Skull on Fire "Worklog"

I am very new to moding and only about 3x years into computers.
I have not posted any work logs before so please pardon my noobnish.

Skull on Fire

This is one of my latest creations titled "Skull On Fire" which is not fully finished.
So this is the on-going work log.


Here are a list of the planed stages for this mod

Stages
1) Drawing/Concept
2) Cutting Out Window
3) Cutting Test Flames
4) Taping and Drawing real Flames
5) Etching Window
6) Sanding Case and Top Fans
7) Taping, Redrawing, Painting Case
8) adding Window
9) Adding Lights
10) Making Custom Wires
11) Building
12) Water Cooling
13) Testing
14) bragging :twisted:
15) Building Custom Shipping Box


The Parts Used in this case will be
System Parts
e6600
DS-3 MB
eVGA 8800gtx
2x 74g Rapters
1x 320g Seagate
2g Gskill
Other Parts still deciding





Stage 1

For the first step, I took a little time and Planed my mod. It all started out one day in class
while half asleep listening to my teacher ramble on about his private life and things that he
has done and etc. I had always wanted to paint flames onto my computer case and OC
the hell out of that bad boy. Also I like to game with the lights off late at night, and I
wanted something that would jump out and catch your eye. I am not a much of a dark
person but I wanted skulls.

Also, while I was apart of Aquabox Pc, I had a few Ipods Painted. My favorite of which was
my Skull on Fire Ipod as shown here:



That was where the inspiration that lead me to create this monster

I selected the Lan Li 767 case since it was only $120 at the time and a very nice case.
Not many people have this case and I really don't think that it really got all the credit and
popularity that it really deserves. This is one hell of a case. I think that many major
computer case OEM's can learn from this design and simple style.

The Plain Case






As you can tell its a very nice slick case
me like

I then taped off the case and began to draw the blue prints directly. Starting with the front
door. (this is not the final idea. I am still working/thinking)



Then took of the side panel, taped it off, and began to work on it. While it is not my best
work it really didn't matter. I just wanted to get the general look of the skulls. Thats all I
really needed.

Step #2

In this step I started to cut out the side window. Well I mean... my friend cut the side
window (he didn't want me to cut my hand off )




Then Sanded the Edges to get rid of all the sharp edges.



One by one. Lines where cut into the side window to get rid of the extra metal around the
skulls. I left a nice half inch around the first cut so that if the blade would had ever jumped
it would not have cut a good line. This was also a good way to make sure that my next
cut would also be clean.

STEP 2 Continued

one side of the skulls cut out


Now Both Sides done



Then I went back and put the side panel on the case and saw what it would look like.





Everything was going fine up to this point. I got my nice brand new hand dremal out and
started to cut out the eye holes. Well after about the second set of eyes I began to smell
something burning and brushed it off thinking it was the tape i was cutting through. So I
continued. Then my lap felt really really hot. When I looked down my dremel was on fire
and there was a huge fire ball on my lap. So i jumped up and threw it across the room and
padded out the flames.

Don't worry all good 8)
But I don't know why a dremel cough on fire like it did.

Anyway, grabbed a new dremel and finished the job. (I have cleaned the eyes at a lot more)



Now for a little self glory =]

STAGE #3 Cutting Test Flames

It took me a while to try and think of a good idea to use on my window. I wanted flames
but did not know how I was going to implement them into this window. I came up with the
idea of cutting flames directly into the Plexiglas and beaming a light into the Plexiglas from
the edges in hopes of illuminating the etched parts.

So, I bought a nice think piece of plexi and was about to use it when I noticed it had a
huge scratch all the way across it. It was about 11 or so at night and just decided to have
some fun with it and FSU =]

Taped off the Plexiglas


Then with a razer blade cut out the outline of the flames and peeled off the tape. Took a
piece of sand paper and went to town.

Meanwhile my good old buddy Jason went looking for a LED of some sort to test with. He
could not find any and decided to put his skills to work and made one hell of a "Getto
Mod" as he called it:

Supply's
-3x AA batteries
- ~5x inches of painters tape
- few inches of wire
- replacement LED head







So with the sanded Plexiglas and Getto LED it was testing time



I went back and sanded a few differnt ways to test out differnt textures


I also made a movie of the flames in the dark that can be downloaded here
http://www.flowgaming.net/Tman/Computers/Skull_on_Fire/Test_Ideas/Test_Flames_Movie/


Thats going to look SOOO NICE =D

Also, this may be a little off subject but was filmed during a break. I think you will like it =]
Holy Flame Balls Batman :O

very nice mod.

Very nice cut-out work. Really like the skull pile.

Thank you guys. Though the skull pile was roughly drawn so that I could get a
general idea of where to cut out the eyes.

Just wait until you see the real airbrushed skulls ;D

Looks really cool! Only thing I could suggest is to maybe do the skulls in a layer of plastic ontop of the side panel. You could even carve the skulls out a bit to give it depth.

Oh, another cool thing would be maybe some kind of circut that would fade diffrent color LEDs under your flames.

looks good so far! i wanna see the finished product as i love flames and skulls
:dark:

Very nice, gonna look wicked when its finished

nice job on the flames man!!! that looks like pro did it!

Nice job so far, is that garage at your house or is that a shop of yours? It's great to have an over abundance of tools!!! My workshop consists of a 4'x6' space in my cellar, I need a bigger house with a garage! Can't wait to see the finished project, I love the ipod by the way.

squashfx said:

nice job on the flames man!!! that looks like pro did it!

Click to expand...

What say in I aint

dylskee said:

Nice job so far, is that garage at your house or is that a shop of yours? It's great to have an over abundance of tools!!! My workshop consists of a 4'x6' space in my cellar, I need a bigger house with a garage! Can't wait to see the finished project, I love the ipod by the way.

Click to expand...

My work shop actually takes up 2 full car garage's and I even have a pole barn that I use quite often for my different computer stuff. I dont have the best cutting tools and my buddy, as you can tell, as got some stuff that just loves to eat metal.

I will post a pick of my work shop in a bit when i start on the wireing.

Looks like you ARE A PRO with the flames!

Have you considered making the eyes glow a different color by using a colored plexiglass behind just the pile-0-skulls?

nice work

RIG RIDER said:

Looks like you ARE A PRO with the flames!

Have you considered making the eyes glow a different color by using a colored plexiglass behind just the pile-0-skulls?

Click to expand...

the flames will have a choice of being on a flickering circit and dance between
white, red, orange, yellow. They will also be able to stay a solid UV color
aswell.

The eyes will be either UV or Red.

I am still trying to figure out how to break this all up and make it work. I have
never messed with LED's in my life and this is going to kill me.

UPDATE* Finish Flames



Final sanding the Plexi




Though, I did run into a few close call scratches. If you ever try this yourself. Be very very
careful. You can easily pull up an edge and mess everything up

Removed the Tape

I then placed the plexi behind the skulls to see what it would look like finished






Then for your Teaser here is 1x LED lighting this baby up in a well light room