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The Necronomicon G4
John Hart
Last year, while Evan and I were working on the now infamous TIki Mac, we got the idea to cover one side of the computer's metal chassis in bark paper. It worked pretty well. So I shelved the idea for later use, having no idea how I might work it into something else. Well, inspiration comes in interesting places...
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Well, inspiration comes in interesting
places. I was looking at the internet, trying to find good ways to artificially
age paper. While doing so, I remembered the Tiki Mac, and the paper. And I got
an idea. I headed to the local art store (Thank you Plaza Art Supplies) and
looked through their fine paper selection. I came across a very nice rag linen
white. It was fibrous, and durable, while being very thin and pliable. I bought
several sheets of it.
While formulating this idea, I was also working out ideas for
this year's Great Mod Challenge. I had a G4 upgraded Blue & White that was
still stock. So, I decided it was time to "Antique" it. I started
pouring over photos of old parchment, egyptian scrolls, several photo books
by H.R. Giger, and, uh, The Evil Dead Trilogy on DVD. I reasoned that if there
could be a Book of The Dead, there could be a Mac of The Dead. I picked up the
phone, and brought Evan up to speed. He was all about it.
With a loose plan in mind, I set to work trying to figure out how to turn a
stock Yikes case, into something much older and more evil. The first step was
to pull all the guts out and remove all the plastics. Easy. I then lightly sanded
all the plastics, and covered them in white epoxy primer. I used the epoxy primer
in order to protect the plastics from the massive heat gun use they were going
to endure. I then cut the paper to rough shape, and sprayed the plastics with
3M Super 77 adhesive. Note that this is some of the evilest aerosol glue on
the planet. Think Krazy glue, in a spray can. Its some nasty stuff. Once the
shells were coated in 77, I smoothed the paper on as best I could, leaving some
wrinkles for detail. Not surprisingly, once the glue had set, the paper was
going nowhere. Step one complete.
The next step was to age the paper. I first trimmed all the
extra paper off, and smoothed out the edges. Then. pulling knowledge from the
aforementioned paper websites, I used a sponge brush to soak the paper with
ordinary lemon juice. With the paper thoroughly soaked, I pulled out the heat
gun and began to heat the paper. As the paper dried, the lemon juice reacted
to the heat and began to turn the bright white paper brown. Varying amounts
of heat produced a very aged parchment pattern on all the paper. No two pieces
were the same.
When getting started on the paper aging, I did the case's side
shells first. While I was taking heat to everything, Evan began working on the
details. He did some initial sketches on regular paper, and then went to work
on the shells with both fine tip brushes and calligraphy nibs, using both red,
and a mixture of red and transparent black acrylic inks. being rather detailed
and intricate work, the better part of two days was spent working on the side
shells. Note that all of the character and figurative work was done freehand
in ink. Massive points to evan for not making a single mistake, and working
out some impressive designs!
While Evan was working on the side shells, I proceeded to paper
and age the front, top and back plastics, as well as the four top and bottom
hoops. I also sprayed all of the case's finishing screws with black epoxy primer
in order to match the theme. Note that the paper picked up a lot of the plastic
detail during the heating process, Similarly, in certain places where there
were holes in the plastic (see the back side heat vents) the paper was not punched
through or cut away. We simply let the heat gun burn it away in order to keep
the aged look and feel.
Once evan was done with the side shells, we assembled the case
plastics onto the machine. Once the unit was all back together, it was taken
into the garage for detailing. All of the plastics were heat treated again in
order to bring out the variation in color. Then, I loaded up my airbrush with
Auto-Air's Semi Opaque Black, and began to detail the edges. All of the joints,
major edges and cracks were faded in with black, as were the back ports. The
Apple logos were dusted to give them more depth, the hoops were edged and colored,
all the buttons were detailed, and many other small details were shaded and
colored on the top, bottom, sides, and back of the machine. Once done, all of
the paint was heat cured in order to lock it into the paper fibers.
Lastly, the whole case was sprayed with fixative in order to
seal in the glyph work, and to protect the paper. Then, back into the house
for photographing.
Below is a collection of images detailing the finished product we've created.
it is a one of a kind piece with about 150 hours invested in it overall. No
stickers, no stencils, no cop-outs. Every inch done by hand.
Thanks for checking out the Necronomicon G4!
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