Artificer & Neophyte

[ADAM LCS TT]

[Tom Freeman]

Hi everyone, excited to announce we're competing in 2024 Thermaltake CaseMOD Academy as team Artificer & Neophyte.

My name's Tom, a software engineer from Birmingham with a long history of building PCs and having competed in Thermaltake's modding competitions before and my apprentice is James who's never built a PC, but is a dab-hand with an airbrush and an avid fan of all things Warhammer!

First off, let's go through the list of parts:

CPU: Intel 14700k
RAM: Thermaltake 2x16GB Toughram XG RGB D5
MB: ASUS ROG Strix Z-790F Gaming WiFi II
GPU: Zotac RTX 4070
SSD: Samsung 2TB 990 Pro
PSU: Thermaltake 1200W Toughpower GF A3
Water cooling: Thermaltake Pacific Tough C360 DDC Hard Tube Liquid Cooling Kit

We will also be doing a reveal of Jay's choice of Thermaltake case, so stay tuned for that.

Additionally we have some vouchers to spend at Praetex Design, so will fire up a copy of Fusion and get some designs made up from Jay's sketches.

Thank you so much to all our sponsors, Thermaltake, Intel, Asus, NVidia, Zotac, Samsung and Scan Computers.

Looking forward to sharing our updates as the build progresses and Jay has some great ideas of what he wants to incorporate into it.

Best of luck to all the other teams as well!

Tom & Jay

[Jfez]

Hello everyone, I’m Jay the apprentice (or Neophyte) of Artificer and Neophyte and with Tom’s able guidance and assistance I shall be designing and building our custom gaming rig.

Firstly I’d just like to thank all the sponsors, Thermaltake, Intel, Asus, NVidia, Zotac, Samsung and Scan Computers.

As Tom mentioned in the previous post I’m a big fan of all forms of gaming and have a particular passion for Warhammer. I've played/collected both Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar for almost 20 years. With the upcoming release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and my passion for Warhammer I thought it would be apt to theme the build around the aesthetic of the Imperium of man and Space Marines.

Below is a somewhat brief overview of my research and idea’s so far.

The first decision was pretty easy, which Space Marine chapter would represent my PC? The Ultramarines are the poster boys of the Space Marines. Adorning the Space Marine codex cover and starring in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.  So it was an easy choice to go with the boys in blue. 

 

Space Marines also have very distinct heraldry and markings. Firstly the standard across all chapters the imperial eagle, Aquila, hazard striping, skulls (so many skulls) and purity seals but also the more distinct markings of the Ultramarines. The chapter badge and various tactical markings. I think these could be used to great visual effect on the case of the PC.  The XIII legion of Ultramarines being a particular favourite of mine.

 

 

Space Marine vehicles particularly caught my attention when thinking of my build.  Space Marine vehicles are boxy, heavily armoured, impractical and I love them. Rivets, armour panels, vents, viewing ports and cables. All of these feel like great ideas that can be incorporated into my design.

 

I hope the above gives you a brief insight into my plans for this custom build, Hopefully I can do my vision justice and I’m sure with Tom’s help we can create something impressive.

Thanks for reading.

Jay.

They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and steely muscle. In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them. They will have tactics, strategies and machines so that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear.
~The Emperor of Mankind, on the Creation of the Space Marines
 

[ADAM LCS TT]

Love the updated content guys, this build should be sweeeeet 

[Tom Freeman]

This week we shared the roadmap for our build for the 2024 Thermaltake CaseMOD Academy.

 

Steps 1-4 will give us our basic build, with Step One - Case Mod well underway, with Jay disassembling the case and preparing the surface ready to paint with various grades of sandpaper.

 

Once that's completed we can wait for a decent day (not too humid) to start painting it, have a bunch of different paints to experiment with and see what works out with a matte clearcoat over the top and check durability, alongside some of the RC paint I've used before.

 

Steps 5-8 will be stretch goals if Jay feels confident progressing and has time to complete them. More information will be shared on later steps if and when we reach them.

Thanks again to the sponsors Thermaltake UK Thermaltake Technology Inc Intel ASUS ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce United Kingdom Samsung and Scan Computers UK

[Jfez]

Hi everyone. 

Jay here with a weekend update from things from my end. This week me and Tom got together and Tom oversaw and advised me on our test build. Tom will do a post updating you with this as he took all the pictures of my work.

Firstly here is a link to our instagram account.

You’ll find more frequent sneak peeks of the project on the above.

So once the test build was completed and out the way, I stripped down the case and started on the hard work of preparation for painting. I spent a nice afternoon while the kids played in the paddling pool keying the surface of the Thermaltake CTE E600 MX. This is a fairly straightforward process but quite daunting since it's such a nice case and I’d rather not ruin it. 😄

 

I will give the case another final pass with a finer grain of sandpaper but there are other things that must be done first to the case which I will keep quiet about for now.

The other part of this week alongside my research into materials and planning was spending my evenings learning CAD on Fusion 360.  

I have experience using software packages mainly the Adobe suite, using Premiere and Photoshop but have never tried my hand at Fusion 360.  Tom pointed me in the direction of an excellent series of tutorial videos on Youtube and I have been working my way through them. 

I really enjoy using the software as daunting as it looks at first, it is very intuitive and I’m really enjoying the process. This process should enable me to design some of the key aspects of my case design. Below are a handful of the things I’ve created while following the tutorials so far.

Hopefully the weather stays strong and I can get outside to continue with the work to provide another update next week.

Thanks always for taking the time to read this. 

Jay
 

 

[ADAM LCS TT]

Fantastic and detailed build logs guys. its great to follow along 

[Jfez]

Hello again.

This week's update features a fair bit more preparatory work on the Thermaltake CTE E600 MX.

One of the modifications to the case I wanted to make involved doing a bit of cutting. Luckily Tom owns a Dremel and was willing to trust me to use it. 

     

 

This was my first time using a Dremel or cutting metal so it was quite daunting at first but following Tom's advice (keep the speed slow, take your time and wear the safety gear!) I managed to get the vents cut out fairly easily.. 

This was a big but necessary step towards the next part of the project. I sanded down the newly cut edges and gave the case another run over with a finer grade of sandpaper ready for the next steps.

The cutting out of some of the vents gave me left over parts for another job. 

Using my cut out spare parts I did a test spray of some of the paints we are going to use on the project. Just to make sure the paint looks as I expect and also that there are no issues with the paint when I start spraying the actual case.

Luckily everything went to plan so I can look forward to the next steps. Getting the case prepped is key for me in these early weeks as British Summer is coming to an end soon and the daylight hours will be shorter and the weather less predictable (Is British weather ever predictable?)

 

I’ve also been carrying on with the fusion 360 tutorials in my spare time and started creating the case in fusion ready for some preparatory steps for future parts.

Thanks as always for taking the time to read this and I will see you next week for another update.

Jay

[Jfez]

This week saw small but important progress.

First the spraying of the base colour on the outer case. For this, Tom and I got together one day and took the case out into the garden to do some touch ups on the metallic paints from last week and laid down the blue on the outer case. This came out really nicely and sets us up for future painting.
 

    

Another job this week was a small but time consuming job. The Zotac Geforce RTX 4070 has lovely logos on the fans but the colours didn’t match the aesthetic I was thinking. Thus began the process of masking up the GPU, spraying and painting to get the look we wanted to achieve. I think this came out quite nicely as well. Although I’m still getting used to the idea of painting working components.  😄

  2    

Finally another job that seemed simple was drilling some holes in the back of the case for a secret project… let's call them speed holes for now. 

Being a bit of a noob to not only modding computers but just drilling metal in general this took a surprising amount of time to do. Luckily I had been provided with the right guidance on drill bits from Tom to help me along in this job. 

 

 

 

The rest of the week was spent doing more practice in Fusion 360 and drilling, sanding and applying screws on a part of the build which we think is particularly cool but we plan on keeping secret for a while longer.

With a list of jobs to do next week and a trip to the hardware store for supplies required we'll keep working towards our final vision.

Thanks as always for taking time to read.

 

Jay

[ADAM LCS TT]

Love this.... this a great build log update

[Jfez]

Hi there,

Another week flies by. Trying to keep doing bits here and there in between work and family life. This update is going to cover a few jobs I completed this week.

First job was to attach a mount onto the back of the case. The mount needed to be sanded and hit with a blast of etching primer before being primed to match the case.  This will be part of a side project we are currently working on behind the scenes, I expect we’ll have an update in the next week or two.
 

     

I also took advantage of working in a school with a full DT suite to use the band saw and cut my mesh to size.  Using the band saw was another new tool that I’ve never used before this project but it was quite straightforward and I had a DT teacher on hand to supervise me.
 

     

Luckily my measurements were all correct and as you can see below, the new vents seem to fit nicely.

    

The back vent required a bit more work that I’m more experienced in. So it was time to crack out my trusty airbrush and compressor to do some painting work.

   

Peeling off that masking was so satisfying. I’m really pleased with how it looks.

   

Finally while I had the airbrush out I applied some test gradients to the previous test vents I cut out. This will be the paint recipe I will use to try and create a nice gradient on the flat panels and provide some visual interest.
 

Next week will involve me ordering some more bits and bobs for the project and getting my paint on.  Airbrushing some gradients and adding the weathering and detailing to the case paint job. 

Thanks as always for reading.

Jay

 

[Jfez]

Hi followers,

This week feels like it's been a busy one but a fiddly one too. I started out with the plan of getting some painting work done and getting the vents completed. I think I made good progress with this but there's always so much more to do.

I started the week with some weathering on the metallic parts of the case. This was a mixture of hobby weathering products and different tones of metal sponged on to give texture to the flatter parts of the case.

    

The other part of the painting was getting some subtle gradients on the large blue areas, I had plans to break this up so it did not look so stark in the final build but still wanted that extra touch of detail. This meant cracking out the airbrush and getting my inks involved to change the tone of my base paint ever so slightly.

There wasn’t just painting this week, I swung on down to the DT suite at work for what turned out to be one of the more fiddly jobs of the project so far. I popped to B&Q (Other English hardware stores are available) to get some PVC trim for my vent. This required cutting to measurement and at a 45 degree angles to get nice corners. Simple enough or so I thought.

        

After using 3 of my lunch breaks to cut, sand, fit, cut, sand, try fitting again, cut, sand and repeat. I finally got my PVC to fit neatly around the edges of the venting. As long as this took I really enjoyed the process and using the tools to create something but making perfect 45 degree angles meet takes some time and persistence.

I also managed to borrow a Cricut machine this week from my Sister in law. I used this to create and cut some stencils to help add the details to the case that makes it look like the Ultramarine PC of my imagination.

    

My trusty airbrush and some sponge work afterwards to really give that worn used vibe to seamlessly blend them in.  I think we get a pretty nifty look to the side panel of the case. 

The mystery part of the project this week involved cables, cable ties and black primer. All will be revealed next week.

I foresee more painting to come in the week ahead, with the mesh trim requiring some paint work and potentially doing some 3D print work.

Thanks as always for reading.
 

 

[ADAM LCS TT]

this build is coming along quickly, well done team 

[Jfez]

Hi all,

This has been a busy week for me in all areas of my life. Did not get through my entire list of jobs on the build for this week but steady progress is being made, so where to begin?

First thing I did this week was get my new vents finished and attached. This involved painting up the trim  I cut last week and doing a bit of modification work. Firstly I used some plastic diamantes to stick around the trim to look like rivet bolts. Then I sprayed it up in the classic gold of the ultramarines before going in and adding rust and battle damage. I then mounted some neodymium magnets to the back of the trim in order to attach it to the side panel of the case and rear. This is also a practical decision to make it easier to clean the PC in the future. (also added some scuffs to my ultramarine logo work)

  

I also had a visit from Tom this week.  While we are constantly connected via our phones it's nice to get time in our busy lives to get together and talk things through in person. He delivered some parts he'd acquired for the build which I needed to work on this week and we sat down and did some planning.  I assembled the keypad under his supervision and he showed me how to create one of extra cosmetic the visual elements for our build.

  

The parts Tom had delivered needed some cutting work which once again I headed to the Design and Technology classrooms during my lunch breaks at the school I work at. Firstly I started by drilling holes in the corner and using a handsaw for a rough cut. Then due to the fact it was a nice soft metal I filed it down to a nice smooth finish. As with all things involving tools and me it took longer than expected and I still have one more to complete which will have to roll over into next week's job list.

  

There’s still a fair bit to do with the boxes but they will form part of the front unit of our build.

Then there was painting this week. Firstly I did some work painting the components of the PC. I masked up the Thermaltake watercooler radiators like a parcel and got my trusty airbrush out. I went with a layer of white and then hit it with my yellow (years of miniature painting has taught me how notoriously difficult yellow paint is) After the masking tape did it's job I went in with a sponge and some rust paints and got that dinged up look our build requires.
    

The other bit of painting was disassembling the keypad constructed on Monday and customizing it to fit the build.  After making a sort of keyboard key 70s cheese hedgehog. I hit it with some paint and then used some Ultramarine transfers from a vehicle kit to customize it.  what will it do though? Only time will tell…

    

Plenty of more work is required and time is cracking on but hopefully the build will come together as expected and on time.

Thanks for reading as always.

JP

[Jfez]

Greetings.

This has been a week mired by the warp. There was so much promise and a lot of rain which dampened my progress. So a slightly smaller update on what we can show but some pretty stuff at least.

Firstly I spent time at work finishing off the boxes I have been working on. After trying to drill with my hand held drill at home I decided it was just smarter to wait until I’m back at work and use the drill there. 

I needed to drill some holes so I could mount our screen in the 7” hole I cut last week, unfortunately the mounts were not equally distanced around the screen, nor was the screen centred to the unit. So I had to think of a way of drilling the holes in the right place and not ruining all my previous work.

My solution….well my Dad’s suggestion. Make a cardboard template of the surround and use that to mark screw points for the screen mount. This worked a treat and off to work it went for drilling.

  

The other unit I cut out and drilled the holes for our keyboard and switches on this week.

A fine fit. Now I just needed to paint them. Unfortunately the weather seemed to rain all the hours I was out of work.

Lovely dry day as soon as I get home the rain poured, this happened all week until Friday/Saturday when I finally got a chance to get etching primer down and then some wrought iron spray.

     

Snazzy right? (Those eagle eyed among us will notice 3 keys missing icons....mistakes were made and I will be fixing them this week)

The other job I managed to get done during this dry period was cutting the vents where these units will sit. It was another tricky measure and then Dremel time again.

 

There was some other bits which progress was made this week but they are less on the very important side and more would be nice to have. Fingers crossed now we can start the assembly and show some more progress.

Peace out 

JP

[Jfez]

Good day. 

With only 3 weeks to go we finally start seeing the project come together, some final problems that I need to solve to finish the build and some of the extra fun bits of the build.

Firstly this week's work began on the purity seals, Tom had kindly dropped me some clay which sets when baked in the oven and some 3D printed stamps fresh out of the printer.
 

   

With Tom’s trusty instructions I made 4 lovely purity seals. What's a Purity seal? Well no space marine leaves their cruiser without one. These are attached to vehicles and Space Marine armour, so our PC needed some too. 

Once baked and painted, I got the glue gun out and attached our scripture. After washing them in a dirty puddle in my garden and letting them dry I took a candle to them and carefully gave them that battle damaged look.

 

Next was a part that I’ve been putting off for a long time, I was nervous. It was irreversible and could go very wrong. I think even Tom was unsure as he’d never tried it before but I had dreams.

I bought some etching cream early in the project and using my trusty Cricut I had made some vinyl stencils. The etching cream is acid which leaves a permanent etching on glass surfaces, so if it went wrong, things could really go wrong.

   

Firstly I worked out the center of the glass with some masking tape and then my first stencil went on, the etching cream stayed on for 2 min and then got washed off in cold water. Then I added my extra stencils and repeated the process, at first I thought it hadn't worked and cursed my sunken time, but then….

Magic. 

Another problem or more of a something that would be nice to have was a GPU shroud. I like the design of the Zotac Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070 but it's a bit sleek for the aesthetic of the imperium. So I looked into painting it up but disassembling it felt like a big risk for a novice so I tested a few other options. 

One was a roll of metal effect sticky back plastic but it did not look right when attached so I canned that after painting it. The next was an aluminium sheet I picked up earlier in the build. Knowing the fans would need to be exposed for ventilation I got on the drill at work and got bored some rough guide holes.

 

From here I cut out rough holes to show battle damage in the side of our build and also allow air flow. Then it was painting and weathering time.

 

How this is going to be attached is something I’m currently unsure of but I’ve floated a few ideas Tom’s way and I’m sure he’ll have a solution.

Finally me and Tom met up this week and started part of the build. We fitted the water cooling radiators and fans to the case and also attached the boxes I created this week, the hole I cut was the right size and matched up with where I’d planned to fit the boxes. It took a lot of measuring and re measuring.
 

It’s starting to look tasty! With a water cooling loop day planned next week with Tom hopefully the PC will begin to take shape and we will be one step closer to completion.

Oh and meet the third member of our team!

This has been a background project and ferried between me and Tom on our various meetups. More will be revealed.

Thanks for reading as always.

JP

[ADAM LCS TT]

WOW, very impressed indeed guys