I'm building this project with the help of my oldest son (the guy with the artistic talent that I lack) as a gift for our best friend Greg and his upcoming 50th birthday. Greg just resigned his commission from the Marine Corps after 17 years and this case project, which I'm calling "Semper Fidelis" (the U.S. Marine Corps motto for always faithful), is a dedication to his valor in serving our country. Greg was over in Kuwait during Desert Storm.

I started this in February, and I have until the middle of April to finish it. I'm really only building up the case, and not an entire computer. I may transfer the guts of one of Greg's older machines into this case, but for now it will be delivered with a cheap PSU just to power the lights, bay devices and fans.

Major components include:

Cooler Master Mystique case, black with window and custom mods
Mnpctech Billet case feet
Cooler Master Aerogate III fan controller (painted black)
El Wire, Cold cathodes, LEDs - you get the picture!


Ok, let's start off with some pictures from February:

WOOT I am all over this project. "watching topic"

Hey, this case is about to be modded, but good things take time. It took me a few weeks to decide what I wanted to do. I ended up with the idea of having my son paint the U.S. Marine Corps insignia onto a circular plate, and then mounting that plate to the back of the motherboard tray. I figured I could cut a hole in the side panel that covers that side and then slip some lighting effects in there to make the painted disc stand out. By the way, the U.S. Marine Corps Insignia has 3 elements; an eagle for a proud country, a globe for worldwide service, and a fouled anchor for maritime tradition.

The painting hasn't really started yet, but I have the side panel cut and the disc ready. I also installed the billet feet tonight and I'm trying out some El Wire lighting on the feet to see if I like it.

This will be the last pictures for a few days. I might need to light a fire under my son to get him in gear...

Looking good so far.

/me kills the poll...



Source - Wikipedia

I came up with the poll idea thinking it would get young modders to do some Google searching to find the answer. In the old days, we would have cracked open a book to find it.

I've done a "back of the motherboard tray" mod before, when my oldest son helped me paint an Unreal character on my Unreal case, as shown here:



The thing I learned with that job is that since the character was painted directly on the motherboard tray, it wasn't going to be pulled out of the case (to be used elsewhere). Also, the painter (my son) had to deal with a bumpy surface due to the holes drilled for the motherboard standoffs. With the Semper Fidelis case mod, the painted disc can be removed since I plan to use hot glue for mounting the disc to the backside of the motherboard tray.

the sad thing is i knew the answer. being i served in the corp and all ... and i am getting a really good laugh that everyone else is picking option a lol

The EL wire around the machined feet look pretty sweet!

Man I can't wait to get my case!

Al I gots a question for ya.
your doing the marine corp medillion there on the back of the mobo tray correct.

What about doing a tri-layerd arcylic making the middle layer etched with that medillion. and have that peice a Clear , behind that Black or even a red. ( matching usmc colors here ) and then you have that pressed to the window it self. that way it gives it a 3d illiusion. to a point.

Oops! Sorry.

Ric - that's an interesting idea. Maybe I'll try that on the next case, but this logo is being painted on the silver metal plate - no etching involved. My main concern is getting the lighting correct so you can see it, and I need to have the painting completed so I know what colors will highlight the ridges in the painted surface. I now have in stock two Laser LED units in white, and a few other colors as well. So far I've only installed a tri-color Laser LED assembly to see what it could do. There isn't much point going forward on the side panel until I have that painted logo on hand.

Another issue might be having enough room for the videocard. I expect Greg to install a newer 8800 series card, and they are pretty long. I might have to cut part of the hard drive rack away to make room for the longer cards.

News flash from yesterday:

Greg will be staying in the Marine Corps after all. They worked some kind of deal with him so he didn't need to resign his commission. I am happy about that, because now he may reach that magical 20-year mark for retirement benefits.

OOH-RAH Semper fi. exactly what we need in the corp good officers.!

Sweeet work shop Great new Mod

My son has been working on the U.S. Marine Corps insignia, and now the lettering is the major next step in that process. I took a few pictures of his in-process work, and did a test fitting with just the tri-color LED lighting for now. I definitely need to add more light to bring out the details of the insignia.






Something funny happened last week. I heard this loud noise one morning when feeding the cats. I walked around looking for the source of the noise and found nothing. Even the cats were confused, but they decided to chow down on the tasty morsels. Just before I left for work (yes, I have a day job) I checked the basement and found about 100 boxes had fallen onto my work area , right on top of this mod. Nothing was damaged, but it took several nights to deal with the mess. I decided it was time to finally throw out computer component boxes I had been collecting since 2000. I'm now only keeping videocard and motherboard boxes as a general rule, plus any newly purchased item box for just long enough to cover the warranty period. Now I have a lot more room to maneuver near my work bench, and a dedicated table on which to place the current project.