Yoda Case Mod

[PennyWise]

First off, I would like to give a huge thank you to my sponsors.

Nvidia
Caselabs
Koolance
Thermaltake
Primochill
Mainframe Customs
Tap Plastics

Yoda has been my most favorite character in the Star Wars series.
I was so excited to get started on this build.
There wasn't time to do a work log when I first built it, as I was doing a charity mod at the same time.
I only had 1 month to complete both builds.
In reality, I only had about 2 weeks to have this build ready for PDXLAN.

So, I am a little old school when it comes to designing a build and work out a concept.
I started by sketching out a basic drawing of my idea.

Now the really old school part.
I cover the case in masking tape, and draw on my design.

I add on a piece of transfer tape over the drawing and trace out all the main lines.
Then, I pull it up and put it on somthing that I can work with easier.
This time, it was a piece of ply wood.
I had found a piece of foam for the general shape of the face.
This will make it so I dont have to use so much material up when sculpting.

I then sculpt out the general shape that I want it to buy.
Acually slightly smaller.

Using my makeshift vacuume former, I vacuume formed the sculpture.
I do this so that it is easy to attach to the case and very light and durable.
I find that shipping these mods to event has become quiet common, so I build then so they are lighter and more durable for shipping.

Now with the vacuume for I have somthing I can start sculpting with Magic Sculpt.
I find it easier to work with by mixing small amounts and building up the sculpture with layers.

Now that I am mostly done with the sculpture, I will rivet it onto the case.

Now I can begin sculpting it so it looks like it is coming out of the case.

Use a half round piece of clear acrylic I sanded it down to give a frosted look and rounded the tip.
I also made it removable for shipping.

I am going to use some left over plastic from the vacuume form to make the eyes.
Using some oven gloves, I round out the plastic and cut it out to the shape of the eyes with some scissors.

Now I can sculpt it into the rest of the face and work on blending it in.
I also Drilled a hole in the ear so I would have a place to screw into the lightsaber.

I needed to get the sculpting work done first so I could have my buddy Ron Christianson start working on the paint.
Now it was time to start working on the inside of the case.
Here is a list of things that I finished up on the inside.
Painted the heat sinks on the motherboard.
Added some vinyl stripes to the Koolance backplates.
Re-badged the Thermaltake PSU and painted the grill.
Re-badged the Thermaltake AIO cooler (Temporarily for lan, as I didnt have time to build the custom reservoir).
Custom sleeved and laced all the cables.
On the outside I built custom case feet and built lighting for the lightsaber.

 

[PennyWise]

Always make sure you map out your PSU.

Here are some pictures of the progress Ron made while he painted the case.

The final touches were added and a clear coat for the body, I left Yoda a matte finish.

These are pictures of when I brought it to lan while it was still on air.

I finally had time to finish the water cooling loop.
I used Koolance GPU blocks, CPU block, and pump.
With Primochill Fittings and PETG Tubing.
I scratch built a custom reservoir with a mounting bracket.

Now I am finally finished with this build, and am extremely proud of how it turned out.
This is why we do what we do.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Awesome post, thanks for sharing.

 

[pendragon1]

 

[NemesisX]

Not gonna lie, that started out terrible with that drawing and I was like ... oh gosh, where is this going? Glad I kept scrolling.

 

[DrLobotomy]

Not gonna lie, that started out terrible with that drawing and I was like ... oh gosh, where is this going? Glad I kept scrolling.

Man. That is exactly what I was typing.

 

[DrLobotomy]

You have a talent that I cant even get close enough to throw rocks at. Good job!!

Now we need to see an Alien case mod in a similar fashion.

 

[Elusid]

That looks incredible! I love the mixed medium art. Well done!

 

[pendragon1]

again, awesome work! just watch nerdgasm's new vid on YT and youre in it at the 11:18 mark!
edit and on the thumbnail too!