LUMINA by Design_Master

Fans

For the rear exhaust, I used two Cooler Master 80mm fans. I started off by cutting down the corners of one face on each fan, leaving only one full plate to attach screws through.



Next, I wanted that remaining face to disappear as much as possible, so as not to detract from the rest of the mod. To do this, I masked off the cut face and applied black spray paint to the the full one. When the mask paper was removed, it became a frosted white fan with a black edge, which should blend in against the acrylic.



To mask the wires and the edges of the fans, I brought out my heat moulder again. I used a strip of smoke acrylic that was the width of the fans and bent it into a shape that would fit around them, including the trimmed edges. I then put some brushed-steel sticker over it so that it was not transparent.

Wiring

Rather than waste money on sleeving and have to make every wire look the same in LUMINA, I took a different approach. Since acrylic meant people could see easily into the case, wiring had to be carefully designed and as attractive as possible. So, I created my own sleeving kit by buying a bunch of nylon mesh and painting it the three colours I wanted in the mod -- blue, black and silver. I could then wrap this mesh around the wires and cover it with flexible tubing.

A couple final things...

All of this being completed left me with only a couple things to finish on the case proper -- lighting, and a last acrylic touch-up. To help continue the harmonic curves I had started on the front, I wanted the DVD drive to get a little extra treatment with some smoke acrylic, so that handled that last little detail.

Lighting, on the other hand, would be a bit more complex. The case features LED fans, two cold cathodes and a strategic array of 10 blue LEDs, for spotlighting main internal elements. Curious? Well, there's a couple more things to do that aren't quite part of the case itself, first...