totaly custom painted WC rig - Progress log

[R B Customs]

Well guys, over the last coupl months ive been Very slowly building my new watercooliogn rig.
this isnt gouign to be amny normal rig though.
i dont think ANything like this has been done before, certainly not of this calibur

so the brief:
Build a hiogh spec PC - Check
Put it in a nice big case - Check
Strip the case to every last pannel and Paint it with the most unique blend of Red paint, prismatics and small flakes - Check
Paint the outside of the case in the most wild realistic fire, blended with gouls and demons and one big nasty lookign fella - IN PROGRESS
Fill the inside with High spec watercooling components - IN PROGRESS
Paint every paintable part of those components using the above ideas - IN PROGRESS

so hears a taste of what to expect, heres a pic of the radiator, and the pump, the opump has NOT BEEN POLISED there for it will look a little dull with no real luster, theese are just progress pics.

SO FAR:

pics not that good, hopefully just enough to tickle your interest... dont wanna give too much away lol !

bigger:

my GPU block got delivered today, so im waiting for the brass top for my RBX to come, and those will get painted at the same time as the front part of the pump.
im toying with the idea of painting fire one the barbs too.

the paitn ont he rad isnt MEANT to look liek real fire, more just the idea of it, just to make the lettering pop up. i can paint realistic fire, but thatsd going to be saved for the outsides !

also need to get rid of those horrible greed cables :EEK: **edit - one down one to go !**

ALL FURTHER UPDATES FROM ME TO THIS THREAD WILL BE IN ORANGE TEXT !! - THE REST IS JUST CHAT

 

[R B Customs]

For something thats not meant to look like real fire, that rad does a pretty good job imo

Stunning work so far mate, very well done!

thanks, its not so muc not meant to look like it, rater just a generic flame of soem kind... if i painted it liek id rnormaly paitn real fire... the leters wouldnt look right . just a little niggle though, not important

its worth saying now... the red on the inside of the case is unique and looks far too purple on the pics, in real life its Very bright.
using an old 2MP camera which dont help

 

[R B Customs]

Looks good but wouldnt it be better if the rad was the other way up, to stop air bubbles getting trapped at the top or are you going to fill with it horizontal?

Oh and why have the hard drives so close to each other?

idealy i woudl ahve the barbs poking inside the case, but it cant be done because of the mounting mech for the PCI slots , so ive cut my losses and mounted it liek that, filling horizontal ? mate it will be being turned everyway ossible !!!1 lol

drives wotn be as close... i moved them up there to see what it would be liek to put the pump under em... ahvnt moverd them back though.

 

[R B Customs]

very nice, what case is that

its a gigabyte 3D aurora
rest of the spec is in my sig

 

[R B Customs]

ha ha cant bench with that intel HSF on !! it barly keeps the CPU under 60C
the benchies will be for when the project is over. but anyway im not that interested in the results, i just want great cooling, great looks, and gread silence
shouldnt give bad results though, except everyone knows AMD hold the crown at 3d marks, so im not expecting that much, but we will see
end of CPU discussion i dont want this thread to end up in a war lol

 

[R B Customs]

MORE PICS!!!! and i love what youve done to the pump i sold you

lol... i just hope it works !! havnt tested it since i got it lol.
im gonna have to get some batteries for my ither better camera really, this ones shocking.
was polishing the pump last night and flatted THROUGH some of the paint on a corner so gonna hev to touch that in
as i said, the next batch of paint is not gonna be until i have the CPU block ready. i dont paint things one by one becasue its a fanny on to mix the clearcoat for one item... and a bit of a waste !

the hard drives need painting too

no updates yet folks, cant do anything til post wednesday really, got the last reminders of college to finish off

 

[R B Customs]

hard drives + paint = goodbye warranty!!

Did you take the pump to bits to paint it? or how did you not get a drop of paint on the plastic bit?!

the whole front of the pump pops off, ansd i s ealed by the looks of things, so i only painted the metal rear of the pump, all masked up of course. the back of the pump is painted with 'aqua xtreme' too.
the front is due to be painted, i was gonna leave it but it looks a tad naff being black now.

yea bye bye waranties lol, 2 are maxators whcih im not really fussed about, but ones a gucci seagate lol. so i might jsut paint the maxators and make some kind of facia for the seagate from styreme sheeting. unless i jsut tell seagate ''it fell into the path of my airbrush, repeatedly, then my spraygun, hence the laquer... totaly accidental !! ''

could be the first 'mural'd maxator' though !

 

[R B Customs]

i really dont want to have the hard drives up in the 5.25 bays tbh., theyre kept very cool where they are by a 120mm fan blowing right onto them.

may aswell just paint them, the maxators if any. theyre only £35 no big loss if i lose the waranty ! im not gonna break a sweat over losing the waranty on my seagate either, but id just rather keep it as is, or attach somethign to the visible part of it.

 

[R B Customs]

Small update
ive just blatenly NOT used my photoshop skills iol, and whipped this pic up of the loop order, bottom fill/bleed... means the case will ahve to go Oz style for filling, but it will get rid of the air in the loop the most effectivly and ofcourse will look clean as anythiung

 

[R B Customs]

After seeing the rad, I can't wait until you've finished the outside! Are you a pro painter or what?

yea i am lol... i didnt leave it under my pillow for the tooth fairy to do lmao ( but DAMN i wish i could !!! lol ), but yea i been at it ince i was about 13 there abouts, well thats wen i started model making, airbrushing came a little bit later.
tbh, il im 18 now so u can do the maths lol
m more excited abotu the results than u guys i think !

what u guys think about the fillport idea? anyone ever mounted it an the bottom ?, share experiences please

 

[R B Customs]

No doubt a lot of effort and skill has gone into this, but am I the only one finding this far too tacky, over-the-top and loud to go into any normal room?

the idea of this is to make a 'showcase' ( no pun intended ) for extreme computing and cooling, painting is more of a lifestyle for me aswell as a job, and most of my personaly items have a touch of somehting !
no ones ( as far as i know ) has quite done anything liek this, mainly because of the cost it would take to pay sum1 to paint it, but being that person i dont have to pay a penny lol

lol guys i cant stress this enough... the paint RED paint on the photo looks CRAP... it looks like a child has painted it.
i can assure you its smnooth as a babies bum and has an exotic range of addidtives in it lol. i do aggree that it looks pap in the photos though.
also when the Red cathodes are on it looks better

but please take into accouind the OUTSIDE of the case, the insidoe looks too red because its rare what you see anytopne paitn the insede odf the case never mind ALL of it !

the idea of this project is to make it look like a glowing red furnace.

each to their own guys... but i love it ! ill try and get some pic of the case in better light with a better camera. im not a good photographer and ppics never do my artwork justice lol.

anyway, still waiting for parts etc / money so project is on hold for now !

 

[R B Customs]

Red green and orange? Should have done black white and blue (lightening instead of fire)

im starting to wonder how many people have read the text lol. the green cables are going ASAP, but theres other parts that need aquiring faster than those horrible green cables !

and blue is just... EURGH ! as far as iom concenred.
just give this poject a chance to develop and you will soon see it the same way as i

still got a lot of college work to finish, so im guestimationg the PC will be finished within 2 weeks form now

 

[R B Customs]

Okay, bit more progress on the cooling, ive ordered 7 foot of tygon, some connections, a brass top for the RBX, and some other stuff which ive forgot, iv also ordered a sample of the Tempur material for the pump, and bought the RBX block its self from a member here.

do it looks like monday will be D-day for painting !!

got the maze $ and the 2 hard drives masked up and ready for priming / painting too, not sure what im gonna do with the HDD,s ill make it up as i go.

not painting my seagate - cant afford to loose that one, but its going in an enclosure anyway to keep the noise down

heres a SUPER SIZE pic of the case, which represents the colour a little better, but still doesnt bring out the subtle prismatic flakes and metalics in the colour


and heres the pics of the parts on the paint list :

Btw, due to all the posts in this thread im going to use this orange colour for all the UPDATES

 

[R B Customs]

The Worst Thing Ever™

lmao, i like the TM

im debating whether to post a progress picture of the side of the case yet... i guess not because non of you will really understand why it will look the way it does...in its unfinished state lol

 

[R B Customs]

Okay, tiny little update... was expecting the thinkgs to be delivered monday, but they came today !

first of all, the brass top for the RBX, not what i was expecting, so not a lot of area to paint

Next up, slightly better puic fo the rad and pump, still odd pits that need polishing, and need bits of residue off the polish removing, but nearly there !

Lastly, ive been spendintg the last few hours painstakingly making my own version of 'cool sleeves' only... BLACK

 

[R B Customs]

Looks like a lucite/plexi top to me

How did you make the 'cool sleeves' btw, they look good and I might make my own.

Oh and the rad/pump are looking very nice

well thats what i thought !!
totaly forgot that the RBX has 2 tops, the brass part you see is the 'top' its usualy lucide, and it was edvertised as 'rass top for RBX' i was expecting one big brass lump with thwe mounting 'arms' attached ! that would have been perfect for painting, buiut im a bit limited now :|.
debating whether i should just leave the lucide top on my RBX 478 or use the brass and paint it.

the coolsleeves are very easy to make, but a total chew on !!
its acctually pond tubing, the rubber part, cut away the rest and your left with the hard plastic rib... works a treat and is nice shiney black

 

[R B Customs]

Put red LEDs in the lucite top . What size pond tubing is it, I might get some, can you get it from garden centres? Do you just cut away the soft plastic, that must have taken ages?

YES IT TOOK AGES, i only got a metre, £2.40 for a metre, 25mm ID tubing, you have to cut the middle bit out then go over it again trimming any excess, im about 50cm through my mter so far .

LEDs in the top is a good iddea, but theres not a lot of surface on this pice of lucide! to drill without the fear of it cracking

 

[R B Customs]

I've seen it done, I'll try find some pics. I think I'll leave the pond tubing for a rainy day then, but I will prob end up getting some, did you get it from a garden centre or fish shop?

Garden Centre, it depends which top your refering to !, the top which contacts the water would be okay, but tythe mount top would be a little sketchy !

and im undecided whether to use the brass water top or not, but i think i will

the case is gonna be well lit anyway, 4 CCFLs

 

[R B Customs]

UPDATE !
been painting pretty much solid for the last 11 hours. everything hass been getting a coat or tweo today, includeiing all my watercoolign parts, a ophone and the closk from my brothers mini !! so quite a busy day.

so, all comoponents are now primed, base coated, and art work is in its preliminary sstages on most parts,
although theres 2 parts which have excelled a bit and are almost fully complete.

BE WARBED THEY ARE NOT FINISHED ! ! ! ! thats why the finish looks a lil crap, and theres still parts that need correcting etc,

2x Hard Drives

 

[R B Customs]

im starting to see mistakes already, its damn hard when you stare at the same thing for hour after endless hour. tomorrow ill correct it all with my new 'fresh eyes'