Project : DST (Dallas Stars Tribute)

[Tech-Daddy]

Hey everyone.... this is a placeholder for the worklog on DST (Dallas Stars Tribute), my next case. It will be a fan case (as in, Dallas Stars "fan"...) based on influences from the Dallas Stars. The Dallas Stars are an NHL team, that I follow R-A-B-I-D-L-Y! I was introduced to the game of hockey by a very dear friend.

This case, will be my attempt at repaying all of the kindness that she showed me by taking me to games and being patient with me asking questions while they played.

Her two favorite players are Brendan Morrow and Stephan Robidas, two very talented (and hard hitting) players on the squad. I will be incorporating design elements of this Stars orginazion, their logo, and some custom picture work. It will be a sweet case!!!!

I started tonight by stripping down the case into it's components, I'll get the pics uploaded tomorrow. So, it is now on the workbench, and is going to become an active project now until I complete it!

So, everyone... welcom in..."Dallas Stars Tribute"....

 

[Tech-Daddy]

So, the luh-vuh-ly teardown pics...

Take a good look, cuz it wont be in this state for long!

Note in the fan grille, the power/front LED's/Reset wires running out and to the right to escape thru a hole in the case frame.... WTF were they thinking??!?! The lines are CLEARLY visable thru the front of the grill.

This is pretty cool, but I can se why it was not implemented further... one screw allows for *all* of the pannels to come off!

and now the case stripped and disassembled!

I did some drilling/dremmel work tonight on the back panel to get the hole for the 80 mm fan, and get that crappy punched metal location off and out. I'll likely perform the same thing but on the front of the case frame, where the fan performs intake duties...

 

[Tech-Daddy]

Nothing really exciting here... just trying to get a smooth finish on the rear, and cover up those blasted port holes. I built up the bondo, and put a tube of paper in place to try and round out the fan hole.

 

[Tech-Daddy]

progress pics on the updates:

This is actually the front of the case frame. As you can tell, I hated the location of hte piddly 80mm fan... so I made it a 120mm fan!!

Here I am getting the parts ready to prime. I'm using a white primer to brighten the white color coat that I will put on in a few days.

first 3 items with two coats of the paint, I have not put the clear coat on them yet.

Rear panel where ports *used* to be!!!

 

[Tech-Daddy]

first coat of paint on some of the framework.

Starting off with a semi gloss white. I have clear that will be added later...

 

[Tech-Daddy]

ya know... the difference between living on a ventalator later in life and not:

I can believe I went as long as I did without one... wow!

Put the final coats of paint on a couple of pieces:

And started clear coating a few other pieces:

This was the back panel that had the port holes that I bondo'd over:

I'll pop a few more coats onto the pieces tonight and let them be ready for tomorrow hopefully!

 

[maddmaxx]

I'm not a Hockey fan but I am a fan of case mods. Keep those pictures coming.

 

[Tech-Daddy]

Will do! More later today!

 

[Rob Williams]

Oh man, what an *awesome* idea for a case mod. I don't believe I've ever seen one inspired by hockey, so I cannot wait to see this one come together.

As a non-modder, just watching you pull apart the case into a hundred pieces is a little scary

BTW, mind telling me how much a ventilation mask like that runs you?

 

[SillySider03]

Edited.

 

[Tech-Daddy]

BTW, mind telling me how much a ventilation mask like that runs you?

Cost me about $45/US.

And as for completely tearing a case down... after you have done it once or twice, it really becomes second nature.

The pain portion of it come when you try to make all the pieces fit back together!


If you ever want to practice this stuff... find a place that sells used cases, or watch for a dead boxes in the alley. Get yourself a good drill and a bit htat is just a smidge larger than the inner diameter of hte rivet. That will allow you to remove the rivets.

Then just take good pics of hte case prior to disassembly, and when you put it back together, you use a rivet gun (~$15) and some rivets ($3) and punch that bad boy back together!

 

[Tech-Daddy]

Oh man, what an *awesome* idea for a case mod. I don't believe I've ever seen one inspired by hockey, so I cannot wait to see this one come together.

Yeah... I have seen a few football fan cases, but never a hockey case.

This one is not going to be full of hockey references... it is just going to be a clean custom case with the Stars as a style guide.

Now... my next one... *hint, hint* may have some more styling pieces in it... but let's focus on the here and now!

 

[Jakal]

You've made some awesome stuff in the past and I'm trying to wait patiently for this one. Looks like you're off to a great start Tech. Thanks for keeping us in the loop man!

 

[Tech-Daddy]

A busy night in the Tech-Daddy garage tonight!

I felt that the paint had cured and hardened enough now for me to reassemble the frame:

Nothing major, but I did mount in the 120mm intake fan, to be sure it would mount properly!

Lit it with an external power supply to make sure I did not have it tweaked or out of round, nice and quiet!

 

[Rob Williams]

That's looking great man, loving the base color so far. Beats the pants off the gray

 

[Jakal]

Mo betta by the day! LoL

I like the white as well. Never thought white would look great in a case, but you've turned me around . Nice work, keep it up!

 

[sbrehm72255]

Great work, You have got to have some of the best painting skills around............ I wish I could paint half as good.........LOL I'm really lacking in the paint department, that's why I always have a brushed aluminum case.........

 

[madmat]

What do you use to paint with? Cup gun? Rattle can? Inquiring minds would like to know.

 

[Tech-Daddy]

This is all rattle cans right now.

I just bought a great airbrush setup, but I have not practiced enough with it yet!

 

[Ben]

Looking good, post more pics!