"Wasteland" - be quiet Silent Base 800 quick mod

[tech-daddy]

Hey all!

Just put the wraps on a Christmas gift for a friend, a Fallout themed case! Now, I had never done a case like this, so I turned to the master of the effects, our own American Freak, and took his techniques and added a little on to them.
So, get ready to drink from the fire hose, as I lay down this build log over the next few days!
First some quick pics of where I started:





















Dis-assembly of the case was pretty easy once you found all of the tabs. Before removing the base, however, you need to remove 4 small screws. Other than that, it was a tool free experience.

After that, you need to lightly scuff the surface of plastic parts. The red/maroon scotchbrite pads are perfect for this:


As you can see, I put some painters tape to mask off the inside of the power button. The fit tolerances are very tight on those locations, and the button, once installed, is flush mount. So nobody would see that there was no paint here. Fiiiiine by me!


You start by laying down browns, usually darker to lighter, in a random, non coverage type pattern. you want the colors to intersect, but not cover one another.




Let that cure, and then come over the top with.... wait for it... spurts of hairspray! Remember where you sprayed it. It's not like it is a full coverage coat. It is only where you are visualizing weak spots in the paint, that you will scuff/sand through later. The hairspray acts as an "adherence interfere" layer, so that later when you wet the area with warm water, and start scuffing that area, the paint will not have bonded to that area, and the paint will let go in a more natural way.... exposing the mottled browns underneath. After you have your hairspray down, then lay down your topcoat color. In my case, I was top coating with a Rustoleum "weathered steel" gray.







More in a bit!!!!

-=Tech-Daddy=-

[tech-daddy]

So, on the front bezel, the side front steel mesh air vent intakes are normally black. When I disassembled the front and took the trim out, I found that the backs were silver.... perfect! So all I did here was after I had finished the painting, I flipped the mesh pieces over, and reversed their sides!


This is the front screen frame for the 2 front intake fans. It had a very fine screen mesh on it, as a dust filter. Well, delicate doesn't cut it in the wasteland! So, I tore it out, painted the frame with the weathered steel paint, then cut out some hex modders mesh to fit. I then painted the mesh with a rust metal paint for additional color and depth, then attached it to the back of the screen frame using hot glue.









All of the pieces were scuffed again using the scotch brite pad, and edges given weathering and aging emphasis. Using a wooden dowel, I did deeper gouges for like metal strikex, device plug ins, or places where fingers would repeatedly touch/scrape the case. After that was done, I went over it again with Scotch brite to help age the scratches and scuffs.


Then I started working on the decals. These are waterslide decals that I custom print.
Just working on the placement here. I used a combination of transparent decals (FALLOUT 4 logo, "Tested by Vaultec", black text), and white backed decals (The Nuka cola graphics, and Fallout guy)