"Under Construction"- Lighting Adventures Continue

Last edited by Nitemayr on Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:35 pm; edited 3 times in total

I’ve wanted to do a mod for a while now, and since I love LEGOs I wanted to do a LEGO case, but not just a case out of LEGOs…
I liked the look of the construction sets that have come out, so decided to do a case where the lego guys are in the process of building on it.
Because the DangerDen guys are awesome, I decided to base the mod on their Tower21 case.

I modeled the entire case to scale in 3D, and then began modeling various components. I already have a large library of LEGO models modeled up in 3D, so this would allow me to start putting things together and planning them out, and then determine if more pieces needed to be purchased to supplement the existing bins of LEGOs I already have.
I decided that the large construction crane would be the corner stone of the design, and will ultimately be secured to the back corner of the case, with the main crane arm and control seat extending above the top of the case so that it can have the full 360 degree swivel.

Early on, I hadn’t really determined a color scheme, so a lot of the renders have varying color in them. I worked in a rough lego shell to get a feel for the scale of the case vs. the legos themselves.

Ultimately I decided on a Black/Yellow color scheme to match the caution tape feel.

I had trouble finding the crane, as the set decided to be end-of-sale’d between my original vision and actual purchasing phases… fortunately the wife was kind enough to get it for me as a ‘daddy’ gift for our first child. Lucky me!
Here’s a picture of the crane and the DD case (rough assembly). Towards the bottom of the crane you can see the little gates with caution striping that formed my color theme…

The open edges inside the case will be painted to have the same striping pattern, which is turning out to be a tedious job, but I think the result will be worth-while.

I drew up some striping in the scale I wanted, made a stencil, and then started trying some paint methods on some scrap pieces of plexi that I had lying around.

Applied some yellow paint and let dry…

Peeling off the tape showed that I used too much paint and it bled under the tape, but the effect looks passable. I will use a more… ‘stencil’ style of painting (more a dabbing and multiple coats) on future attempts.

Last night I started taping off the actual pieces of the case to be painted.

I did a test run of the paint on the black plexi on a side that wouldn’t be seen, turned out pretty good IMHO.

Today will be more masking and then some painting and then the long arduous process of removing the tape without mucking up the paint.
The fans will have a black casing, and then the blades themselves will be painted yellow. I was originally going to use yellow fluid with some black anti-kinking wrap, however I already have black fluid, so I will use that with yellow anti-kink wrap on the water cooling tubing. I like this effect better, as the yellow stays a highlight, rather than a base color.
I am still working out how I want the lego portion to work. I will have lots of partially build structural elements throughout the case (including on/around the watercooling components). I plan on having a hanging scaffolding on the case, and various little lego guys performing construction tasks throughout. I am planning on having a lego guy with a welder hood and welding equipment working on a piece of the case. I will have a bright-white LED at the weld point that is wired to the hard-drive activity, making it flicker when the computer is working.
I will continue to post as I make more progress, I am currently shooting for having this mostly done by PDXLAN 14, we shall see how much the baby lets me work on it though.
There is a full gallery of renders at various stages and more pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kl.....directlink

_________________
Those Light Signs:
http://ThoseLightSigns.com

PDXLAN 15 Nazi Zombie Mod for Call of Duty: World at War:
http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/nazi_zombie_PDX_15.zip

My Case Mod Log:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16528
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8104
https://picasaweb.google.com/klschuff/UnderConstructionModFinals?feat=directlink

Wow man, I will be closely watching this because I'm a huge fan of legos! All your ideas are amazing especially the led welder idea. Very nice man. Hope to see some more progress soon. Fricken Sweet!

_________________
CURRENT PROJECT
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=102116#102116
Attended PDXLAN 14, 16

This is going to be an intense mod! I look forward to seeing it's progression. The attention to detail will really make the difference with this mod.

_________________
I like turtles

I love everything about this idea. Smile

this looks like a great idea man!!! i cant wait to see it!

_________________
Stabby
"i don't use caps."

PDXLAN - 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 12.5, 13, 14, 14.5, 15, 16, 16.5, 17, 18, 18.5, 19, 20, 20.5, 21...
GNWLAN - 5, 6, 7
SSL- 1
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Stabby-GDay
wow- sen' jin -alliance- 80 druid- Clock (quit for the 3rd time. i will never return)

Thanks everyone! Hoping it turns out good too. Smile

http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/caserotate-1.html

The things we do when we can't physically work on the case because we're at work on boring conference calls....

I'm about 1/3 of the way though masking the case for painting, I have the 2 larger inside side panels to do yet, but the smaller brackets are ready for paint.

_________________
Those Light Signs:
http://ThoseLightSigns.com

PDXLAN 15 Nazi Zombie Mod for Call of Duty: World at War:
http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/nazi_zombie_PDX_15.zip

My Case Mod Log:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16528
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8104
https://picasaweb.google.com/klschuff/UnderConstructionModFinals?feat=directlink

Hardware Specs:
Intel Q6600 Processor
Intel X38BT Motherboard
EVGA 8800 GTS 640MB
4GB OCZ Platinum DDR3
1x 150GB Raptor X HDD
1x 1TB Toshiba HDD
CPU and GPU cooled by DangerDen waterblocks

Nothing too fancy, just what I am currently running anyway. Smile

_________________
Those Light Signs:
http://ThoseLightSigns.com

PDXLAN 15 Nazi Zombie Mod for Call of Duty: World at War:
http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/nazi_zombie_PDX_15.zip

My Case Mod Log:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16528
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8104
https://picasaweb.google.com/klschuff/UnderConstructionModFinals?feat=directlink

This is going to be fun . . .w00t. Let me know if you need help.

_________________
Blah Blah Blah

Finished masking off the areas to be striped. Took WAY too many hours, but hopefully the results will be worthwhile.

Will paint and remove tape over the next couple days and then it's LEGO TIME!!!

Yes... my 'workshop' happens to be my living room. Very Happy

_________________
Those Light Signs:
http://ThoseLightSigns.com

PDXLAN 15 Nazi Zombie Mod for Call of Duty: World at War:
http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/nazi_zombie_PDX_15.zip

My Case Mod Log:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16528
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8104
https://picasaweb.google.com/klschuff/UnderConstructionModFinals?feat=directlink

I was thinking you had a little tiny elf helping you in the last pic.

it may have been a lot easier for you to use a brush to do the stripes or even 1/8" car pin stripe tape. It has to be insanely tedious to remove all the masking after painting.

This is a really cool idea. Man I would not have the patience to do those stripes.

_________________
Good Karma good - Bad Karma bad

markkleb wrote:

it may have been a lot easier for you to use a brush to do the stripes or even 1/8" car pin stripe tape. It has to be insanely tedious to remove all the masking after painting.

Probably, but I had more trouble keeping the angle consistent that way than if I traced the stencil on the tape and then cut..

It was tedious, but a few movies on the TV got me through... the worst part is I will be finding little bits of blue tape for months. Very Happy

_________________
Those Light Signs:
http://ThoseLightSigns.com

PDXLAN 15 Nazi Zombie Mod for Call of Duty: World at War:
http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/nazi_zombie_PDX_15.zip

My Case Mod Log:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16528
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8104
https://picasaweb.google.com/klschuff/UnderConstructionModFinals?feat=directlink

i love this mod so much...

_________________
I like turtles

After a little painting...

and a LOT of peeling...

My stripes are nearly done. The fans still need a little touch up, but should be peeled and the case ready to loose assemble this evening. There's still a little touch up to be done, cleanup, etc, but the hard part of them is over. They don't pop as much with the protective sheet still on the acrylic, but I need that on there for some drilling and marking that I still have to do.

_________________
Those Light Signs:
http://ThoseLightSigns.com

PDXLAN 15 Nazi Zombie Mod for Call of Duty: World at War:
http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/nazi_zombie_PDX_15.zip

My Case Mod Log:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16528
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8104
https://picasaweb.google.com/klschuff/UnderConstructionModFinals?feat=directlink

Wow!! That is cool...

This is gonna be an awesome Mod!!!

_________________
www.nerdragepros.com
______________________
PDXLAN 10.5, 12, 12.5, 13, 14, 14.5, 15, 16, 16.5, 17, 18, 18.5, 19, 20, 20.5, 21(Paid For!!)

One Word...... EPIC!

_________________
Game Rig - QX9650 OC'd @ 4.0 l 8 GB DDR2-1066 Mushkin Ascent l eVGA Geforce GTX 580 SC l Asus P5QPRO l 2 WD 500 Single platters in Raid 0

Real men run a BSD... Follow the devil.

www.xtreme-forces.com

PDXLAN14 (Paid 11G) PDXLAN16.5 (Paid F5) PDXLAN18.5 (Paid 6F,6G)

Ok, making good progress on the painting. Fans are done, case is basically done, few other things I might touch up or paint if time allows, but now it's on to the fun part... the Legos!!

_________________
Those Light Signs:
http://ThoseLightSigns.com

PDXLAN 15 Nazi Zombie Mod for Call of Duty: World at War:
http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/nazi_zombie_PDX_15.zip

My Case Mod Log:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16528
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8104
https://picasaweb.google.com/klschuff/UnderConstructionModFinals?feat=directlink

Quick update before I take my computer down...

Crane attached, pump enclosed, things are coming together now. Side structure is being fine tuned, but waiting until components are installed so that it works out visually.

_________________
Those Light Signs:
http://ThoseLightSigns.com

PDXLAN 15 Nazi Zombie Mod for Call of Duty: World at War:
http://oregonstate.edu/~schuffk/nazi_zombie_PDX_15.zip

My Case Mod Log:
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16528
http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8104
https://picasaweb.google.com/klschuff/UnderConstructionModFinals?feat=directlink

You are insane bro...but that is incredibly awesome. Looks like it's coming together very nicely.