Project TRON

[Megadeblow]

Only needed to paint the edges here as all the other parts will be covered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most the panels with the 1st coat of black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick wet sand ready for the 2nd coat of black, this will help show any high spots and imperfections in the 

 

base, you will notice most of the edges are high due to the case design and primer buildup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd and final black base, this was also sanded after it was dry before adding 2x top coats that will need a week

 

to harden before I can sand and polish, I hate orange peal on paintwork so its a must 

 

When complete I'm hoping the black will look like glass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is not the final finish, still needs a good sand and another coat of clear before the final flat.

[Megadeblow]

I've been doing bits here and there on the case as I'm waiting for painted parts to harden.

 

 

 

The base of the case is where I'll be having the pump, I decided to cut in to the PSU cover rather than

 

totally removing it as it will help keep the case strong and be a good support for the pump and other bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made some templates for the bottom and side that will be used to make some covers out of plexi, this will also be painted or wrapped in white later down the line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heres the panel cut to shape, all that's needed for now is a hole for the pump to sit in, some other cuts will be made after testing the layout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for the motherboard, its originally white, red and silver.

 

I removed all the parts I wanted to paint and covered the red with some white wrap, the white did't match good enough so I went all out and painted the parts white. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wont be using the whole southbridge cover, but I've kept the G1 silver part should I decide to use it somewhere later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The motherboard is looking nice and clean, the white should look great with the light blue lighting once completed.

 

I've also painted the RAM and some other parts like the EK waterblock shown in the photo below.

 

I will get some more photos of them and the other parts posted in the next update. 

 

 

 

[Megadeblow]

Here are some closer shots of the before and after CPU block.

 

 

This is the backplate for the  GTX1080 GPU, no white available so went ahead and painted a black one.

I will be adding something extra to this later.

 

 

Sound Cards repainted white with some added blue.

This wont really be seen as the card faces down, but I still wanted to have it matching and hopefully the

reflection will show once the bottom panel is added.

 

 

For the pump I just needed to paint the rubber padding and the metal bottom.

 

 

Here's the RAD, I think it looks great in white.

Wont be needing to paint the fans for this RAD as they will be hidden on the other side.

 

 

This is the fans for the double RAD going on the top, as it will be seen on the inside of the case I painted them.

[Megadeblow]

The most part of the internal layout.

Some painted with acrylic and plasti-dip for the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've made some covers for the bottom, sides and back that will all be painted white or wrapped once the wiring is done.

 

 

Back-plate for the sound card in place, used some velcro to hold it down as I will be needing to mess with it later in the build, its also a bit more tidy than using the screws on the card to hold it.

 

 

 

got this cutter some years back for my model making, helps add some detail to the plastic, also very useful for cutting the plexi 

 

 

 

Bit wonky as it's not fastened in place just yet..

 

Same again for the back cover.

 

Ordered some more white plexi, so most the parts will be re-cut using the old ones as a template.

 

 

After some testing I decided to have the RAD facing the standard way rather than upside down.

Just didn't have the room I wanted at the top for all the pipe and fittings.

 

 

[Megadeblow]

This has been the best part of the build so far, the results from the extensive paint coats, sanding, buffing and polishing have paid off, by far the best paint finish I've achieved with gloss.

 

 

 

This has taken weeks, not a easy task especially with the sharp edged all over the panels making it very easy to take the paint of all the way down to the primer if not do perfect.

 

 

 

This is the result after the gloss had been put down.

 

Plenty of orange peal and although it looks shiny I cant stand the peal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after the couple of weeks painting then sanding I got the gloss down and had to wait a week or so for the gloss to harden, then I carefully sanded down the gloss to get the surface as smooth as possible with paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my hands looked like I had been sat in the bath for 2 hours lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because I'm so happy with the result I will show you all a good handful of photos.

 

Hope you like the result as much as myself and the next update will be installing some of the EL bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Megadeblow]

Sound Card almost complete, just need to add something to the top plate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Megadeblow]

Started carefully placing the EL wire and some tapes, this was tricky, glued my fingers to the wire a couple of times lol

 

 

 

 

 

Put down some tape on the none flat parts for some protections and as a guideline. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top is done, sides and front still need some more work doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Megadeblow]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After some very careful and painfully slow masking the disc is almost completed, painted with water-based black so as not to damage the plastic coating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

here's some pics of the Tron 2.0 mod, all the paintwork is completed and im now working in the lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Megadeblow]

For the main build Im using around 7 or 8 wires thats mostly cut to size, other parts I made new cuts and adjustments to the lengths.

for one of them I just threaded it like a dress, weaving from front to back then the front again.

The only other thing that im still changing as I go along is the power needed for the wire and tape, dont want to underpower causing them to be dim

but also not wanting them too bright causing them to have a shorter life.

 

For the side panel i'm going with one that's airbrushed and also doing a plain one painted the same as the rest of the case.

 

I'm doing the airbrushing in 3 stages, first the panel was painted the same as all the case but then sanded down ready 

for the shadows and base colours, protected again with some clear coat and then stage 2, now I have clear coated all 

the design and will be waiting for that to harden before doing the highlights and fine details followed by a final protective 

clear coat.

 

Some parts of the design will hopefully have a matte look where others will be a nice mirror/gloss finish 

to help him pop-out from the back background.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This might look a bit crap at the moment but should look great when completed, I like to try use as many skills as I can when 

doing my builds, this is something I've never attempted before so i'm learning as I go along 

 

[Megadeblow]

Side panel completed, will get some daylight shots done once we get some sun here lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Used some of the same style for my Mini mod, just for the fun of it, a quick build as im on a bit

 

of a break from the main build.

 

 

 

Fitted with a fully working Raspberry pi.

 

1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU

 

802.11n Wireless LAN

 

Bluetooth 4.1

 

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

 

1GB RAM

 

4 USB ports

 

40 GPIO pins

 

Full HDMI port

 

Ethernet port

 

Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video

 

Camera interface (CSI)

 

Display interface (DSI)

 

Micro SD card slot

 

VideoCore IV 3D graphics core

 

PSU - 5v 2a 

 

 

 

Not bad for the size, fits well with my collection of 1:6 scale