Ghost in the Shell case mod

[CrazyLefty]

Hi all!
This is our first case done for a customer!
He's a big Ghost in the Shell fan, and loves purple, and we're going to incorporate a raised cut-out and some purple lighting to bring this mod to life.

We are starting with a CM Storm Enforcer case.

Here's the case next to another one that we're doing, its on the right.

We took another side panel, and traced out the cut-out

The cut-out will go on the back side of the motherboard side, and will be raised, with purple LEDs illuminating it from behind.
We will also swap out the included fans for purple LED fans, and add some dangling wires inside and around the case, with UV cold cathode tubes lighting the inside of the case.

Here's a shot of the parts that we will use, most stuff picked up at FrozenCPU.com
We couldn't find a 200MM purple fan, so we will be swapping out the red LEDs in the included fan with purple LEDs.

rough-cutting the raised panel Up until this point most of it was done with a jigsaw, but now I'll have to break out the dremel.

 

[CrazyLefty]

The dremel lets me get into all the tiny little cuts and such, then all the edges will get filed, we don't want any ripped flesh!

The 'wires' that are coming off of her will attach to the main panel, so it mimics wiring coming out of the case and attaching to her. My wife has some creative ideas for different effects to put on the wiring, maybe some modeling clay, maybe some heatshrink/wire-looming.

 

[CrazyLefty]

The plastic pieces of the case are going to be base-painted purple, and we'll add some additional effects on top of that, a little distressing, maybe some artwork from the series/movies.

Primer!

Purple!

 

[CrazyLefty]

So the case comes with a 200MM fan with red LEDs, but these wouldn't really fit the theme of the case. We couldn't find a suitable replacement, so i resoldered in purple/UV LEDs

Came out pretty good!

 

[CrazyLefty]

Here's the raised side panel, beautifully painted by my very talented wife!

 

[CrazyLefty]

This part was done completely by my wife, it was her first time using a wire stripper, too!

We had purple ethernet cable that we frayed, then added extra stranded core copper wire

Added some silver sleeving and bits of other frayed wire, applied a bit of fire for a scortched/singed look

Then hot-glued it to the back of the side panel over the window.
We wanted it to look like something had ripped/shot/torn/burned through the wires, imagine a ship or vehicle that took some heavy fire.

The flash and plexi take away some of the detail, but the effect is pretty cool!

 

[CrazyLefty]

The raised panel will have 15 UV LEDs behind it to make it glow.

Here's the start on a paper mockup, with circles dejnoting where the LEDs will go.
Feeding from 12V, I'll have to wire up five sets of three LEDs + resistor in parallel, so i'll make two concentric circles using purple wire, and covering as much of the exposed joints with purple heatshrink. With the length of wires being so close and the 90 degree bends in the LED leads, the heatshrink is shrinking while soldering the tiny joints, so i'll have to find some other way to cover any exposed bits, I'm thinking something like plastidip.

 

[CrazyLefty]

Here's a shot of the completed wiring loop.
The plasti-dip worked great! This is my new favorite stuff. I just re-did a laptop lid in an afternoon, i think this stuff is more forgiving than spray paint, goes on better, and has a really cool surface. But, it costs more, and you get FAR less coverage per can, so don't think you can get a way with just getting one or two cans if it's a big project.

We then hot-glued (which DOES NOT stick to sanded aluminum) so it would hold its shape, used nylon tie down squares and zip ties to hold it in key points.

JB Weld is holding 3x #6x32 nuts four high to act as spacers, we then pop-riveted 5 of the wires to the outside of the case. The wires feed through a hole in the side panel, and connect to the custom-wiring inside the case.

The idea was to provide a switch, and a single 12V source to plugin from a standard power supply. So i got UV purple molex 4 pin and PWN fan headers and corresponding plugs from FrozenCPU.com, and wires a removable leg for the side panel (using the 4-pin pwm header/socket) and the 4-pin molex for power, splitting to the cold-cathode inverter, which I plastidipped (I love that stuff!).

Here it is resting against the side panel, I don't have any pics from the riveting (no pun intended) step, because by that time my wife had started the next piece of art for the panel, and we don't want to ruin the surprise for the customer.

Here it is in its nearly completed stage, mounted and lit, with the extra effect added, but that's another pic that we'll save until he gets his case, no spoilers her, sorry!

 

[CrazyLefty]

Here is the placement of the 2x UV CCFL tubes

Hacked away a tiny bit of the case so one end of one of the CCFLs would be held down by the case material, and give it just enough space for the sleeved wires from the other CCFL to hold it in place, along with some hot-glue.
I usually hide the CCFLs/LED strips, but I wanted them to stick out in this case, make it look like its part of the environment, instead of just creating the mood with the UV effect. Lit up they are a deep purple, and don't give off a ton of light, so they fit in, and won't cause to to squint when looking directly at it.

 

[CrazyLefty]

I sleeved the 3-pin wires for each of the front and back case fans, 2 purple and 1 white, which my wife then braided for me.

 

[CrazyLefty]

Finished!

Here's a shot with the side lights on

Here's the plexi side

 

[Quicksilver_]

I enjoyed this. Should have subbed sooner.