Project log: A one for the missus ( More airbrushing / custom paint ! )

Soldato
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okay... so not quite the missus as were not married ! lol
but im building this PC for my girlfriend as a kind of universtiy present

the brief:



convoou2.jpg



The PC:

its some old 'stone computers' P4 machine, luckily for me the case is already painted inside, no bare metal here !

compressor001smalldw6.jpg

compressor002smallga5.jpg



parts stripped out of the case and into an empty drawer !
compressor003smallbr5.jpg
 
Soldato
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Mr Mister said:
OT/ Is your girlfriend impressed by a 30sec super pi run? :D

Damn right !
her next question was 'whats super pi' lol
it woudl be better the paitn a decent case, but thats just more money to spend which we both havnt got ! lol
this ones quite a nice one to paint to be honest

ive had this PC in my garage for a bit and i never use it. she weill be needing one for university work so its goign to a good home ! ... and im just painting it for paintings sake really... its just a nice present :)

and yes thats her
 
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On with the painting.
the case has been fully cleaned, degresed, de_dusted ( rofl counterstrike reference) flatted and ... etc

First up is a few coats of white
laurascase003smallgu8.jpg


Next i mixxed up a very dark purple, and spray it nice and thin for even coverage. afetrt that i add a secret muic of pearl tinters and so on

laurascase005smallle0.jpg

Next up some airbrushing, few layers to build up these whisps and spots. and that big squiggle is me gettign rid of the crap on the end of my needle, had to open the brush up wide and spray/// thats been covered over now ;)
laurascase010smallni8.jpg

The joys of sanding :
laurascase009smallap4.jpg
 
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Soldato
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And then our lord granted up on us... 12" maskign tape ><

laurascase011smalllt0.jpg


its a mess. but it works !
laurascase013smallsg9.jpg


all de greased and tacked off ready for soem high build primer: ( the purle is jst a guide coat for soem sanding i had to do btw )
laurascase015smallut1.jpg



Mixxing the high-build
( note where ive emptied my dremel bits out on the table ><... thats the 'messy table' )
laurascase016smallvx6.jpg


All primed and ready to paint afetr a wetsand and further tacking and cleaning
laurascase022smallcn2.jpg
 
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Soldato
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Reserved

Next step will be putting the outside of the case into the base colour
and i dont really know what im gonnaput on the outside lol :|
unicorns and ponies i suppose lol
 
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Soldato
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$loth said:
Wow, nice paint job on the interior, seriously that's nice!

How did you not get some paint onto the outside though?


the pamnnels were taken off. but the top left on.
andy oversprray on the top is okay as it just acts as a guide coat for sanding.
( a guide coat is when you mist paitn on then sand it all off to ensure you have sanded the surface evenly and completly)

its 6 and two 3's asto what you paint first, but i always do the insides first.

but the main way to avoid ruining your pain t is simply masking tape.
i have ever size from 1/16th of an inch to 1 foot wide - havving allt he right gear at hand really helps to save time on such a tim consuming process as painting.

ive just popped donw to check the primer.
the good thing about it is you will have noticed its mixxed form 3 parts.
this primer is doesnt 'dry' but it hardens chemically. so you can put a lot of build of primer on it without worrying about it 'drying; all the way through
hence 'high build'

tomorrow i will wet sand ther primer giving me an absolutly perfect, flat, solid base to paitn on... its a pleasure to paint on a surface liek that ! lol

stay tuned
Rick
 
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Okay, with the case into primert, i sanded it down and went for a white base coat. then i asked laura exactly what she wanted and she said a hot pink to purple fade. and chose tyhe 2 shades as i mixxed them .

i started with the red.
laurascase035smalltr9.jpg


then the next step was to make the seconfd colour below it.
no fade yet as the boarder between them is covered with the mid tone of eac, and then the mid tone of that etc etc to get a smooth fgasde.
but half way though ...
laurascase037smallcy0.jpg



the olours just did not work at all. so we opted for a hot pink to light pink fade instead.
laurascase040smallwe4.jpg


Fades are by far nto the easiest of things to pull off. specialy with opaque basecoats like pink !.

but all in all im poretty chiffed at how smooth this one came out !


we never did decide on what to but on the sides in terms of artwork,. and laura did liek the idea of bubbles. so for the last few hours ive been thinking on how i can work on that theme as well as thinking about how this is a gift for goign to university.
it hit me that a picture of soemone blowing bubbles from one of those things kids get would be perfect. and a great symbol for tyaking flight with education.

i photoshooped a lot of images but then eventaualy came across a beaut' a fair like lady blowing petals from her palms.
the perfect image i think.

she will nto be blowing opetalsd but im dure gonna think about her blowing the bubbles and maybe turnign into symbols etc which will wrap around the case.

but ehres what ive got so far... this is 2 mins into paintign the figure btw nothign exiciting yet
laurascasesmalllc4.jpg




oh and btw, brother has taken the gucci camera on holiday so im stuck with a crappy 2.2mpxl 'thing' :(
 
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Soldato
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Heres soem mroe pics.
kinda beggining to see soem shape here and there.
would you believe theres 5 different shades / layers of light pink on there ! ( gettign white each time) and about another 3-4 shades before i hit pure white. THEN ill go all the way bacjk dpwn to a dark reddy black.

laurascase044smallsk2.jpg


laurascase048smallqe0.jpg
 
Soldato
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eXSBass said:
R B, you have a broken link there. Here it is if anyone is wondering what it is:
[/IMG]

Thanks mate i noticed it before but forgot to change it :p

its a good change of mind dont you think ?
i could have continiued workign the fade more but half way through i realised the colours just didnt work at all.

thanks for the kind words guys.

my girlfrinds been reading this thread on another forums and has seeen the pic of the woman :( kinda wanted it to be a supprise
 
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thanks a lot guys.

i hope yuo all rtealise its no where enar finished lol. ive never taken pics of my paitnigns in stages lie this before bcasue its ahrd for people to understand what stage they are at.
but hopefully if you look at all the pics of the girl then you will see the development through the painting.
theres still a long way to go yet but shouldnt take me londg
thanks a lot
Rick
 
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hey guys. a little bit of progress today but need to chartge camera up.

for those who were asking. the image of tha lady is projected onto the case and very basic luines are drawn ( they must be basic of it just gets confusing ) then i sue the reference picture to get all of the highlights etc in the righ place. sometimes a bit tricky though !

its nto even worth thinking about drawing the image direct to the case for a few reasons.

1: Pencil lines !. guides would have to be drawn to draw the figure / detail in the first place and are very herd to cover

2: placement - a projector means i can fanny on with the placement of the design easily.

3: TIME !

so on with the picture:
First of all ill post the last picture from the previous stage to save you scrolling up and down ( so you can easily compare the stages)
laurascase048smallqe0.jpg

this pic is taken from the first stage of 'low lighting' as i call it.
i tend to work from 50% ( mid tone) then go all the way up to 100% ( white) and then back from 50% to 10% ( Dark )
so this stage is about 40%

the arms are startign to take a bit of shape, although im gonna change one of them slightly.
btu this is the stages when the design comes to its own and really pops out :D

Rick

laurascase049smallet2.jpg
 
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Elric said:
Completely off topic here, but what model is that Motherboard from the first few pics?


its an 'intel desktop board - d845gerg2 / d845pece
im oresumign thats an 845 chipset
anyone know how these boards OC ? or if they OC at all ?

Rick
btw...
pics on the way !
 
Soldato
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heres a pic from yesterday or whatever.
im jumping a bit ahead by roughing int he hair and the mist when the figure aint finished. but thats just the way i work ! lol

laurascase064smallvo0.jpg


FULL RES ( because the images are so badly compressed lol )
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/5892/laurascase064ly7.jpg
hope you guys are startign to realise just how long these things take :eek:


And damn... i need to tidy my desk tops up again lol
 
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Soldato
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Well before stelly passes out with anticipation, i thought id better make an emergency update ! lol

havtn been workign on the case because ive been away camping etc etc, A level results etc etc.

oh.... and getting stung on my airbrushing 'trigger finger'

heres the latest picture.
the pics form now on are going to look very similar, im basically going around the whole piece defining areas. ( im currently working on the fingers as thweyre taking the most amount of work so far.
you will notice that one or 2 of them are becoming a little more crisp though.

few more hours of doign that and ill be able to woerk on the rest of the composition :)

Rick
laurascase696smallwn3.jpg


P.S
i havnt forgot about the dreadful shape of HER right fore arm, just i havnt had the right colours mixxed in the brush to fix it yet :)
 
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Soldato
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ChoÞÞer said:
isnt it time for a update :rolleyes:

im not sure if ill have many more updates. as my airbrush is almost fubared :mad:
its been acting up for a whuile now and i know what the problem is. so its either replce the parts or buy a new one :D

its makign me quite angry though and could potentialy ruin the piece so im gonna slow down for a bit til i get it sorted
 
Soldato
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Updatwe within the next 15 minutes. just bneed to get the camera off my brother./
watch this space:

first buvbble has been rendered and i need to decide soemthing which could make or break the project !
Rick
 
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