Doom 3: Hell inside

This will be the easy to read version of my worklog for Doom 3: Hell inside. For comments please use this dedicated thread.

Doom 3 has inspired a fair number of casemods and even more will come, this is my take at it. The general idea is to make a case that looks like some poor unsuspecting machinery that has been infested by Hell.

The canvas this time is a Shuttle SK83G that somehow will house the following:

AMD64 3400+
BFG 6800 GT OC 256MB
1GB OCZ Platinum PC3200
36GB WD Raptor
Panasonic slim slot in CD-RW/DVD
Dangerden TDX block with nozzle 5
Dangerden NV-68 block
Laing D-4 12V pump
BlackIce Micro
1/2" tubing just for the challenge








This is how the case looked like for about 5 minutes.





Then all unneeded parts started to fall off from the case :wink:





This is a nice feature of the Shuttle case, threaded HSF mounts on the bottom for heavy heatsinks.





Well they had been if they actually had lined up with the holes in the motherboard...








This is as far as I can do before the watercooling parts arrive.

Some of the watercooling gear arrived today as well, unfortunately I forgot stuff like reservoir, hoseclamps and thermal paste so that will hopefully be here early next week.







DangerDen had run out of black radiators so I got a chrome one instead, ah well it won't make any difference in the end...

The NV-68 block is installed for testing only due to lack of thermal paste.
This thing is massive, both in size and weight





This is the big hold down device that successfully will block any attempt to use the PCI slot, had been nice to use for a gigabit NIC but nevermind.




Well, to be able to fit the card in the AGP slot the aluminium crossbar had to be removable. So with four rivets drilled out I could finally fit it.




With the crossbar installed again you can see why it had to be removable...

Some good and bad news regarding the NV-68 block, it do indeed fit inside the shell of an XPC with a good 0.5mm to spare. It will however block the space needed by a normal CD-player.

Some further development...





The perforated area for the stock cooling was cut away to give unrestricted airflow to the radiator. Nice and shiny chrome, isn't it?





On the inside the Tornado will reside. If anyone know a fancontroller like this that can handle 10W or know if that particular one do, please let me know.





Shiny stuff do not belong in the world of Doom so here we are a few layers of paint later...

The Laing D4 pump got to taste some paint as well.





Here we have some extended aluminium (also known as mesh).





The mesh is installed on both left and right side, however I didn't want it flush with the case panel so a few bends were added.





Here is a better view of the extrusion. Oh and don't worry, it will not stay gold...





And finally the last of the main pieces has arrived in the mail.

When testing out the placement of the pump and reservoir I noticed the barbs pointing in the wrong directions. It was however something I had expected so a bit of plumber putty and two copper bends were added. Also a bit mor testing revealed the need of a different mounting mechanism which was cut out from sheet aluminium and attached to the pump with Milliput. An hour of flow testing proved the seal around the barbs was working as expected. When everything is set tomorrow it will be painted again.

First out was to complete the paintjob on the pump.





The bit with clear copper will be covered by tube and a hose clamp so the end result should be no copper visible at all.





Before anything more can be done on the front the location for the slimline CD must be defined. After hacking up the drive cage to four pieces and adding another 3 this is the result.





No pop rivet are used, instead I went for Loctite Super Steel (epoxy weld). I'm very impressed by the ease to use and strenght.

It isn't likely I will use pop rivets again.

I decided to completely rebuild the front, it wasn't much to salvage after all considering it looked like a swiss cheeze on steroids. So with a bit of cleanup this was the result, a big sqaure hole.





A new panel was made from 1mm thick aluminium sheet. The angular pieces are attached with epoxy weld and will hold the reservoir in place.





Pump and reservoir fitted for testing, it will be a very short piece of tube between the pump and the reservoir.

The only remaining bits to do regarding the cutting is a slot for the slimline CD and a hole for the powerbutton.

First up for the day was to install the slimline CD.





Two strips of doublesided tape and it was secured in place.





The IDE adaptor is in place as well.





With the CD in place the final holes could be cut in the front panel. It was later attached using epoxy.





If you have problem guessing what's under the aluminium foil, well it is the reservoir. The alu foil is needed when working with Milliput unless you intend to install it permanently. Considering the reservoir is clear it could be nice to paint the milliput facing the res as well.





I must admit I'm looking forward to drybrush these bits and pieces.

The more interesting part of the project has started, to bring hell


This is the texture I got the inspiration from, very suitable with only shades of red in it:





So here are the pieces from previous page, slightly less beige this time...



Drybrushing is the way to go for this kind of stuff.





As well as clear epoxy resin for the wet look.





So do you want it well done, medium or just raw?

There are a few more hours before the resin will set so they won't be attached to the reservoir just yet.

Before the final sculpting and painting can start it is time to see if everything fit as planned.





Well almost everything did fit, this nearly gave me a heartattack before I found a solution. Initially the HDD was mounted 1/2" further back effectively blocking the hose from the VGA block. But as you can see that issue was swiftly dealt with by moving the drive forward as far as a possible. The lack of space behing the power connector won't be an issue since a SATA drive will be used that has the power on the other side





These are the hose clamps I went for in the end, the mechanical look reminds me of valves.

Time to rip it all apart again so the content of 6 packages of Milliput can be distributed

The whole front has been coated in Milliput. The yellowish section is the result from one package of normal grade Milliput, unfortunately the store where I pick up this locally decided to only stock the twice as expensive fine grade which feels identical but is white instead.

The completed piece on top was just added to give a hint of what's to come.

With a little bit of magic (paint) added to the Milliput on the front this is the result:





The clear resin will be cured in 24h.

The resin has finally set allowing for a testfit again.

As a certain modder pointed out, the red cap will not stay red

FYI, the mashmaster is off on vacation so this thread will go dormant for a couple weeks till he gets back in action. Have fun mashie!!!

Originally Posted by Kyle_Bennett

FYI, the mashmaster is off on vacation so this thread will go dormant for a couple weeks till he gets back in action. Have fun mashie!!!

Thanks, I had a great time.


A little bit of work was done today, this time a flesh lump containing the DOOM 3 logo.





The letters were cut out from balsa wood, then had the mechanical pattern added with a normal pen (due to the soft wood it made nice groves).
Finally the letters were squeezed into... you can never guess... Milliput.

After a bit of painting the logo flesh was done.



This piece required a few more steps than the previous ones. First it was all painted matt black, then drybrushing with dark red, bright red and finally pewter colour on top of the letters. The groves done by the pen in the previous posting were more or less gone at this stage so a bit of black paint had to be added before the final layer of clear epoxy resin.

The CDROM and the drive tray got a matt black base coat and a nickel coloured drybrush layer on top. The picture is a bit dark so it might be difficult to see though.





Next up was to generate a bit of texture for the outer shell. 0.5mm plywood was chosen for an armor plating look. The pattern was drawn directly on the plywood with a crayon and a ruler just to make the lines reasonably straight. It seemed to be an exciting piece of action with a fair number of people following the action on the modcam. The letters plus the horisontal and vertical lines were added last to be able to reassemble the pattern with the correct spacing.





The plywood was cut to shape with a scissor and glued in place. Then some unused parts from my ISS 1:144 model were added in a first ever kitbashing attempt in a mashie mod.

Last but not least a hole were torn open in the mesh right over where the DOOM3 logo will be.





To finish off the outer shell a black basecoat was added, then drybrushed with nickel, pewter and old bronze paint.





Crimson Sky is to blame for making me do two panels in a different shade. Can't say I regret it but I was sceptic for a little while.

The final assembly has started and with 99% of the external look completed this is what the case will look like when done:





It is however a lot remaining to do on the inside...

It was time for the first disaster to strike. During a test of the waterloop it became apparent that a leak existed in the system. Luckily the pump was powered from an external source and everything in the case was powered off. After quite a search to locate where the water actually came from it was found that it was the BI Micro radiator that was leaking.

Further research revealed it was one of the installation screws that had penetrated a water channel in the radiator during one of the many test fittings. Well I'm not impressed by the design with 1/8" clearance between the screw holes and the tubes. A Thermochill HE 80.1 will luckily replace the BI Micro soon.

Only time will tell if the motherboard survived the shower.