Project: Team Fortress 2 Sentry Turret

T

TiTON

Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
598
TF2_Title.jpg


Hey Folks,

Before I shift my focus back to overclocking for the next 6 months, I wanted to build one more case mod. For this case mod, I wanted to build a NON PC Case Mod, as well as theme it after a current generation game. You are now looking at the result. I am building from scratch, a computer case mod based on the 3rd Stage Sentry Turret from Valve’s latest title, “Team Fortress 2”.

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This is my first scratch built case mod, and I look forward to the challenge. This case mod will not be an exact model or replica of the turret, but should look pretty similar :) I hope that everyone will enjoy this work log. Any input or comments are greatly welcomed. So here goes!!!

The great part about the Sentry Turret is that it has that “Backyard” / “Garage built” feel to it. So imperfections in the case mod won’t be as noticeable.

The first part I tackled was the gattling guns. To get the parts required a quick trip to hardware stroe for some PVC and ABS Pipes, and wood. The Plexi was supplied by my good buddy Thrasher2 :)

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With the parts in hand, time to get out the hand saw. The ¾” PVC pipes were cut to approximately foot long pieces. We have 2 sets of 6 for the barrels.

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The large ABS pipe will serve as the main body for the gattling. The PVC Cap fits nice and snug for the end.

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A scrap ABS piece was use as a template for the barrel holders.

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After the barrel holders were cut, I used the drill press to sand down the pieces and a spade drill bit to make uniform holes.

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After cutting the plexi, I used a heat gun to mold the sheet to form nice little holder for the gattling:

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Here is a picture of a quick test fitting of the PVC Barrels and the barrel holder.

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Here is a dry fit with all the parts laid together for general look and feel. Yup, the gattling is 19” long :D This is going to be one big case mod when its done :D

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As always, comments and feedback is always welcomed. I will try to get my 2nd update posted soon.

Ton
 
you should make actually able to fire stuff. guns are about the easiest thing to make mechanically.

you could have it mounted next to your box at a lan and have it fire paintballs at however frags you.... thatd be sweet.

seriously though...ping pong balls or something....
 
hey Mitcity22 - I am not sure waht you mean by "What are you going to do with it". I am not sure if you are referring to the Gat or the entire case. The gats will pretty much be stationary. I want to build the case to be a nice LAN PC :) Something that is big and a bit differnet :D

jwadd - that is a great idea. I was thinking about modding an airsoft into the barrel.. but I am worried it probably violate LAN rules about no weapons :p

Ton
 
i have a strange vision of you as bruce willis in the movie the jackal where he is testing the control systems for that bad ass 50 cal that jack black put together for him.

*turn to the dude next to you at the lan party*

you: "get me a beer.. now."

otherdude: "um, what? i'm fragging peeps like its my job."

*you press a keycombination, and the gat comes to life, you reach for your mouse and have it turn towards other dude*

you: "i don't think you heard me, get me a beer, run... now"

otherdude: "wtf, are you serious?"

*sound of the gat starting up its spin ready to unleash .20mm airsoft bbs of fury (or have it spray air like NOS purging in a ricer)*

you: "i'm not playing anymore... i'd run if i were you."

otherdude: "holy sh*t.. hold on, i'm going"

*otherdude starts stumbling over people in the room as he runs for the mini fridge stocked full of cold yuengling lagers*

*otherdude grabs the beer from the mini-fridge*

you: "now hold it up, let's see how calibrated this thing is"

*otherdude reluctantly up the beer*

you: "hold still otherdude"

*the gat spins furiously as it unleashes hundreds of airsoft bbs across the room at otherdude, all of which hit him and no where near the beer bottle*

you: "hmm, looks like it's a few degress of; i'll take my beer now"

otherdude: *crying in a puddle of his own piss*
 
defsquad said:
i have a strange vision of you as bruce willis in the movie the jackal where he is testing the control systems for that bad ass 50 cal that jack black put together for him.

*turn to the dude next to you at the lan party*

you: "get me a beer.. now."

otherdude: "um, what? i'm fragging peeps like its my job."

*you press a keycombination, and the gat comes to life, you reach for your mouse and have it turn towards other dude*

you: "i don't think you heard me, get me a beer, run... now"

otherdude: "wtf, are you serious?"

*sound of the gat starting up its spin ready to unleash .20mm airsoft bbs of fury (or have it spray air like NOS purging in a ricer)*

you: "i'm not playing anymore... i'd run if i were you."

otherdude: "holy sh*t.. hold on, i'm going"

*otherdude starts stumbling over people in the room as he runs for the mini fridge stocked full of cold yuengling lagers*

*otherdude grabs the beer from the mini-fridge*

you: "now hold it up, let's see how calibrated this thing is"

*otherdude reluctantly up the beer*

you: "hold still otherdude"

*the gat spins furiously as it unleashes hundreds of airsoft bbs across the room at otherdude, all of which hit him and no where near the beer bottle*

you: "hmm, looks like it's a few degress of; i'll take my beer now"

otherdude: *crying in a puddle of his own piss*
Click to expand...
please stop, my brain hurts :(
 
*sigh* no one's seen the movie "The Jackal" with Bruce Willis? you poor souls. that's such a great movie.
 
I got your reference and thought it was funny.

Case mod looks to be awesome. Keep it up.
 
Great movie reference, I was pretty funny, but I am more interested in the project... :D
 
you could fire something like grapes or just little foam balls (wouldnt go far but would be fun)
 
k427 said:
you could fire something like grapes or just little foam balls (wouldnt go far but would be fun)
Click to expand...

ping pong launcher would be cool; you could mod a a single shot nerf one to push/pull the fire mechanism. or you could also rock a lego block shooter. seen tons of schematics/howtos on youtube for those.
 
Hey Folks,

It is time for another project update. Sorry for the delay, I have been busy modding away :) In the previous update, the gattlings were coming together very nicely. On this update, you will see the finish results.

To connect the turrets to the holders, I had to build standoffs to cradle the barrel in the acyrlic. I had some ¼ MDF sitting around, and transferred my template to the board.

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I used a regular saw to cut the holders and you can see the barrel body sits very nicely on the stand offs.

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My buddy Boddaker brought up a very good point on the gattling barrel. The wall of the PVC is pretty thin, and what type of ammo rounds are ¾ OD?

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To make the barrel look more realistic and accurate, I went down to the hardware store and picked up a dozen PVC Bushing stops.

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With each PVC Bushing, I had to drill a hole w/ the help of the drill press, sand down the flanged edges. Once that was done, each bushing was jammed into the PVC and held in place with Epoxy. Once the epoxy was dried, each barrel was sanded down to a smooth finish. Now the barrel appears more accurate with a ½” ID opening.

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Now that the barrel components are finished, time for painting. Here are some pics of the painting process. For the barrel, I used gloss black. The main body was painted Costal Blue. I used Bronze Hammered Paint for the accent pieces to give it a metalic appearance.

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With all the parts painted, time for assembly. Here you see the barrels and holder assembled together. I used a combination of double sided tape to center the barrel and epoxy to keep them in place

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To add detail to the gattling, I was able to purchase 48” worth of dummy / inert m60 ammo belts. Each round is approximately ½ in diameter and almost 3” long, which fits the scale of the turret perfectly. I had to drill a hole in the clip in order to secure it to inside of the gattling barrel

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Now here is a pic of the completed gattling assembly minus the end cap.

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I hope you enjoyed this work log so far. This is turning out to be a very fun case modding project. On the next update, I will cover the rocket launcher!! Any comments or questions are always welcomed.

Ton
 
looks fun!.. whats up with the nvidia logo in the background? you looking for a sponsor or just some freebies :p ?
 
Thanks for compliment guys. There should be another update posted either monday or tuesday. So stay tuned for that :)

Red - lol.. I just think its pimp to have such a huge NV logo in the background. You can actually see some of my cases over at NVIDIA's SLI Zone.

Super Hornet - Nov06 RoTM - http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_rotm_november06.html
Tribal Eclipse - April06 RoTM - http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_rotm_april06.html

I am also working on a 4 part case modding tutorial for them. So far 2 have been posted. http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_cmg_part1.html You can see my mug shot over there :p

Ton
 
Hey Folks,

Here is the update I promised. On the last post, you saw the completed gattlings. They came out pretty nice. Now I needed to focus my attention on the stand for the sentry. The two biggest challenges that I face are (1) Weight of the computer, and (2) Distributing the load. The design of the in game sentry turret seem to have the weight evenly distributed over six legs. It would be too difficult to translate this to the case mod, so I redesigned the legs a bit and did my own interpretation. The weight of the sentry turret will be distributed on 3 legs like a tripod. So lets check it out.

With the case standing approximate 40” tall and 24” wide, I had to make sure to the stand was sturdy enough. The main support legs were cut from a piece of 2’x4’x1” wood.

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For the 3rd leg, I am using a 2” ABS pipe. The pipe will be supported by a 3 part collar made from the same 1” wood.

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For the collar, I clamped the blocks to my drill press and brought out the hole saw.

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Once the collars were drilled, I attached them to the two wood legs, and then slipped the PVC pipe. Here is a close up of the how the 3 legs are attached.

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Since I am not sure how much the case will weigh, or the weight distribution, I wanted to incorporate a way to shift the weight on the stand. By being able to shift the weight slightly, I can prevent the case from toppling over. To achieve this, I attached an adjustable PVC Colar to the foot of the pipe. It has two thread portion, which will allow me to either lengthen or shorten the leg. Effectively shifting the weight forward or back.

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The ammo canister, gattlings, and rocket launcher, will all be attached to a single piece of wood on top of the stand. To securely attached the wood platform to the stand, I used an ABS drain flange. Yup, this is the same type of flange you would find in your shower.

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After the steel grate was removed, I drilled 6 additional holes to help attached the wood plank to the flange.

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I then cut the arms that will be holding the rocket launcher as well as the ammo canister. Here is a pic of the arms that will be attached to the platform and hold uping the ammo canister.

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Here is a picture of the stand about 85% completed. I placed a shuttle shell on top to show where the rocket launcher will be placed, and to give the case mod a bit of scale.

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There is still more work to be done on the stand to keep it from tipping over from left to right, but that part will come later when I see how much the computer will weigh.

I hope everyone enjoyed this update. I should have another update in a few days. As always, and comments or questions are always appreciated.

Ton
 
you should AT LEAST make this thing rotate with a motor. how pimp would that be if it just moved around and beeped? hella pimp. stationary = fail.
 
Hey Guys,

I just finished up my video for the TF2 turret. Please check it out if you get a chance.

I will back fill the rest fo the case mod worklog, so you guys will see how it was put together.

Enjoy!!





Ton
 
That is awsome. Are you going to be posting a detailed work log?
 
Yup.. detail worklog will follow. I got halfway.. thenhad to finish off the case mod for the Intel contest. The remainder of the worklog will follow shortly.

Ton
 
Very nice. We're going to need a Valve case Hall of Fame for your turret, the companion cube and the Aperture Science PC.
 
Excellent! Looks amazing! Great job stealthing the PSU :p


I would imagine it's hard to carry to lans though.
 
skudmunky said:
Excellent! Looks amazing! Great job stealthing the PSU :p


I would imagine it's hard to carry to lans though.
Click to expand...

Hey Thansk for the compliemnt.

Actually i designed this case mod to be portable for LAN. Of course in one piece it is massive, but it can all be taken apart very easily. I use wing nuts to hold teh pieces tether. So it can easily fit in any car when it needs to be transported.

I really need to take some pics of it in pieces and then reassembeled.

Ton
 
I didn't see the pins taken out of the ammo, so I guess its live?

Edit: Nvm it's dummy ammo.
 
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