Fallout 3 Case Mod by Americanfreak

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

Hello all!

For our 2013 Staff vs Staff mod-off contest I will be creating a case based of the Bethesda game, Fallout 3. Stay tuned as I will added more detail soon and start filling in the work log.

I would like to thank the sponsors

Case: Thermaltake s41 Urban Series


Keyboard: Thermaltake Challenger Illuminated


Mouse: Thermaltake Theron


Headset: Thermaltake Console one


CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Big Typ Revo


Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000, 860, and X850


SSD: ADATA SP600 128GB


Memory: Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3 PC3-14900


Motherboards: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0


Video Card: EVGA 680 GTX


CPU: AMD FX-8350

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

Fallout 3 Case Mod by Americanfreak

My thoughts with this build is to try an create a PC case mod that has some of the items from the game that people will recognize, yet look like it could be from the game. Of course there were no ATX cases in Fallout 3 but hopefully I can make the Thermaltake s41 Urban case like it it was taken right out of the game.

One of the hard parts will to make it look like it something from the 50's and from a apocalyptic time. Grabbing some clues from the game like the old over sized control stations will help.




They used a lot of the analog style gauges, so I had to hunt some of those down.



Another thing is those damn terminal screens that I can either never get into or can't crack the password. I have an idea on how to get this as part of the case.



And of course I have to get the Pip Boy 3000 into this one way or another. I also want to get some other stuff into the theme, like the Nuka-Cola bottle caps. I have it all in my head just how to do this, but can I get it right when actually making the case mod?





So here is my first idea of a quick mock up of the build.

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

So I decided to stay with the terminal screen on the left side of the case to serve two things.
1- It will allow for a look inside of the case
2- It brings an known element from the game to the case.

With the side panel on I laid out where all the braces, hard drive cages and other items lined up.
This way when I cut the window and add other stuff it would not be in the way of the frame or other items.

I figured out where I wanted the screen/window will go.



I used paper to create a template of the design of the terminal frame.



I will transfer the design to some Sheet Styrene (0.30 inch thick) to give it the dimensional look.




Here is the design transferred over to the Styrene



I transferred the window layout to the backside of the panel to make it easier to cut on my scroll saw.



But first I taped off the outside of the panel so that it would not get scratch.
Yeah it is going to get beat up anyways but good habits are hard to break.



I used my scroll saw but you can use a jig saw or rotary tool.



Next I am going to be cutting the window/screen using some UV green plexi.
This will give the window the green terminal effect I want and still be able to see into the case.





So one of the things that was used a lot in the game at the large console are different types of analog gauges.
So off to Ebay I went and found some for a $15. This will really help create the style for the case mod.

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

So a couple of the gauges that I got are way to new looking. If they were old they would be scratched up and the white part of the gauge would be faded.



I took the gauge apart to get to the face.



Believe it or not there is a simple solution to making the white look old... Tea.
Placing the white faces from the gauges into the tea and letting them soak for a while.
They soak up some of the tea and the tea stains it.



As we can see below it works very well.





All the gauges are made to fit into some sort of a control panel or box, not a side panel
from a computer case.



I had to take most of them all apart, remove the faces and remake them to fit mostly the clear dial face plates.



From here you can't tell that the gauge is only about 3/8 of an inch thick.

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

The two small gauge that I got are going to be placed into the ROM drive bay area
so I need something to hold them there. I grabbed some metal, made a plate to the length
I needed, added some notches to where it needs to bend to fit into the bay.



A couple of clamps and a small piece of angle iron were used to bend the metal right
where it needed to be bent.



I wanted to give this panel more detail so I added a second plate that will rest behind the gauges



Here who it came out



Good for now and I will done some finishing work later as I have a lot to do.

[tech-daddy Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tech-daddy]

Great job, D-Wayne!!!!

[XcaliburFX Painted Find all posts View Profile Close XcaliburFX]

Looking awesome D!

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

I would like to thanks our other sponsors for the builds

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

Next I moved to the side panel to layout and install the gauges for test fitting and stuff as I still had work to do on them.
I wanted a raised part like I did no the front so some aluminum was cut to fit.



Holes where drilled for the gauges and knobs. Some of these knows will be switched out as I did not like the way they looked



Off to get some lighting and switches. I will be using some LEDs to light up the gauges to give it the "working" look.
What I did find that I had not seen before was some LED's in a case in a strip.



For about $6 they had these in 3-4 LEDS strips and in squares with a sticky pad on the back. They come in white, blue, green and yellow and are 12 vdc... this modders dream has come true. These are great for spot lighting a case. I will use the one I got for the Pip-Boy 3000.





I will also be making some Nuka-Cola bottle caps. Lucky for me where I work we have a few bars on property and was able to grab some quickly.
And no they are not my brand... I enjoy the local beers.



and finally I was getting worried about this as it was taking some time to get to me but the Pip-Boy 300 casting that I ordered showed up... YEAH!



so after this we are on our way to some serious modding.

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

Here is a quick look at what I want the case to look like. The gauges are mounted with the Pip-Boy on top and a couple of bottle caps.
The whole idea is to make it look like someone has come back from a journey, take the PB of and stuff from their pockets and place it on top.
Kind of like what most of us do now :-)




One of the things I want to add to this case is some damage so I thought how about if some one took an ax or or something and split a section open.
The right side panel was a great place for this to appear.

I laid out a quick sketch




Out came the Dermal



and then a hammer to do the actual damage.



I also wanted some damage to the plastic parts, but I just want dents so I grabbed my heat gun.
Heated up the plastic and took the hammer head and pressed it on the now pliable plastic. I did this in a couple of places.


A quick look at how it came out.



Time to start prepping some of the parts for painting. I like to get some of the prep work done and out of the way when I can. This way the primer has time to dry and I can be doing stuff to other items. My way of saving sometime during the build. After doing some sanding it is always best to use a tack cloth to remove the dust and small participles before apply any primer or paint


I know some people like to only use plasti kote spray paint on plastic, but I like to use a layer Adhesion Promoter. This creates a great bond and will allow you to use any kind and color of paint you want.



Some primer on the side panel


and a look at the open damaged area



After this comes the fun part of making the case look realistically rough, scratched and rusted. It took me awhile to find a way to get the effect I wanted and I was excited to give it a try.

Up Next... Rust with paint

[XcaliburFX Painted Find all posts View Profile Close XcaliburFX]

Looking good bro.

[Boddaker Painted Find all posts View Profile Close Boddaker]

Great job so far Dewayne! Loving the distressed look. For the rust effect, are you going to use the "Sophisticated Finishes" two part system like I used on the Borderlands 2 case? It worked really well and was easy to apply.

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

Dude you wont believe what I used. It will be outlined in the next update.

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

I would like to say thank you to our sponsors


Case: Thermaltake s41 Urban Series


Keyboard: Thermaltake Challenger Illuminated


Mouse: Thermaltake Theron


Headset: Thermaltake Console one


CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Big Typ Revo


Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000, 860, and X850


SSD: ADATA SP600 128GB


Memory: Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3 PC3-14900


Motherboards: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0


Video Card: EVGA 680 GTX


CPU: AMD FX-8350

[Dewayne The Main Man Find all posts View Profile Close Dewayne]

Rust time with paint and hairspray!

I finally get to the part of the mod that I wanted to do the most, creating the rust effect.
I know that some can make it by being a master of the airbrush - which I am not- or using stuff from the
local craft store. I looked into that but was not really up on the way it looked. So off to Google and found what I wanted.

Those that make the scaled military models know a thing or two about creating realistic damage and rust.
The only problem I could see for me was that I needed to do it on a much bigger scale than a 8 inch model, but I going to give it a try anyways.
Part of the beauty is that you don't have to be perfect.

Here is what I did. You start off with a base coat of a dark brown, then spray a lighter brown in a different spotty directions and lastly a more "rust"
color brown done the same way. The whole idea here is to create random layers of brown so when the rust effect is done it looks natural and real.

Yes it can be done on plastic and here is the front bezel.




The side panel done



The inside and outside of the frame.





The whole case pretty much done.



So here is the trick! HAIR SPRAY!!



WTH you say, hair spray... I know I said the same thing.

He is how it works. Lay down the rust paints then apply a layer of hair spray where you want the rust effect to be.
Then apply the final color on top of the hair spray. Next you will need something rather expensive... hot tap water. ;-)

When you apply the hot water where you treated it with hair spray the water dissolves the hair spray making the
top layer of paint loose and it can be scratched off to reveal the random brown paint, thus creating the worn rust look.
Don't believe it... keep looking then and you tell he how it turned out.




Applying the hair spray




The machine grey top coat




then some magical water... let it set for 5 minutes or more.




I used a piece of wooden dowel to scratch the paint off. Then I used a 3M scrubbing pad to feather out the scratches.




Here are some different rust and worn spots I did on the case







It came out much better than I expected and I am very happy with the look :-)