The main hull and deck are, of course, where the majority of the work was
performed. In general, the work proceeded in three stages - plan the components
with respect to location and function, perform all modifications to the case'
itself, and assemble everything together. That completely ignores all the
difficulty actually associated with each task, however.
The planning of the hull was actually a gradual thing. I knew which
motherboard I would be using, and I knew which power supply. But items such
as the sound circuit, DVD-ROM drive, and memory card reader/writer were
relative late-comers in the process. One significant problem with the
planning stage was that despite the size of the toy, there were few areas which
were flat enough on the hull to add all the ports I needed.
There were quite a lot of modifications to the basic structure that may not
be readily apparent. A lot of plastic was removed from the toy to make sure
that everything would fit. I had to be careful not to remove any critical
structures. Obviously, I needed to remove at least one main screw mounting hole
in the center or the motherboard wouldn't fit. I had to make sure that losing
that mount didn't affect the structural integrity of the mod overall.
Trying to cut holes for the memory card reader/writer and the DVD-ROM was
especially difficult. While the pictures may not totally show the state
of the hull, it's actually slightly curved. Trying to cut precise holes for
non-curved pieces in a curved structure is not the easiest thing to do.
The deck of the aircraft carrier went through a lot. There was a lot of
painting, of course. But also quite a few lights were added so that the
runway would light up (actually, the white lights down the side simply light
up while the lights in the center of the runway light up in sequence). Over
twenty-two LEDs were each individually sanded and wired into the runway alone.
Also, the command center went through serious modification. It was painted,
had electronics for switches added, and had additional detail added with
sheet plastic.
All in all, these modifications were the hardest part of the mod. Knowing
that a single accidental cut with my Dremel could ruin weeks of work was
certainly somewhat stressful.
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