things to finish up now and she should be ready for final pics in no time! Thanks for following along!

Damn! looks great, can't wait for the finishing touches and the final photos. Awesome mod it lives!

MIXFUSED · May 25, 2016

Dude SWEET Build...it is awesome and really scary looking...but when you first painted the legs they looked like bananas lol.

But it is awesome!

InsolentGnome · May 26, 2016

12 hours ago, Trav_X said:

Damn! looks great, can't wait for the finishing touches and the final photos. Awesome mod it lives!

12 hours ago, MIXFUSED said:

Dude SWEET Build...it is awesome and really scary looking...but when you first painted the legs they looked like bananas lol.

But it is awesome!

Thanks! Yeah, the banana thing sucks, but hindsight is 20/20. I've thought about going back to shade them when I get better with an airbrush, but they've been cleared, so I'm not sure I want to deal with it.

InsolentGnome · May 26, 2016

Update time! I'm down to the finishing touches.

I'm relocating all my cables to the new back panel and this includes the power cord for the PSU, so I had to make up a short jumper out of an old power cable. After soldering it up, I went ahead and put some urethane resin around the connectors, just for a little extra protection.

After some heatshrink to pretty it up(I only had white quickset resin), I mounted it and all my other connections in the back panel.

The panel connectors are pretty bulky, but they made life easy allowing me to use generic patch cables.

And the booty all buttoned up.

Next on the list to finish up were my gnome canes, the acrylic rod that I bent and sanded into points. These are going to be Gigantea's antennae. I marked the spots on the nose piece and drilled a hole in each antennae.

I debated on lighting them with some LED's. I doubt I will since I'm planning on clear coating them to get a nice shiny finish and they won't have the crazy glow that the rest of the edge lit parts have. Plus, it's already pretty freaking bright with the lights out.

Now all that's left are a few coats of clear on a few pieces and this project is done!

Trav_X · May 26, 2016

2 hours ago, InsolentGnome said:

Update time! I'm down to the finishing touches.

I'm relocating all my cables to the new back panel and this includes the power cord for the PSU, so I had to make up a short jumper out of an old power cable. After soldering it up, I went ahead and put some urethane resin around the connectors, just for a little extra protection.

After some heatshrink to pretty it up(I only had white quickset resin), I mounted it and all my other connections in the back panel.

The panel connectors are pretty bulky, but they made life easy allowing me to use generic patch cables.

And the booty all buttoned up.

Next on the list to finish up were my gnome canes, the acrylic rod that I bent and sanded into points. These are going to be Gigantea's antennae. I marked the spots on the nose piece and drilled a hole in each antennae.

I debated on lighting them with some LED's. I doubt I will since I'm planning on clear coating them to get a nice shiny finish and they won't have the crazy glow that the rest of the edge lit parts have. Plus, it's already pretty freaking bright with the lights out.

Now all that's left are a few coats of clear on a few pieces and this project is done!

Damn, those antennae look super awesome. This thing is so close to finish! Great job, can't wait for the final

Loleo · May 26, 2016

@InsolentGnome Followed this from the start and I want to say that this sure has been an awesome build log. Great job with the ''case mod'' since it's actually more of a scratch build (which is actually even more impressive).

1 hour ago, Trav_X said:

Damn, those antennae look super awesome. This thing is so close to finish! Great job, can't wait for the final

You don't have to quote his entire post man, just edit out the all of his text and pictures, this page is already long enough.

Envyyy · May 26, 2016

This is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen. I love it!

8uhbbhu8 · May 26, 2016

OMG. I..... I..... GIMMEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

InsolentGnome · May 27, 2016

7 hours ago, Trav_X said:

Damn, those antennae look super awesome. This thing is so close to finish! Great job, can't wait for the final

Thanks! I know, I'm getting ready to lay down some clear, I can't wait for it to be done!

6 hours ago, Loleo said:

@InsolentGnome Followed this from the start and I want to say that this sure has been an awesome build log. Great job with the ''case mod'' since it's actually more of a scratch build (which is actually even more impressive).

You don't have to quote his entire post man, just edit out the all of his text and pictures, this page is already long enough.

Thanks! Doing it as a scratch would have been easier. Less complication and way more freedom. Or if the 130's panels would have been stronger so I could use them, that would have been easier too!

4 hours ago, Envyyy said:

This is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen. I love it!

Thanks!

3 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

OMG. I..... I..... GIMMEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope! Not gonna do it.

InsolentGnome · May 28, 2016

Last update before pics, thank god!

Just finishing up a bunch of small stuff, mostly touch up. First, the back armor is now done and all the correct color.

And I got the 2 legs I messed up touched up as well. So now we have all the banana legs!

And the antennae are cleared. That sure beat trying to polish them!

I didn't light them, but they do pick up some of the glow from the eyes.

For a little touch of detail, I decided to do something with the CM logos that come on the front panel of the 130. First, I dusted them with some black paint to tone them down a bit.

Then I put a pair of them on the head and tail, in about the same place they would be on the case.

I think the one on the head is a bit off, but I was standing on the table with my head in the floor joists trying to work around a shop light, so I'll straighten it up when I can actually reach it and look at it head on. The last one was a way to fix a little pre-planning mistake. I had thought of using pass throughs to go from the res into the body for the GPU, so I left a blank in the hex pattern. Turns out I didn't need to, so I had a weird patch with no pattern. Well, no more.

And that finishes the build up.

All that's left now are the final beauty shots!

Thanks for following along!

Loleo · May 28, 2016

Awesome!

19_blackie_73 · May 28, 2016

awesome awesome awsome. But I wouldn't count this as a case mod anymore - it's basically a scratch build IMO

Loleo · May 28, 2016

4 hours ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

awesome awesome awsome. But I wouldn't count this as a case mod anymore - it's basically a scratch build IMO

I think that just shows how much effort and skill he has put into it.

InsolentGnome · May 29, 2016

7 hours ago, Loleo said:

Awesome!

7 hours ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

awesome awesome awsome. But I wouldn't count this as a case mod anymore - it's basically a scratch build IMO

2 hours ago, Loleo said:

I think that just shows how much effort and skill he has put into it.

Thanks!

Casemod vs scratch can get very gray, very fast. I started a thread over at the Mod Zoo and we sort of came up with the idea of intent as partly the driver for whether it's a casemod or scratch. The idea being are you turning a case into something vs you're making this and this case part will help along that path. For example, I consider this a casemod because the idea that drove it was turning ITX cases into a centipede. But that's just my take on it. Really it doesn't matter, except that in competitions, that's how it's divided up sometimes.

InsolentGnome · May 31, 2016

So the final shots. Or rather the first of them. I like these, but I wasn't feeling artsy so I didn't get any good detail shots this go around. On to the pictures!

Hope you like them. I'm gonna go back and try to grab some shots of the detail work and hopefully get those up soon.

RustyHamrLickr · May 31, 2016

I swear I can see that thing smiling cause it's so happy to have found that res....

rowanhazard · May 31, 2016

25 minutes ago, RustyHamrLickr said:

I swear I can see that thing smiling cause it's so happy to have found that res....

its like "my precious"

Trav_X · June 1, 2016

That's crazy impressive I'd say you have a great shot at the Cooler Master competition. I didn't really realize the full scale of the size until I saw the pic with its scale based on a human! Very nice mod. One of the best I've ever seen good luck with future endeavors and the competition!

InsolentGnome · June 1, 2016

3 hours ago, RustyHamrLickr said:

I swear I can see that thing smiling cause it's so happy to have found that res....

3 hours ago, rowanhazard said:

its like "my precious"

^^^THAT^^^!!! OMG, THAT!

Thanks! I'm sort of beaming with pride right now. That's how I wanted it to come across. Sort of a 'magical' item that it's found and that magic now has control over it. Awesome! The ring to a tee!

2 hours ago, Trav_X said:

That's crazy impressive I'd say you have a great shot at the Cooler Master competition. I didn't really realize the full scale of the size until I saw the pic with its scale based on a human! Very nice mod. One of the best I've ever seen good luck with future endeavors and the competition!

Thanks! I hope so! There are some good mods in there and some great detail work. I would have used a banana for scale, but everyone would have thought a leg fell off, LOL!

rowanhazard · June 1, 2016

19 hours ago, InsolentGnome said:

^^^THAT^^^!!! OMG, THAT!

Thanks! I'm sort of beaming with pride right now. That's how I wanted it to come across. Sort of a 'magical' item that it's found and that magic now has control over it. Awesome! The ring to a tee!

Lol I'm glad you appreciate my lame joke lol. But yeah it is like a ring or magical item with powers.