Within an hour of bringing the case home, I've dismantled it into pieces to determine what needs to be sprayed.
I also took apart the fan controller PCB so that I could examine the circuit itself. Turned out the transistor used was really bad and so instead of modifying it for controlling LEDs, I decided to design my own LED controller using a similar potentiometer that could fit into the rotary dial.
[30th Jan 2014]
Within the week, the fan holes for the top and front of the case have also been cut out with my trusty dremel.
[08th Feb 2014]
Was advised by the guy from the paint shop to sand my case with a 800grit sandpaper. Didn't do a really good job and ended up sanding some areas more than others.
And my acrylic supplies came in. White acrylic for PSU cover, tinted red acrylic for front and top panels, clear acrylic for side window. Have cut the acrylic for the top panel and front panel, but the front panel still lacks a window for my nzxt lx. Will also cut another piece of red tinted acrylic to stealth my dvd drive.
Took the opportunity to spray the small black parts of my case to a deep red to match the red tinted acrylic. Here are the case feet, PCI slot covers and 5.25" bay quick release catches.
[16th Feb 2014]
Finally, the case is sprayed white. I had bought pearl white spray earlier but it turned out to be silver rather than white, so after many coats of that, I sprayed a final coat of matt white and it looks like how I wanted it to be. I didn't spray the bottom and did a half-assed job on the other side as they will be completely concealed and I didn't felt that it was necessary to spend money on another can of spray just for parts which are not seen at all.
After attaching the 5.25" bay quick release catches, PCI slot covers, case feet and front bezel.
[17th Feb 2014]
Ordered a fresh batch of acrylic today for the HDD rack and the case feet, plus I bought a sheet of red tinted acrylic to replace the white one that I initially bought for the PSU cover. Also bought some 180grit sandpaper to frost some of the acrylic blocks that will be illuminated by red leds for the HDD rack.
[21st Feb 2014]
Glued together the supports for the HDD rack and installed a couple of microswitches so that each L-block will light up when there is a harddisk inserted into that level.
[2nd Mar 2014]
Cut out a couple of holes for the front panel in order to view the LCD screen of the NZXT Sentry and for the 2x 140mm intake fans.. Also made a PSU cover that fitted the theme. Planning to cut out part of the top grill to fit in the cut tinted red acrylic sheet. The side panel window has been enlarged but I have yet to install the clear acrylic. Still trying to make the rubber sleeving look presentable.
[9th Mar 2014]
Glued the led strips to the back of each acrylic L-bar and glued the L-bars to the rack for the HDD cage. Added in the top white acrylic sheet to make it look more presentable. It needs a bit more of glue as the top L-bar is sagging a little since the L-bars are only supported at edge of the shorter ends. Waiting to get more hot glue sticks so that I can glue the excess wires to the back of the cage and sleeve up the wire that leads to my LED controller. Trying to get my LED controller done by this coming week so that it can be installed into the case. In addition, I had to replace the original white rotary dial that was meant for the fan controller with a new dial as my hot glue gun fell on it last week and melted a hole on it. The new dial looks sleeker and slimmer. Will include pics once it's installed. Am still thinking on how to best install the top tinted red acrylic sheet so that it doesn't jut out or sag down. Any suggestions?
[23rd Mar 2014]
Decided to dump the cut side panel and redo a new one completely out of 5mm thick acrylic. Managed to use my dremel to cut the sides and route the two holes for the latches. Since my paracord has arrived, I've sleeved both the HDD cage and the three 120mm fans on top. Also finished making my own light controller circuit and will be installing it into the case with the new knob. Last week, managed to find some time to cut some 20mm long rods out of 8mm diameter acrylic so that I could glue the fan cover on top of the front panel. Will be installing the rest of the LED strips this coming week, sleeving them and testing them in the setup with the light controller.
[31st Mar 2014]
Finally finished making modified casefeet with the LED strips and acrylic blocks. The light controller circuit and potentiometer is also hot-glued to the original circuit board for mounting and the knob installed to fit perfectly into the hole for the original knob. The case feet will eventually be connected to a LED pulsing circuit to let it slowly pulse for effect instead. The HDD case has also been modified to let the lights diffuse much better. Took an entire day to sleeve all the cables from the main control board that came with the case with white paracord. Only the USB 3.0 passthrough cable couldn't be sleeved as I could not remove the connector without having to sever the cable itself. Will have to find a way to route the cable out of the back of the case to connect to the IO panel without it being seen inside the case since it's black. Planning to have the inside of the case completely lit by white led while the case feet, front panel and top panel is to be lit by red led.
