Zombie mods The Dark Carnival.. Roll up, roll up !.

[ALXAndy]

OK so today we're going to make some back plates. I absolutely hate the ugly back sides of PCBs, so in my rig they're all going to be completely covered..

 

First up is a back plate for the Killer NIC. I start off by taking the plate I made and cutting some dinoc for it..

 

 

 

Cover..

 

 

And done.

 

 

Take the network card.

 

 

Apply 3M foam.

 

 

And.

 

 

And the network card is done. But wait, I didn't explain how I did it. So let's make another one. This one is bigger as it's for the GPU. First you need to measure up OR trace. In this instance I can remove the back plate without voiding my warranty, so let's do that shall we?

 

 

And then put it on a piece of paper big enough to fit it and draw around it. I wanted so badly to cover it completely with no holes, but I was worried it would overheat.

 

 

So basically i drew in some hole points to drill through.

 

 

I then cut it smaller, cutting two of the edges along the lines as I can line these up with the edges of the acrylic sheet.

 

 

I then take a Prit Stick (or any other glue stick) and completely coat the back side of my template.

 

 

And glue it on to my acrylic sheet.

 

 

OK so now we're ready to cut it out. My method is basically to set the rotary tool to around 50% speed. Then, I cut along but not all the way through. It goes about half way as I basically hold it tight to the line.

 

 

Then I speed up the rotary tool, and finish cutting through. Then I have my back plate.

 

 

So how do I tidy the edges? Basically I take a nice flat piece of wood. I then place a sheet of sand paper on it flat. Take the acrylic and then follow this pic.

 

 

Apply even pressure and you will get a straight edge. Do the same on the other edge.

 

 

OK. So how do you carve the rounded corners? like this.. Using the edge of the cutting disc slowly turn it as per the pic.

 

 

Just be very gentle and take your time. Now I drill the venting holes I had mapped out.

 

 

And remove all of the protective cover.

 

 

After that I gently clean up the vent hole edges with a sharp blade. Then cover and fit.

 

 

And hey presto ! no ugly PCBs.

 

 

Sadly I made a mistake and covered the wrong side of the GPU back plate so now I need to order some more Dinoc for the OCZ Revodrive, but it is getting a back plate

[ALXAndy]

Hard drive cover

 

 

*Note. This is to be redone in red with a black logo. It is only temporarily as it is. 

[alpenwasser]

Nice work on that GPU backplate, looks awesome IMHO.

[TheMissxu]

A wooden back plate.... Nice, I like it!

[ALXAndy]

Thanks dude. Yeah it's much nicer than all that exposed stuff. Only cost me around £3 too, and that's including delivery charges AND the dinoc.

 

I've had to order some more, because when I was wrapping the GPU back plate I foolishly got into a deep conversation with my lady and ended up wasting an entire sheet wrapping the wrong bloody side

 

That's why there's a nasty join in the HDD cover. Doesn't matter, £2 puts it right but it's aggro. The HDD cover is a fraction too wide too though so needs to be peeled and then shaved down. I've changed my mind on it any way as I want it red with a black logo.The Fatal1ty logos will be going in order for me to put on my modding logo.

 

Any way, as ever, more to come soon. I'm not done by a long shot

[ALXAndy]

A wooden back plate.... Nice, I like it!

 

It's acrylic

[TheMissxu]

It's acrylic

Oh! Haha, I thought the cardboard template was wood

 

The 14th picture looked like ply/compressed/composite wood.

[ALXAndy]

Oh! Haha, I thought the cardboard template was wood

 

The 14th picture looked like ply/compressed/composite wood.

 

haha it's parcel wrapping paper so it's very wood like in texture.

[alpenwasser]

I've had to order some more, because when I was wrapping the GPU back plate I foolishly got into a deep conversation with my lady and ended up wasting an entire sheet wrapping the wrong bloody side

:lol:

Similar thing happened to me when I was crimping the network connectors this week.

I was talking to my dad and his gf while I was doing one of the connectors, and I

forgot to put on the cable protector (you know, the thing that keeps the cable from

kinking right after the connector) before crimping the connector...

[ALXAndy]

:lol:

Similar thing happened to me when I was crimping the network connectors this week.

I was talking to my dad and his gf while I was doing one of the connectors, and I

forgot to put on the cable protector (you know, the thing that keeps the cable from

kinking right after the connector) before crimping the connector...

 

Mate, men are just not built to multi task seriously

[bmxtricky5]

This is just beautiful! I am drooling.

[ALXAndy]

This is just beautiful! I am drooling.

 

I appreciate that ! the mission is to basically plate everything so that you could eat your dinner off it, but with costs staying low. The PSU box will be the grand finale

[alpenwasser]

Mate, men are just not built to multi task seriously

Our instructor in officer candidate training always told us:

"Men, you must strive to become women! Great multitaskers."

[ALXAndy]

Apologies for the loss of pictures. In six years I've never gone over the bandwidth limit.. Still, they'll be back soon Time to move on...

 

 

Time to make the button panel back box.

 

 

 

Paint, as well as the front audio/usb box.

 

 

Modding supplies, as well as the finished boxes.

 

 

I like this much better.

 

 

The Revodrive now has a back plate, so that's that job finished.

 

 

The finished hard drive cover, H100 block cover and a few other small things.

 

 

The front. Where's the DVD drive gone?

 

 

Press.

 

 

 

And the finished button panel.

 

[ALXAndy]

Buttons !

 

 

 

 

[SJBijzitter]

-doesnt know what to say-

-stands in awe-

[alpenwasser]

Buttons !

No, not buttons, pretty buttons.

[megadarkwood]

What do the buttons do?

[ALXAndy]

What do the buttons do?

 

The Colossus has its power and reset buttons in a flap in the top. This is a real serious PITA when you're overclocking, especially because I have it on the desk and not the floor (it means standing up, opening the panel and resetting for example). So two of them are power on and reset. The other one is wired up to the ROG Directkey button which when pressed reboots the machine into bios (complete failsafe).

 

So now I can overclock without constantly getting annoyed at the terrible placement of the original buttons.

[ALXAndy]

No, not buttons, pretty buttons.

 

Yup, worth waiting for from Hong Kong

 

I saved myself a good few £ too.

[Father Fuzzy]

love the buttons...Slick!

[ALXAndy]

love the buttons...Slick!

 

I thank you. So, not to disappoint, today was mod day (fuck it, every day is mod day !). Only today it was time to take a risk. I've never etched a window. I've always seen it as hand crafting and I love hand crafting. So first I settled on my design.

 

 

And attached it to the rear side of the window.

 

 

And masked up the other side to prevent it getting scratched.

 

 

And made myself a floor desk to work on. First I put down some foam.

 

 

And then some paper.

 

 

Gentlemen, choose your weapon !

 

 

About an hour in. What I didn't realise is how badly this hurts your hands after a while..

 

 

And another hour passes....

 

 

And another 45 minutes...

 

 

And then it was finally time to remove the tape and image. Squeaky bum time ! you miss something now and going back ain't gonna be easy..

 

 

Ever wanted a mod that screams out at you? this one does.

 

 

And so ends another day of modding. My poor hands need a rest

[LordGarth6]

 

I thank you. So, not to disappoint, today was mod day (fuck it, every day is mod day !). Only today it was time to take a risk. I've never etched a window. I've always seen it as hand crafting and I love hand crafting. So first I settled on my design.

[iNSERT AWESOMENESS]

 

And so ends another day of modding. My poor hands need a rest

 that looks great, if/when i get round to building my pc i had the exact same thing in mind and now i see the results from something thats not a simple cartoon outline, FANTASTIC. you tried a flexi-shaft for ur multitool [dremel thing]i got one and its a lot easier to use/hold for a long time

[ALXAndy]

 that looks great, if/when i get round to building my pc i had the exact same thing in mind and now i see the results from something thats not a simple cartoon outline, FANTASTIC. you tried a flexi-shaft for ur multitool [dremel thing]i got one and its a lot easier to use/hold for a long time

 

You know I never even thought of that ! I might treat myself to one of those

[ALXAndy]

OK guys, log update. I just wanted to point out that this log will continue for quite a while to come. So far it's been minor stuff like painting, covering, small items. Once all of the covers are done though? that's when the work begins. The main aim is to put in the sort of detail that takes a long time.

 

So over the past few days I have been working on concepts for the next stage of modding. I am very visual with my thinking, so usually mods I create were designed and seen in my mind long before they reach materials and tools. Obviously the theme now is zombies, so it's time to take it to the next level and kick it up a notch to show we can piss with the big boys.

 

If you've ever played Left 4 Dead in both its incarnations this part will make sense to you. If not? well I will do my best to explain it. First up was the idea.

 

 

OK, so as I said, if you're into Left 4 Dead that picture will explain the idea quite well. If not? Then interlude -

 

Dark Carnival is one of the levels in Left 4 Dead 2. It's based in a theme park, with the rides all closed down. So my idea is to first design a box for the base area of the PC. For this it was over to Sketchup.

 

 

 

 

OK so that part is pretty simple in essence. It's simply a box that will cover all of the nasty wiring. It has a fan to make sure that the air from the bottom intake makes it up into the case. All simple stuff, it's braced and contains a 120mm fan.

 

But wait.. That doesn't exactly fit the Dark Carnival bill really. So in my mind I had an image of this.

 

 

Which I then translated into this.

 

 

So basically atop the 120mm fan will sit a Ferris Wheel shaped bracket that will hold a 180mm Enermax Vegas Quad. Once lit up it will be the Ferris Wheel from Dark Carnival.

 

Back soon...