Firefighter Case

KB_Zoom

Starting off on a new project sometimes means putting the cart before the horse. Not that I advocate doing this very often, but sometimes investing in a good "cart" (even if it will not get used for a while) is a wise investment.




So what the heck am I talking about? Well, a few moths ago, I purchased a used computer system from a popular online auction site (a potential train wrech to be sure). After a number of e-mails were exchanged with the seller about shipping and all that logistical stuff, the case (and all the guts and software and stuff) showed up. As I already knew, the machine had some deep scratches in the otherwise shiny black finish, but a good deal is a good deal and I knew I'd be modding this black beauty anyway...

I quickly set out to take everything out of the case and split up the guts with Stu, a dvd writer here, a video card there, motherboard and processor to another place...

So let's get to the mod! you say... aaaiiiiight!

Starting my modding addition with the ZoomBox was a pleasant start indeed. However, it was more buy it and assemble it than real modding. So the best first step on case number two is to, well, get a better case! The ZoomBox Raidmaxx case is cool looking, but not high on the cool scale.I want something funkier, less square, something made from aluminum rather than steel. So, I looked around for a case that would suit my needs and decided upon the CoolerMaster WaveMaster tower. The sweeping lines and visually stunning curved front bezel and hinged drivebay door was enough make me buy it. I was a but concerned about the extra work involved in prepping the case for modding with the shony black finish, but picking the right theme would make it all work out.

So, with this beautiful (but scratched) case, the first order of business was to take out all the guts. With the WaveMaster, it's really easy to access the hard drives, the optical drives, and whatnot. The sliding mobo tray makes accessing the important bits much easier than the cases designed on medieval "bolt it to the wall" technology...After removing all the innards, the bare frame and panels of the case were all that was left and the canvas was prepped.



This exploded case view gives a nice hint to the size of this particular modding canvas. Starting with a black finish (not pictured here, duh)will require a bit more prep work, but we're pulling out the primer now...

Next up... deciding what to do with the black beauty... cutting? etching? painting? Drilling? Sandblasting?

KikBox

Got to love the Wavemaster. Looks classy, well constructed and easy to mod. I subscribed to this one...good luck with your project Ogre!

KB_Zoom

Picking a theme for a mod is always a challenge. Not because options are limited, but because picking a stupid theme results in a stupid looking case, right? After thinking it over for a while, I've decided to go with a firefighting theme for this mod. So only like a thousand images leap to mind... I have lots of memories from my time as a firefighter so the realism in the images will be important...

A quick search on Google Images returns a huge number of images from firefighting... housefires, flashovers, blackdrafts, auto accidents, training simulation, plane crashes, swift water rescue... If you can think of it, somebody probably has a photo of it on the web and firefighting is no exception. I snagged a few from Google, a few of my own and a lot of vivid memories and I started thinking about how to bring out the imagery from my head and onto the case.

A few things immediately come to mind:

Fire trucks - engines, ladder trucks, rescue trucks, brush fire trucks...
Axes and other chromed firefighting equipment

• Turnout gear (helmet, gloves, breathing apparatus, etc.)
• Flags
• Dalmations
• Horses
• Fire
• Water - mist, pools, fire streams
• Lights and sirens
• Maltese cross
• Diamondplate
• Hoses
• Ladders

You get the idea. I needed to come up with a bunch of images to think about what would look best on this case.

Just about everyone has an image of what fire "is" but rarely is it described very well. If you've seen the movie Backdraft, the descriptions of fire as a living, breathing thing really start to tell part of the story. Fire dances and pours itself across floors, walls, and ceilings. It can leap at you through windows and doors, it can seep out of ventilation ducts, shatter windows, destroy whole buildings, engulf acres of property...it eats everything in its way, proud of itself, lighting the picture so onlookers can get a good look at the destruction. Fire is equal parts beautiful and dangerous, hypnotic and frightening... you can stare into a fireplace or campfire to get a sense of the eerie calm I'm talking about. Amid the deafening noise it still casts a spell on onlookers. Getting this imagery on a computer case will take some serious effort.



Now that I have the theme in mind, I can start thinking of modding parts and internal cpu/hardware pieces. A quick check over my in-house inventory tells me that I'll need to pick up a few things including:

• Diamondplate
• Blowhole
• Unique Case wheels
• Unrivalled case handle
• Fan controller
• Light controller
• Dual layer DVD R/W
• Card Reader

For case wheels, I looked all over the web and some local stores for something that would be functional and match the look of the case. Since most firetrucks have wheels with chrome center caps and parade glass/tire wet on the wheels, I could've gone with something rubbery, but I've decided to try something different... and I hope it works! I'll try the most recent addition to the KikBoxes inventory, the Cannonball Case Wheel. The Cannonball is a high strength wheel that makes is possible to get the case up off the floor (away from the dust bunnies and dog hair in my office). These things also look like it'll be incredibly easy to roll around without dealing with big chunky rubber wheels or casters that have to spin around to go the right direction. The finish on wheels should be a perfect match for the case, too, but they look like I could paint them if I need to do that. I'm psyched that I can use a new product like this... I don't think anyone else has yet used this type of wheel.



So, since I plan to take this case to LAN parties and such, case handles are a must. But what do I use to make it look right? Billets? Nah. Collapsable? Nah. Folding? Retractible? What can I use? Well, after trying to source the chrome handrails used on fire engines and having no luck with the suppliers, I've decided I'll go a bit crazy... Why not use an axe? IF I'm going to the extreme with a crazy handle, I might as well go outrageous and shiny and over the top... the Truckman firefighter's axe will fit the bill perfectly. This shiny (and VERY sharp) axe is designed to make wall and ceiling demolition and fire scene cleanup easier for firefighters. Useful for cutting through sheetrock, plaster, ceilings, walls, and a multitude commercial and residential materials, the Truckman axe is an awesome and functional tool. It's a bit of a pity that I'll have to drill a few holes through it to make it work as a case handle, but it'll be an awesome way to transport the case... just don't get too close!

rahl07

Cut the axe in half. Use half of it for a front handle, and half for the back. Use copper coolers with red LED's to give that molten metal look. If possible, actually melt a piece of your case (a little extreme, but hey). Put a slinky inside a firehose and use it as a duct. You could do anything with this mod. I'm subscribing because I think's it's a great idea.

KB_Zoom

The black case makes for an interesting startingpoint - one where a I can use the black base coat to my advantage. So, after disassembling the case (taking out the majority of the guts and the front door of the case) it's set up for primer and paint.

Prepwork is a bit tedious, but spending time doing this well will save lots of time later on. Any overspray from the primer will make the rest of the case (including the interior) suffer so we want to get it right. Careful use of the masking tape and plastic sheeting protects the interior of the case while we work on the exterior.



Note: You will notice the lazy susan here in these pics... if you're working on a case paint job, a big turntable like this makes it much easier to move the piece around and will not comprimise the finish with fingerprints (turn the wheel of the turntable, don't turn it by pushing or pulling the case while painting). They are also VERY easy to make with a few simple pieces readily available at any home center. If you want some info on making your own turntable, see: this lazy susan tutorial available at lowes.com (http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...azysusan.html).



OK, back to the case. The glossy finish on this case makes a perfect paint job difficult because it's too smooth. Sounds crazy, right? Crazy but it's true, so we start with a self-etching primer to get a rougher surface that will take the paint. As with the Spitfire case, Adam used a rattle can primer to start the painting process. The primer is a great color and would be useful by itself as a way to rough up a case for a military or "industrial" look on another case. Hmmmm. I'll keep that in mind...



The design theme for this case is firefighting so we need a healthy amount of fire. After all, what's firefighting without fire? The images that jump into my mind when I think of firefighting should be worked onto the case, so, again a bit of sketching is in order. As I've learned, making realistic-looking fire is a challenge requiring a good amount of thought and several layers of paint. After the primer has worked its magic, we start on the front of the case with our background colors. With a black (and greenish) case, a whilte undercoat will give us the POP we need to make all the images on the case stand out. The progression of photos below shows several of the stages of painting on the case front. The curved drive-bay door on the WaveMaster makes for a perfect place to add a waving American flag so we will definitely take advantage of that!











Now it's onto the side panels...

CreatedMind07

Dang, thats nice. Great job. :)

wooster241

WOW O.O thats another great pj from an xoxide member

darklord

damn nice paint job man +rep

KB_Zoom

Rhal, cool ideas! I don't know that I'll be able to work them into this mod, but now you've got the wheels turning for the next project! I'd like to watercool this one if I can (maybe down the road) with a res shaped like a hydrant and tubes that look like fire hoses coming off of it. Durnit now I'll have to start looking into waterblocks!
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Wooster, Xoxide pretty much got me hooked on the mod community and hey, they sell great stuff too! Rock on Xoxide!
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Thanks Darklord! Watch for more... it only gets better!

tenfootflames

Crazy cool paint job. Me likey.

Rob!

As I scrolled down looking at the pics of the paintjob on teh front, it changed from "that looks odd" to "that's sloppy" to "oh...oh my...that's good!"

Awesome job! Can't wait to see the finished product. I'm envious of your painting skills.

rahl07

Very good so far. It'll be easy to biuld a reservior for this... Hell some copper pipe and fittings, and some imagination, could easily do this.

KB_Zoom

The sides of the case will show two fire scenes. One side will show a firefighter in front of a raging structure fire, the other side of the case will show a hose team, engine/pumper and and aerial ladder crew attacking the structure fire. Following the design sketches the basic shapes are drawn in with the same underpainting of white and yellow tones. Subtle layers of color are added to give the images depth, warmth, and motion. Bringing this all this to life requires several layers of paint and several several days of work. We're all working hard to gather the materials for the remaining steps in the mod and to plan out the next steps while the painting progresses.





A very important part of a fire scene, and especially the one on this case, is the reflective nature of water. Reflections off standing water not only change the way structures, vehicles, and people are illuminated, the shapes are distorted in both the initial ground reflection and any secondary reflections, such as on the chromed bumper of the engine/pumper truck.

It's now possible to see how the flames from the front of the case are now making their way around onto the adjoining side panels. Continuity is important as fire rarely hits a point where it is sharply defined so the movement of the flames is carried across from one panel to the next. This requires the case to be assembled and painted as a single piece. Blending the colors and motion across the case means it will look awesome from every angle!

darklord

damn dude thats some good painting right there. great job dude keep up the good work

KB_Zoom

Hey there all...
I've been meaning to post another series of pics today but I did not get to it. I will try to get more up tomorrow.

As for the board, proc and video card, I'll be using the components from my existing rig in the new case until I figure out what else to do... like adding the watercooling, for example.

So here's what will be in the case at the start:

• Motherboard: MSI K8T NEO-FIS2R Socket 754 VIA K8T800 ATX AMD
• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Newcastle Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 754 Processor Model ADA3200AEP4AX
• Video Card: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9800 PRO ALL-IN-WONDER Radeon 9800Pro 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card
• RAM: CORSAIR (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Memory
• two Hard Drives: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B200M0 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150
• Two Optical Drives: NEC Black IDE Dual Layer DVD Burner
• Ultra X-Connect 500 Watt PSU

The case will also likely include a 120mm chromed intake fan, a 92mm rooftop blowhole, a Gatewatch digital fan controller, and a 9-in-1 card reader. With the curent air cooling, the AMD processor will be cooled with a something like the Zalman CNPS9500 cooler... which will be much quieter than the Thermal take "woodchipper" CPU fan I have in my current case. I think the faceplates for all the visible drives and controllers are black - to make it all look smooth and sexy. Xoxide, thanks for feeding my addiction!!

With all these components, and the (drool) desire to get a new 24" LCD monitor, I'm gonna have some interesting work ahead of me to figure out how to route everything AND still have space for watercooling... especially if I followthrough with making the resevoir look like a fire hydrant with fire hoses... the cool thing is that I'm excited to make it work even if I have to do it in steps.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions!

KB_Zoom

Finishing the paint job required several touchups and a reworking of the Truckside panel. You will notice that the finished panel now includes an aerial bucket rather than a neighboring building... a change that required a bit of finesse.

Here they are... the before (75% finished) and after (100% finished including clear coat)





And a few pics around the case to show off the final painting...






Flames inside the drive-bay door were an bonus since we wanted to carry the theme across the whole face of the case...






Detail of the handpainted logo on the case and the aerial tower



Now it's on to fiting parts (wheels, handles, blowhole, and custom lighting) and guts (mobo, proc, etc.). I'll post more pics and info as soon as possible!

darklord

thats crazy man. looks so good, good job

phenix

ass usuall.. SICK S^**( MAN TOP OF THE LINE PAINT JOB ... and damn the thing is on FIRE =)

Grez

Stu, you know what I like best? The flames on the inside of the front door! It's all about the attention to detail, brother, and you always pay attention...

...modding jones getting worse...must...concentrate...on...new...job...

KikBox

Thanks Grez, you are right...I have seen some cases that look awesome from across the room but when you get up close either the craftsmanship is shoddy or something is missed. The door is also my favorite feature on the case!

I am lucky enough to have a crew of guys who all place the same value on quality and vision that I do.