My thoughts with this build is to try an create a PC case mod that has some of the items from the Fallout 3 game that people will recognize, yet look like it could be from the game. Of course there were no ATX cases in Fallout 3 but hopefully I can make the Thermaltake s41 Urban case like it it was taken right out of the game. One of the hard parts will to make it look like it something from the 50's and from a apocalyptic time. Grabbing some clues from the game like the old over sized control stations will help. They used a lot of the analog style gauges, so I had to hunt some of those down. Another thing is those damn terminal screens that I can either never get into or can't crack the password. I have an idea on how to get this as part of the case. And of course I have to get the Pip Boy 3000 into this one way or another. I also want to get some other stuff into the theme, like the Nuka-Cola bottle caps. I have it all in my head just how to do this, but can I get it right when actually making the case mod? So here is my first idea of a quick mock up of the build. So I decided to stay with the terminal screen on the left side of the case to serve two things. 1- It will allow for a look inside of the case 2- It brings an known element from the game to the case. With the side panel on I laid out where all the braces, hard drive cages and other items lined up. This way when I cut the window and add other stuff it would not be in the way of the frame or other items. I figured out where I wanted the screen/window will go. I used paper to create a template of the design of the terminal frame. I will transfer the design to some Sheet Styrene (0.30 inch thick) to give it the dimensional look. Here is the design transferred over to the Styrene I transferred the window layout to the backside of the panel to make it easier to cut on my scroll saw. But first I taped off the outside of the panel so that it would not get scratch. Yeah it is going to get beat up anyways but good habits are hard to break. I used my scroll saw but you can use a jig saw or rotary tool. Next I am going to be cutting the window/screen using some UV green plexi. This will give the window the green terminal effect I want and still be able to see into the case. So one of the things that was used a lot in the game at the large console are different types of analog gauges. So off to Ebay I went and found some for a $15. This will really help create the style for the case mod. Making it old So a couple of the gauges that I got are way to new looking. If they were old they would be scratched up and the white part of the gauge would be faded. I took the gauge apart to get to the face. Believe it or not there is a simple solution to making the white look old... Tea. Placing the white faces from the gauges into the tea and letting them soak for a while. They soak up some of the tea and the tea stains it. As we can see below it works very well. All the gauges are made to fit into some sort of a control panel or box, not a side panel from a computer case. I had to take most of them all apart, remove the faces and remake them to fit mostly the clear dial face plates. From here you can't tell that the gauge is only about 3/8 of an inch thick. The two small gauge that I got are going to be placed into the ROM drive bay area so I need something to hold them there. I grabbed some metal, made a plate to the length I needed, added some notches to where it needs to bend to fit into the bay. A couple of clamps and a small piece of angle iron were used to bend the metal right where it needed to be bent. I wanted to give this panel more detail so I added a second plate that will rest behind the gauges Here who it came out Calling it good for now and I will done some finishing work later as I have a lot to do. Next I moved to the side panel to layout and install the gauges for test fitting and stuff as I still had work to do on them. I wanted a raised part like I did no the front so some aluminum was cut to fit. Holes where drilled for the gauges and knobs. Some of these knows will be switched out as I did not like the way they looked Off to get some lighting and switches. I will be using some LEDs to light up the gauges to give it the "working" look. What I did find that I had not seen before was some LED's in a case in a strip. For about $6 they had these in 3-4 LEDS strips and in squares with a sticky pad on the back. They come in white, blue, green and yellow and are 12 vdc... this modders dream has come true. These are great for spot lighting a case. I will use the one I got for the Pip-Boy 3000. I will also be making some Nuka-Cola bottle caps. Lucky for me where I work we have a few bars on property and I was able to grab some quickly. And no they are not my brand... I enjoy the local beers. and finally I was getting worried about this as it was taking some time to get to me but the Pip-Boy 300 casting that I ordered showed up... YEAH! So after this we are on our way to some serious modding. Here is a quick look at what I want the case to look like. The gauges are mounted with the Pip-Boy on top and a couple of bottle caps. The whole idea is to make it look like someone has come back from a journey, take the PB of and stuff from their pockets and place it on top. Kind of like what most of us do now. One of the things I want to add to this case is some damage so I thought how about if some one took an ax or or something and split a section open. The right side panel was a great place for this to appear. I laid out a quick sketch Out came the Dremel and then a hammer to do the actual damage. I also wanted some damage to the plastic parts, but I just want dents so I grabbed my heat gun. Heated up the plastic and took the hammer head and pressed it on the now pliable plastic. I did this in a couple of places. A quick look at how it came out. Time to start prepping some of the parts for painting. I like to get some of the prep work done and out of the way when I can. This way the primer has time to dry and I can be doing stuff to other items. My way of saving sometime during the build. After doing some sanding it is always best to use a tack cloth to remove the dust and small participles before apply any primer or paint I know some people like to only use plasti kote spray paint on plastic, but I like to use a layer Adhesion Promoter. This creates a great bond and will allow you to use any kind and color of paint you want. Some primer on the side panel and a look at the open damaged area After this comes the fun part of making the case look realistically rough, scratched and rusted. It took me awhile to find a way to get the effect I wanted and I was excited to give it a try. Up Next... Rust with paint Rust time with paint and hairspray! I finally get to the part of the mod that I wanted to do the most, creating the rust effect. I know that some can make it by being a master of the airbrush - which I am not- or using stuff from the local craft store. I looked into that but was not really up on the way it looked. So off to Google and found what I wanted. Those that make the scaled military models know a thing or two about creating realistic damage and rust. The only problem I could see for me was that I needed to do it on a much bigger scale than a 8 inch model, but I going to give it a try anyways. Part of the beauty is that you don't have to be perfect. Here is what I did. You start off with a base coat of a dark brown, then spray a lighter brown in a different spotty directions and lastly a more "rust" color brown done the same way. The whole idea here is to create random layers of brown so when the rust effect is done it looks natural and real. Yes it can be done on plastic and here is the front bezel. The side panel done The inside and outside of the frame. The whole case pretty much done. So here is the trick! HAIR SPRAY!! WTH you say, hair spray... I know I said the same thing. He is how it works. Lay down the rust paints then apply a layer of hair spray where you want the rust effect to be. Then apply the final color on top of the hair spray. Next you will need something rather expensive... hot tap water. When you apply the hot water where you treated it with hair spray the water dissolves the hair spray making the top layer of paint loose and it can be scratched off to reveal the random brown paint, thus creating the worn rust look. Don't believe it... keep on reading then and you can tell he how it turned out. Applying the hair spray The machine grey top coat... then some magical water... let it set for 5 minutes or more. I used a piece of wooden dowel to scratch the paint off. Then I used a 3M scrubbing pad to feather out the scratches. Here are some different rust and worn spots I did on the case It came out much better than I expected and I am very happy with the look. Fallout 3 Case Mod Nuka Cola Caps At this point I thought I would change up from working on the case and do one of the items that will be placed on the top of the case.I took the bottle caps and painted them a dark brown with a light over spray of flat black to get the look I wanted as a base.I found online that someone created some images of the Nuka Cola logo for the bottle cap; I was very grateful :-)So I printed them out on some adhesive label paper so that I cut cut them out and attach them to the caps.Here they are almost all done as I was still working on weathering them. Once I got them to the point I liked I applied just a lite coat of clear. I want to caps to be on the top of the case but I did not want them to be loose so I added some machine screws to them. Out came the hot glue gun with heavy duty glue and presto! Here are a few more images on the warn look on the case. Let there be light Well here is the left side panel with all the gauges and very little detail. I added some yellow LEDs to each of the gauges to make them light up for some added effects. The case will mostly be seen in a dimly lit room so lighting with give it that needed pop. I wanted a single point where all the lighting would get its power so I used part of a power terminal and used one of the bolts and screw from a gauge to mount it. A long molex connection is being used to get the power from another connection point in the case. I went to my local auto store and grabbed a set of 12inch long LED strips for $20. This is about the same price if I ordered online, but it only took me 10 minutes to go pick them up and drive back home. The LED strips will be place at the top and bottom of the side window to light up the inside and emitted some light out the top of the case. Ah, just the color and look I wanted. It lights it up rather well in work shop so when the lights go out it will look awesome. Fallout 3 PIP-Boy 3000 I really wanted to try and make my own PIP-Boy from scratch but time being a factor I tracked down a place http://forgeprops.bigcartel.com/product/pip-boy-3000 that sold a molded copy. This means that I did not have to make the thing, but I have to do everything else to it like painting it, lights, screen and etc. As you can see the inside is really rough, the edges need cleaning up and I have to cut out the place where the screen will go. The screen will not be a video screen but some green UV plexi, printed screen that looks like it is from the game and a back light to give it the correct screen look. I had to cut out the area where the plexi will go so that it will sit nice and flat. I got the screen to fit really nice and I used some auto body spotting putty to fill in the holes and imperfections that would be seen.Looks good so far. Here are all the parts that will go in to the PIP-Boy. The plexi with the printed screen behind it. Even with out a light behind it the screen look like it was lit up. I test some positions where the light would fit flush and give of the right lighting. With everything in for a test fit and look I will have to say that it looks pretty damn good. Time to get the thing looking real. I did the same thing with the hair spray here as I did with the case but without the rust painting. First a dark primer went down then I laid down a base coat of green. After that I use a camo green paint and lightly dusted the PIP-Boy to dull down the look. Ah, the magic starts. A smooth 3M pad does a great job making thing look dull and scratched. A wooden dowel to make the scratches deeper and rough. Then here is where you really get the look by Dry Brushing paint. Dry Brushing is where to take black, grey, brown or any color you want and use a fairly bristle brush, dab it lightly into the paint, dab it onto something else to get the excess paint off and then you hit the edges and cracks. The top and the bottom all done. Yep those are screws sticking out the bottom. Those will be used to mount the PIP-Boy to the top of the case and man am I glad I did this. I can't tell you how many times I saw people walk up to the case and try to pick up the Pip-Boy 3000. What it would look like it I put it on. Lets take a quick look at the case as I am pretty much done with the worn look. It is time to install the side window. With the help of a little bit of 3M Clear tape the window looks perfect and really adds to the overall look. Modding the rest of the stuff Well I have some other stuff to mod, but this will all be painting as I need it to look like the case. Luckily the power supply was almost the perfect color so I had to do very little to it. I need to remove the stickers so out came the heat gun and after as few moments the sticker peeled right off. Before After Before After Before After Before And the whole after together Final Images of the Fallout 3 Case Mod I know this was a rather short work log but the work took over 80 hours to make the case. The case serves two purposes as one for the 2013 Staff vs Staff contest and that it would be displayed at our booth for QuakeCon 2013. With QuakeCon come and gone I thought I would just wrap it up as soon as I could so that I can head off to the next project, reviews and other website duties. A HUGE thanks goes out to our sponsors and we really appreciate your support! Case: Thermaltake s41 Urban Series Keyboard: Thermaltake Challenger Illuminated Mouse: Thermaltake Theron Headset: Thermaltake Console one CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Big Typ Revo Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000 SSD: ADATA SP600 128GB Memory: Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3 PC3-14900 Motherboards: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 Video Card: EVGA 680 GTX CPU: AMD FX-8350 I had a great time creating this case and learned a new trick on how to get the worn look. I was hoping to get the look right and with all the reactions that it caused at QuakeCon I think I did. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did making it.
What case did you use?
Thermaltake s41 Urban