Project: The Little Owl

[gilgamesh]

THE LITTLE OWL
 
Little is just an understatement here as I will be using an XSPC H1 case.
 
STORYLINE:
 
Jakob (pronounced Yakob) commissioned me to build a kick **** machine BASED on the NEW NOCTUA NF-F12 (ones that are optimised for water cooling rads) fans.
 
In addition he wanted me to base the case on Noctua collours, however some people do not like these, so one had to base this build around a slighty differing theme.
 


If you look at the noctua website, the colours are much more 'red' than the fans themselves (which are brown based)

IDEA EXPLAINED. Essentialy this is going to be part scratch build/part mod with a dark red and white themed case with the internals being polar white and typhoon red.

The RED LASER TUNNEL effect will be used here

Sponsors so far:
Noctua (Ofcourse)
LAMPTRON (ofCourse)
MAYHEMS
INNOVATION COOLING for the IC Diamond

note:

Remember the LASER PROJECT? This will be used in here.

PAINT TO BE USED

HYCOTE tornado RED
HYCOTE POLAR WHITE
HYCOTE GLOSS WHITE
HYCOTE PRIMER
HYCOTE CLEAR OVERCOAT
Hycote Crystal Silver
Hycote Pepper RED pEARLeSCENT
hYCOTE tANGO RED mETALLIC

Photo of a default XSPC H1 CASE




Remember my last build where I used acrylic feet instead of the luggage-trolly-like castor wheels?

well since the mounting of the castors are exactly the same as the Mountain Mods level, we can re-use that idea.

Take one XSPC H1 Base plate

carefully mark out where the fifth hole for the LED is to go.



score a line from bottom left to the top right mounting hole and likewise for bottom right to top left.




Now do the same for all four acrylic feet mounts



Now here is where I had a problem, as I didnt have a centre punch available in order to create a pilot for the drill.

So i thought of using an engraving tool that comes with my dremel set.








Slowly but firmly press the dremel onto the desired spot



This then allows a 2mm pilot hole with the dremel



Now that is sorted lets use the big drill shall we?



Press the drill trigger slowly as to drill gently through the delicate aluminium (DO NOT USE HAMMER ACTION)

This then creates a nice 5mm hole for the LED to shine into the acrylic feet.



TESTING THE FIT

Note the LED has just enough room to fit whilst leaving the 5mm room to have a grip within the hole.





watch out for the next part:D

[gilgamesh]

ONCE all the drilling has been completed it is time to sand everything down ready for spray-painting.

Using 80 grit sandpaper I sanded all of the base plate down.
NOTE YOU DO NOT NEED TO GET RID OF ALL THE ANODISING!! Simply enough to roughen it up to allow the paint to take a grip.

Once completed you need to DE-GREASE and clean the plate. I use either liquid hand soap or dish washing fluid with hot water.



Afterwards DRY the plate properly (you dont want a lizard skin effect trust me)

Once completed leave to stand for a few hours, then your ready for your first coat of primer!

REMEMBER

Many layers of THIN COATS are better than just one thick coat.

Sorry for the lack of focus here, the camera went a bit weird on me.



watch out for runs, if you find any wait until the plate is dry then sand down with 5-600 grit sandpaper.



I leave 3 hours to dry, sand down with fine sandpaper in preperation for the 2nd coat of primer



I dont wantto put my usual three coats of primer on as this all has to fit back together again. So two should do.

I left the last coat of primer to dry overnight and on goes the first layer of gloss white paint:



dont worry if the first coat of white gloss is thin and patchy, thats for the reason its meant to be (remember about using thin layers?)



REMEMBER TO FINELY SAND BETWEEN PAINT LAYERS (as you would on the primer stage) so that the next layer of paint can grip (leave a couple of hours between each stage)

After the 2nd layer

still patchy but not as bad.



Use 600 grit sand paper and sand again once dry

Once the third layer has been applied WAIT AT LEAST 48 HOURS BEFORE application of the clear protective coating.

After this has been completed

[gilgamesh]

Next stage is the Drive Bay area

as you can see this has had a really good sanding down.



After using two coats of primer, drying and sanding

Using polar white for this in order to create a more balanced feel inside the case.



bought this nice handy attachment at wilkinsons



Once all the sanding/washing/primer/paint and clear protective coating has been applied...



Motherboard tray all marked up

[gilgamesh]

FRONT panel sanded down, just before washing



after washing, two coats of primer and then sanded down with 600 grit paper.

[gilgamesh]

PCIE Section.

FOr this I used two coats of primer, two coats of Hycote Tango Red (Metallic) and a coat of crystal silver (same company)

FOr this I didnt just wish for a candy effect, one wanted a kind of a cloud/mixed colour painting

Anyway I applied  the crystal silver coating whilst the tango red was still wet in order to achieve this effect.





this is before the clear protective coating has been applied.

[gilgamesh]

First of all made a bit of a mess drilling these holes. These are for the LED's the will be mounted near the edge

I never realised how thin the aluminium was, well at least the LED's are going underneath the motherboard in order to create a nice backlit effect.

[gilgamesh]

next we have the back panel

Before sanding and de-greasing





After two coats of primer and a good sanding down

[gilgamesh]

Some more shots of the same plate but on differing light conditions.











next the cross struts

After the usual sanding, de-greasing and primer etc



Finally I used Polar white on the outside

And gloss white on the inside.



this is the first coat only. note i havent coated this side of the ends really. The reason for this is that all this has to be assembled again:)

Plus this side of the ending section is never seen as it slots into the front and back panels

[gilgamesh]

Finished cross struts

Polar white on the outside
and gloss white on the inside:0







Backing plate m/b tray area






Nice smooth job even if I have to say so myself:D

[gilgamesh]

Redid mother board tray.

I cannot alter the slight messup I did with the LED holes, however at least I can repaint the aforementioned tray.

This now marries with the PCIE backing plate.

This is before the clear protective layer has been added.

[gilgamesh]

Front Panel outside

After de-greasing and priming (as shown earlier)

To get this look, I used 'Polar White' then masked the first 8.5cm off the bottom as this will be for the red colour.



The red used is a Metallic Hycote 'Tango RED' which goes fairly well with the off-white, but it is still a little harsh even though its a lot more classy than what I call 'Slapper' Red.

To balance it out a little i sprayed a fine mist of crystal silver so it appears there are clouds within the red.







As you can see there is still a small issue to fix on the bottom right near the colour line.

The inside was essentially the same as above, however gloss white was used instead.

[gilgamesh]

First of all

First Side panel completed

Please note all photos are taken before the final clear protective layer has been added, the reason for that is that I allow a MONTH to cure!

Side panel outside



Side Panel inside.



Ok next

The only spare NEW spacing style rad i have right now is an Old Black Ice GT Stealth. UV BLUE at that =yuucccccccccck. Obviously the colour doesnt go with the builds......





So after some painting and yes i had to paint the fins:(

Due to paint type it wont effect the performance very much

 it now looks like this:







The build is REALLY starting to come along now:)

[Dark Mantis]

Coming along nicely gilgamesh I can't wait to see more.