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Ultimate Reserviors

B

bonzanego

Gawd
Joined
May 16, 2002
Messages
888
This res is designed to mount to a standard 120mm fan hole screw pattern. The head is hollow and the barbs are mounted to the back of the skull facing inside the case. The head has a clear domed window cap (sans screws for the moment) to view the fluid. The pass through on top of the head has not been cut out yet for the purposes of casting.

In these images the part is about 85% complete
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I am not sure yet, i hope it will come in under 60$. I have to sit down and calculate the cost of all the materials in a finished one and the time it will take to paint it. Skulls are easy to paint so it should be on or near my projection i hope. Glad everyone likes it, I also have one that is a withered face with a pair of old style round eye goggles, the goggles are the windows into the fluid on that one.
 
[Please enter about 15 expletives here. Preferably in multiple languages]

IF ONLY my case mod project could have a skull worked into it! I'd order one RIGHT FREAKING NOW! That is so awesome...

[EDIT]Sorry read your FAQ on your website and saw the parts about low count orders and it's a bit much for me.]

Could I maybe PM you about a custom res idea that WOULD fit into my project? I'm trying to make sure everything in my case is as well made/designed as possible and with exception to the hardware and things like water blocks and radiators and such, I'm trying to avoid mass produced items in the decorative category. Might even try to talk you into some fan grills if the price is reasonable...I just love your work. Anyhow you can email me if you could be persuaded or PM me here.

BTW my email is gawker(at)gawkerweb(dot)com or

somebodydied@the website in my sig
 
CrashGawker said:
(Please enter about 15 expletives here. Preferably in multiple languages)
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Holy zombie Jesus! That is awesome! :eek:

Bonz, what can't he make? :eek:
 
Hey Bonz, how come you don't have a casting tutorial on your site? I'd love to know what you're using for sculting and casting and such and how to do it so I could try making some stuff for my mod. I'd have you do it but I can't afford any $250 like says in your FAQ. $50x5 pieces.

Seeing your skull res here started me thinking of cool things to do for my res. Going to have it done in acrylic by a custom shop locally but this sculting around it could make for some cool evvexts to fit it better with the theme.
 
Hey Bonz, how come you don't have a casting tutorial on your site? I'd love to know what you're using for sculting and casting and such and how to do it so I could try making some stuff for my mod. I'd have you do it but I can't afford any $250 like says in your FAQ. $50x5 pieces.
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We dont give casting tutorials, some of the stuff we use is homemade and cannot be bought. Other materials are just too expensive or hazardous for people to be handling and we would rather not go down that road.
As for sculpting you can try polymer clays, just be aware they are not going to stick to slick acrylic very well, and can be very brittle if overheated or underheated during thier curing process. The clay is about 10$ a pound at most craft stores.
Aside from that, you say you cannot afford the cost, you should realize the high cost of the materials is one reason the cost of custom work is high, so even if you went out and bought the stuff you are still looking at very expensive end results. I have some advantage in that I can pay wholesale for the materials. But that does not amount to a huge difference.
The FAQs on my site is a bit out of date in reference to cast pieces and it only addresses fan grills. We will have 4 or 5 different res designs so 1 or 2 of them are bound to match your theme. Ordering anything custom is tricky because if it is not somthing that can be sold after the fact then all the time and material cost put into making one falls on the inital buyer, on the other hand if it can be resold after we can amortize the cost across multiple peices to keep the costs spread out.
 
Yeah I understand the high costs of everything, but I just think it'd be cool and could possibly turn into something you could continue to distribute afterwards as an item on your website rather than a single piece so long as I think it through a little more and try not to get TOO specific on my theme.

If you'd like I could contact you privately to discuss the idea and we can go from there. Just let me know...I only mean that I could not, in good conscience, spend $250 on a res for my project just because it was custom made. Which as you said was for 5 grills, but I imagine, even though the sculpting I had in mind would be a lot less detailed than many of your grills, the sheer fact that the size of the item itself would mean more time/materials/etc therefore making it roughly the same cost in the end. However, I think it could be easily altered to still fit with my mod and still be a viable seller in the future. Just let me know if you would like to hear more specifics on things.
 
Now if you can illuminate the inside of that res with bright red led's how fvcking hot would that look?! :) Hell while your at it you can have a single red led in the middle of each eye socket too, but that would probably look better if you could put some type of diffused acrylic over the led's which conform to each eye socket
 
Thanks eveyone for the kind words, we really appreciate it.

If you'd like I could contact you privately to discuss the idea and we can go from there. Just let me know...I only mean that I could not, in good conscience, spend $250 on a res for my project just because it was custom made. Which as you said was for 5 grills, but I imagine, even though the sculpting I had in mind would be a lot less detailed than many of your grills, the sheer fact that the size of the item itself would mean more time/materials/etc therefore making it roughly the same cost in the end. However, I think it could be easily altered to still fit with my mod and still be a viable seller in the future. Just let me know if you would like to hear more specifics on things.
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You can reach me via email or icq- 98769779 to chat about your project, we got into this racket to make custom stuff and thats what I love to build more than anything else. The res actually takes less time to sculpt than a fan grill because the grill details are so small and require tiny pokes and prods with the tools, which can amount to insane amounts of time spent.



here we go with the first paint test, I have not molded the finished caps yet or the backing plate, but the head itself is done. You will notice the screw pattern dots on the cap.

This first image shows the part mounted flat and right side up as it would be mounted on a case bezel, the head is tilted forward to show off the fluid cap.
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I went to great ends to create a pitted boney texture to the skull, you can see some of it in this shot, at least as much as my camera can show anyway.
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Now if you can illuminate the inside of that res with bright red led's how fvcking hot would that look?! Hell while your at it you can have a single red led in the middle of each eye socket too, but that would probably look better if you could put some type of diffused acrylic over the led's which conform to each eye socket
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We had discussed doing some lighting effect and such, but since it would all have to be wired and soldered by hand the amount of time it would take to tool in hidden wires and bulbs would be astronomical. The other res i have been making has the eyes open into the fluid. Instead of bulbs and wires we will most likely have the rear of the res clear so any lighting from the inside of the case will light the fluid and viewing ports like eyes or skull caps.
 
here is the second Ultimate Reservoir, i dont have an offical name for it yet.
These images show the progress at about 50%, there is very little detail here yet, mostly just blocking in the overall shapes.
the eyes are a pair of goggles that will be clear so the fluid shows through.
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haha i said it looked nice in black and white, but with that paint job it's even better...i can just imagine my rig with one of these things on it :eek: :D
 
U sir are a master. Did u ever happen to paint rpg minitures? I don't even water cool and I want one.
 
U sir are a master. Did u ever happen to paint rpg minitures? I don't even water cool and I want one.
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I have painted figures for friends and such, some 40k etc.
what kind of painting technique do you use/what kind of paint?
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I use 3 different airbrushes, and nylon/taklon and natural hair brushes. technique is sort of hard to describe I just have my way of painting i cannot really explain it other than to say when i begin painting for a long period of time it feels like minutes have passed when really it has been hours.
I have the ability to see a color or pattern of colors and mimic it in paint flawlessly, i cannot explain that either, it just happens that way. My mom has had me match swirly colored bakelite parts that are missing from antiques and no one can ever tell me which is the real part, my copy or the original.
Most of the paint we use is custom mixed in little bottles, I have oils, enamels, rattle cans, automotive paints of all kinds, airbrush inks and illustration inks. The paint we apply to our grills is very expensive european stuff, it can run as high as 14$ an ounce, but after using every kind of cheap and expensive paint, you will learn that the expensive stuff does make a huge difference. It is all about pigment content, cheap paint uses fillers instead of pigment and can never have the brightness and richness as a full body paint.


This is a pre-production version of the skull res begin sent out to some of our distributors. The black dome is clear in the production version, however we are waiting on a piece of machinery that will allow me to make the domes quickly, until then the pre-production pieces have this black dome for demo purposes. I also put the hose barbs on the back, but in my haste to wrap up in the shop forgot to photograph them.
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This is a second goggled version of our ultimate reserviors, i was not very happy with the mouthed version I photographed earlier so i reworked it into this. The hose barbs will be located on the mask inside the little protrusions pictured, it is hard for me to describe, but the barbs are tucked inside and prtrude just enough to get a hose clamp on. the hoses can then be routed from the mask around the sides of the res and back into the pc case.
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This last image is of a low profile version of a 120mm res. The domed section is clear in the production version and has various sculpted designs that are applied over the dome. This is just a dry fit of the various pieces that make up this res, so it looks rather plain at this stage. The mounting of this piece has part of the res exposed outside the case and then the body of the res is inside.
One of our distributors recommended we offer low profile variations so this is one solution i am working on. Some other designs are similar but fit 80mm openings.
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The second one reminds me sort of the masks from WWI and slightly of [I think] Fallout's cover. They look friggin' awesome.
 
Oh great. Now I feel morally obligated to do a fallout mod for my brother. Darn you Bonz!

Hehehe... Seriously though, those things rock ^^,
I like that you have a less morbid version, if you know what I mean ;)
 
:eek: :eek: :eek:


Holy god on a clamshell... that is unbelievable! If I ever get my watercooling project off the ground, I WILL have one of them... JAYSUS!
 
that second one would be SICK :eek: with the tubes coming from the mask...i can't wait to see it progress!
 
Either one of those skulls would make a great paper weight for my desk.
They are really, really cool.
I don't need a resevoir since I don't watercool.
 
Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick!

Dude, I just messed my pants all three ways! Now I'm pissed at myself for ordering an Innovatek Tank-O-Matic... anyone want to buy one for whatever these res will cost? I SO can't wait for the gas mask one to complete. I'm dieing to see what it looks like when finished. It won't really fit the theme of what I was planning for my next build but I might have to change the plan.

Wow!
 
Dude, I just messed my pants all three ways! Now I'm pissed at myself for ordering an Innovatek Tank-O-Matic... anyone want to buy one for whatever these res will cost? I SO can't wait for the gas mask one to complete. I'm dieing to see what it looks like when finished. It won't really fit the theme of what I was planning for my next build but I might have to change the plan.
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Thanks for the compliments everyone, as always we really appreciate all your kind words.
I hear a lot of people say "it wont fit my theme" which we expect a certain amount of, no way can we suit every style out there, but if you have any suggestions about subject matter for parts like this we are happy to hear them. Some of the new reserviors have a less defined subject matter and are more mechanical/abstracts. We hope this lends the parts to a wide range of style and theme compatibility. I will also be painting these to suit any color request. The paintjobs I do for photos are just suggestions and I can paint the piece any color to match any case. With a skull there are some obvious limitations to coloration, but with the gas mask guy, there are a huge range of possibilities. My inital paint job will be of a sort of bleached skin with veins showing through and redish irritated skin around the eyes. I am also making the dome section look slightly different from the skull's clear dome.
Although I have not pictured it there is also a baffle inside the head to help sort the coolant out so it gets stirred up as it cycles through the system.
These reserviors only have a single seam located around the edge of the dome, the rest of the part, including the hose barbs are seamless. We can also put on any size hose barb you want.
I am preparing some review samples for a web site or 2 and they will be giving the parts a good once over with some better pics than I can produce in the near future.
 
bonzanego said:
I am preparing some review samples for a web site or 2 and they will be giving the parts a good once over with some better pics than I can produce in the near future.
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Would this be the wrong time to mention my new site:
bonzanego-sendmecoolfreestuff.com? :p

...and before the rest of you get pissed, tell me you didn't think about it too?
 
The Gas Mask res is done, still have to complete the dome, i am adding some flesh to it so it looks more streamlined with the rest of the head.
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If you will notice the little round button in the center of the mask, there is a radiation symbol going there, I just forgot to put it on before photographing.
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I want! I want! I want!

Not really sure about the radiation symbol though. Radiation and Biohazard symbols on computers are starting to get a little played out.
 
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