With only a few weeks left, I've been working hard on this project nearly every day. I don't know if I will finish on time, but I've learned a lot about crafts and it's been a fun experience. Although there are several tedious things that I've gotta finish, it sure is nice to have Netflix on demand. :)
One of the first things I started building after the last update was the case innards. I decided to construct the skeleton of the cylinder out of 1/2" birch plywood because it's lightweight, sturdy, and easy to work with. I cut my pieces with a jigsaw, then sanded and stained them for presentation.
I'm not worried about the wood being a fire hazard because my computer runs quite cool with its aftermarket fans, and I plan to add additional airflow by installing more fans in the cardboard sides. The motherboard is elevated from its foundation with standoffs as well. In order to make the whole computer fit in the case, I had to arrange some things vertically. The power supply sits on the bottom with the motherboard just above it so that applicable power cords will reach. The DVD and HDD will be mounted in the original metal bracket from my old case, aligned flush with the cylinder edge. I am using my one and only computer for this case, so here it is in all its glory while I have it temporarily set up for use.
I brush-painted a few coats of primer on the SonoTube in the hopes that I will be able to sand away some of the imperfections on its face. Eventually, I'll apply some highly reflective silver spray paint that will look futuristic and stuff. Yeah! By the way, can you spot the 18" of snow in the picture below?
While I was in Seattle, I stopped at a little store called the Creation Station. They acquire large quantities of recycled industrial materials that can then be reused for craft projects. You fill a bag with as much crap as you possibly can for a fixed price. My plan is to use this sort of thing for greeblies! Hmm, you don't know what greeblies are? Take a look at a ship model used in Star Wars. Do you see all of those random bits and parts and decals and
things attached to the surface of the ship? Yeah, those are greeblies--details for the sake of art. Below is my creation station bag. The picture really doesn't do it justice. Maybe I'll take another one when everything is dumped out.
So, back to the terrarium. I bought some acrylic paint and made it all purdy-like. I then sprayed diluted glue all over it in sections and pinched on green flocking for grass. You don't get to see a picture of it yet. HAH. I will show you how I constructed the trees, though. I bought some pre-formed deciduous plastic trees from a hobby shop instead of trying to use a bunch of brittle twigs. That was a good decision, because these things are awesome. They have a wire skeleton inside the plastic so that you can twist them however you wish. I had to mainly use branches to represent whole trees because my scale is much smaller than they were designed for.
I then dipped them in glue and stuck on some artificial foliage. They look quite nice, if I do say so myself. The only problem is that I get bored to tears making them, and I will need quite a few. Might as well finish Heroes season 1.
My mother made some trees of the autumn variety as a joke. They look half decent, but would unfortunately be a bit out of place with the rest of the miniatures. Mmmmm... pizza sounds really good right about now.
I bought a pre-made culvert to use as some sort of docking bay/elevator for the Sims to travel to and from the terrarium. But the poor things are made out of clay or something and broke in half when I put some gentle pressure on the package to open it. Luckily, I now have a large collection of craft supplies, and I simply super-mega-e-6000-glued them back together. I'll paint them of course to hide the cracks even more.
Last but not least, my off-brand LCD arrived a couple days ago that I bought second-hand from a goon. The plan is to make a slideshow of the Simcity 2000 "advisors". Apparently it also plays music too, so I'll get the crappy music to loop as well.
This project will either be epic or terrible. I can't wait.
I spray-painted the SonoTube silver as well, and sanded 1/4 inch off the sides with the Dremel. I will eventually have to cut holes in the sides for the case fans, the DVD rom drive, and the LCD screen. Perhaps even more stuff that I add on a whim!
The sides were carved down to make room for the vinyl edge trim. It's not perfect, but it already looks a helluva lot better than the cardboard sides. I haven't decided if I want to keep it white or spray it silver as well. I'm probably doing this in the wrong order, but you can make one yourself, thank you very much. I had to jam the corners with superglue and clamp them overnight, because they really wanted to warp rather than do my bidding.
Hooray, the dome(s) have arrived! Why do I have two, you ask? It's easier to buy a custom-sized plastic ball than a dome. It looks great, much more like what I envisioned than the tacky, decorated punch bowls from the party store. I've acquired some small Christmas lights that will line the base of the dome to give it some sense of being a standalone structure. I may return them in favor of cooler (literally) LEDs, but they are a backup plan.
More to come this weekend, so don't launch anywhere! Yet.
