Egyptian Case Mod - Part 4 (Overview)

A scarab mouse and system overview

Building a better mouse? The Egyptian theme might be considered a bit ponderous
and dry with all of the historical references, no matter how fancy its jewels
or ornamentation. I'm not saying that adding a themed accessory will lighten
the mood, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.


Starting with a basic wireless mouse...


Bright blue hot glue is built up on the battery door and buttons. Since the
surface of the mouse button is rigidly attached at the back, and uses the flexibility
of the plastic instead of a hinge, I need a shield of clear plastic (cut from
the package bubble pack), to allow the buttons to click when I'm done.


Layers of hot glue are built up to create the shape, and then smoothed down while
the glue is still fluid. The edge of the glue gun is used to create the stepped
ridges on the wings (AKA battery compartment).


The blue hot glue used on the scarab-style mouse closely matches the color of
lapis.


A left-over limestone tile has non-skid rubber glued to the back, and the inlayed
carnelian, malachite, lapis, and brass rods are added to match the door detail.



The completed case mod with guardian

Product summary:

Rock Solid: Back at the beginning of this article I gave the case weight
as 34 pounds. With the spiffy new limestone slab skin, the system now weighs
over 96 pounds! I have removed the side panels at times to move it from room
to room when a furniture dolly is not available. (Lugging the thing up and down
stairs is the worst...)


The system board is a low-power notebook style design in a standard desktop
format.

Memory is SODIMM and the CPU is a low-power Mobile Intel Core Duo.

Motherboard used: AOpen i945GTm-VHL Core Solo/Duo 479 ATX Motherboard. This
board is one of AOpen's MODT series (Mobile On a Desk-Top),
and uses a low-power Mobile Intel Core Solo or Core Duo socket 479 CPU. It also
supports up to two 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM memory modules, so is limited to 2 GB maximum RAM, and shares some of that with the onboard video. The board does include
some support of the new Intel VIIV platform, but only if you are installing
Windows XP Media Center Edition. This is not a high-performance gaming system,
but could easily work as a solid business or home entertainment solution. One
thing I do like about the board is the low-power operation and therefore the
minimal amount of heat produced. AOpen included a low-profile CPU heat sink,
although this board will take a standard socket 478 style cooler just as easily.
The result is a system that runs very cool and quiet, without having to resort
to huge heat sinks or water cooling.

What I didn't care for was that the floppy and parallel port headers on the
board are notebook-style small-pitch headers. This means the pin size is slightly
smaller and the spacing is closer together, so you cannot use standard off-the-shelf
cables; AOpen does not include a compatible cable or adapter for these devices.
I ended up making a floppy cable adapter from a 2.5" to 3" hard drive
adapter (works fine), and found an adapter for a Shuttle Computer that connects
to the parallel port header (which should work, but I have not tested yet.)
There are two standard 9-pin serial port headers on the board, so these may
be a little easier to come up with adapters for those of you who, like me, may
still use some legacy devices.



All five of the drive bays are filled with something. Wires to the hard drive
LED, Meteor LEDs and the power switch are visible with the lower door open.
The aluminum is painted brown in this image, I later covered this with some
stick-on vinyl floor tile that closely matches the limestome appearance.

The five drive bays hold:

1. DVD-RW optical drive


2. CD-RW optical drive


3. Fan speed control panel (for front, rear,
   CPU, and power supply)


4. Matrix MX2 LCD programmable info panel


5. 3.5" floppy drive with a (red LED
   reset button on the left, and two USB ports on the right of the adapter
   frame.

Matrix Orbital MX212 Blue LCD with Black Face. This is a programmable USB
panel similar to those used on some Media Center PCs. The software included
with the panel allows the user to program the display with personalized messages
displays of system settings, diagnostic monitoring, or current activity such
as Audio Track or TV Tuner details just for starters. I haven't played with
all of the features yet, but it also appears that temperature sensors are
available that can connect to several jumpers on the rear, and there are also
several fan speed control and monitoring connections as well.

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Egyptian Case Mod: front door view


Egyptian Case Mod: hunt scene side view


Egyptian Case Mod: chariot scene side view


Egyptian Case Mod: theme view

Egyptian Case Mod - Part 3

Aging the limestone panel carvings

The carved detail in the limestone shows up if you have the lighting just right,
otherwise it tends to get lost since the coloring is only slightly lighter in
shade from the surrounding stone.


The chariot panel with the brass, carnelian, and the vulture and cobra medallions
glued in place.



A portion of the hieroglyphics carved into the chariot panel. The symbols are
arranged top to bottom, left to right, and may be reversed to face the same
direction as any large carving is facing.

To antique the appearance and add contrast to the details, acrylic paint is
scrubbed over the surface and into the carving with a fine-bristle toothbrush.
A damp paper towel is then used to wipe the excess off of the surface, but enough
paint is left in the grooves and pores of the limestone to add color and contrast.
The paint step can be repeated with additional colors of paint to shade different
areas in color, or where too much of the previous paint was wiped off. On this
panel, I used dark brown for the hieroglyphs, black on the horses and dogs,
and a reddish-brown on the chariot and driver.


Acrylic paint is rubbed into the carvings and then wiped off with a damp cloth.


The finished chariot panel. Hieroglyphs are tinted brown, the chariot and
rider are tinted red-brown, and the horses and dogs tinted dark brown.

On the doors I wanted to get really fancy. I pulled several designs from
some Egyptian jewelry, one featuring the winged-goddess Nut, and the other
with baboons and a scarab beetle.




I cut a channel around the outside edges and glued alternating square cut
malachite, carnelian and lapis cabochons. Short lengths of brass rod were
placed between the cabs to add interest to the pattern, adjust the spacing
slightly, and to reduce the total number of stones I would have to cut.



A channel cut around the edge of the top and bottom door panel is filled with
alternating carnelian, malachite, and lapis, with spacers of brass rod. Square
cabochons and rods are glued into place with clear epoxy.

The inlayed medallions would be the focal point for each of the doors, but
the lower door also had to somehow integrate some LED lighting and a power
switch. By using an all-black plastic push button, and a small piece of jet,
I made the power button appear as a cartouche symbol below the scarab. To
conceal Power and hard drive lights, I chose carnelian and mother-of-pearl,
both of which are translucent and would allow light to pass through from the
rear. The bezel settings for these would be open on the back, and a hole drilled
through the limestone and brass door to mount bright white LEDs.

On the lower door, I recreated a medallion with two dog faced baboons facing
a scarab beetle. The three figures are placed on a boat of green malachite;
the baboons are positioned with mother-of-pearl (shell) disks symbolizing
the moon above their heads, and a carnelian sun disk over the scarab. For
additional contrast, I used nickel silver alloy for the moon and scarab and
brass for the rest of the channel work. The lapis lazuli for the scarab was
roughed out, but not set until after the rest of the medallion had been ground
and polished flat. Then the scarab sections were hand carved and polished
in place to give the beetle a raised 3-d appearance.



The baboon and scarab medallion are ready to glue into place. Mother-of-pearl insets
sit above the heads of the baboons. The carnelian and mother-of-pearl settings
have an open back to allow light to pass through the stone and shell material.
The carnelian sun symbol has its backlit LED connected to the hard drive,
and flickers with the drive access. The white shell moon symbols are attached
to a meteor-light LED controller that allows you to select from a variety
of different glow or blink patterns.



The completed lower door with baboon-scarab medallion is in place. Two carnelians
are inset in the sun symbols along the bottom. The black power button blends
into a cartouche design mounted above a small oval piece of jet. The LEDs
behind the mother of pearl moon symbols were set to a slow fade on and off
cycle for the picture.


Checking the scale and position of the channel pattern for the Nut inlay.


The completed upper door with the vulture-winged Nut figure and gold-leaf
sphinxes.

The upper door has a medallion recreation of the goddess nut with vulture
wings spread. Nut's wings are malachite and lapis; her body is carved lapis
lazuli with mother-of-pearl, turquoise and red coral trim by the feet; Nut's
hair is carved jet and the face, arms and feet are opal. To provide some additional
bling, the two carved hawk-headed sphinx figures have been given a covering
of gold leaf.



Close up of the winged Nut figure, showing the hand-carved opal, lapis and
jet in the figure. Her robe has a band of mother-of-pearl and an inlay of
turquoise, red coral and mother-of-pearl along the bottom.



To "top it off" I needed a suitable guardian. Enter, one stuffed
Anubis, guardian of the dead, in his jackal (dog) form. (from the Chicago
Field Museum)

Next time: A suitable mouse and system build summary.

Egyptian Case Mod - Part 2

Hieroglyphs from the Book of the Dead

With the limestone shell complete, it was time to get creative. Before starting
this part of the construction phase, I had sifted through numerous books on
Egypt, Egyptian Jewelry, Tutankhamen, hieroglyphics, and did lots of Internet
photo searches for inspiration or possible source material. Rather than depicting
some static deities just standing or sitting, I decided on a composite hunt
scene for one of the panels and a partial recreation of a Tutankhamen chariot
scene for the second. For some "authentic" hieroglyphic text, I selected
several translated passages from "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" by
E. A. Wallis Budge.

A chariot scene, based on a mirror image of this one, will be carved on one
side panel.


Some of the text assembled from the "The Egyptian Book of the Dead"
to be integrated with the chariot scene.

The first step was to lay out the figures and scenes in pencil, and to draw
grid lines for the hieroglyphs. The hieroglyph text was then copied into the
grid, and then details added to the plants, animals and other figures. Using
a flexible shaft and a small diamond burr, outlines are cut around the figures,
edge lines and text separation lines, and then the hieroglyphs cut. After all
the glyphs were carved, then the details of the figures are added next, with
some shaping done to emphasize the forms.

A hunt scene with elements of several different carvings and designs is laid
out in pencil on a side panel.

Diamond burrs and a flexible shaft are used to carve the hieroglyphs and design
into the surface of the tile. Note that I changed the two eyes of Horus into
one large one before I started carving the scene.


Detail of the Horus / hawk carving with a hole carved out to hold a carnelian
cab.

Once the carving stage was mostly complete, I could get fancy with some
embellishments. First, I cut a round carnelian cabochon to place in the sun
circle over the Ra / Horus Hawk. In the pencil sketch, I started with two
"eyes" but replaced that with a single larger eye instead.

The single eye of Horus is a medallion crafted from brass and inlaid with
malachite (dark green and banded) and variscite (pale green). To make these
gemstone medallions, narrow strips of metal are shaped into channels to form
the design and soldered together. The assembled channel work is then soldered
to a flat sheet, and excess metal trimmed away with a jeweler's saw. Rough gemstone
is then cut and ground to fit like a series of jigsaw pieces. Once a group
of pieces are cut to shape, they are glued into the channel with epoxy. The
surface of the medallion is then ground down flush with the channel, then
sanded and polished. If a section is to be carved in low relief (like the
scroll) this is either left out of the channel during the grinding phase or
carefully avoided and polished out by hand at the end. The finished medallion
is placed on the panel and its outline traced in pencil. Last, the limestone
has a medallion-shaped hole carved to countersink the medallion into the panel
for gluing.


Step one, create the design from flat strips of brass and then solder the design
to a piece of flat sheet.


Step two, cut pieces of gemstone to fit the metal channel and then glue into
place with epoxy.


(Step two continued) The pale green is variscite, the dark green is malachite.


Step three, grind flush, and then sand and polish the inlay. The spiral had
to be hand-polished.

A similar process was repeated with the second side panel; sketching, carving,
and setting medallions and accents. For the chariot panel, I created two smaller
gemstone medallions incorporating icons used to symbolize upper and lower
Egypt. I have a vulture wearing the white crown, and a cobra wearing the red
crown. In addition to the malachite and variscite, I used turquoise, calcite,
lapis, ivory, and coral in the vulture, and lapis lazuli and coral in the
cobra. Accents to the side panel include another carnelian sun and a small
hammered brass dome positioned in the horses' harness.


The vulture and cobra inlays are ready to be filled with the stone inlay.


Turquoise, ivory, malachite, lapis, variscite, red coral, and banded calcite
are inlayed into the medallions. These are set into the stone panel and glued
in place with epoxy.

Next time: Aging the panel carvings.