And across the line!!

Perspex and all buttons fitted.



Elevated view..



Other corner..




Top down view..





Top view..






Diagonal view... came up nice didnt it!!








And finally another top down..

And a close up of the graphics....

Only thing i'm not happy with is the perspex which scratched a bit and has a few chips, will drill another bit out and replace it asap..

But for now.... ITS FINISHED...

AND ONCE MORE........ I NEVER WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN!!!!!!!

99%

Back cover felt added..


Ground wired in...




Button interconnects are all crimped and ready to be connected to the individual buttons..




And are now connected!!

Only got the triggers, the shoulder bumpers and the start and back round the wrong way, so not much to undo and do again!!

Now round right way..

Almost there!!

Just needs a test and clean up and putting back together again..

Smooooooth.

Ok the buttons didnt arrive today so i've got to work on the base, and a final sand and paint of the top half of the box and a repaint of the trench...

Third red coat..



Forth red coat..



Ooops a bit of overrun but anyhoo... All cool..




Final dry, time to sand back the black and sort out the top..




Graphics and buttons removed for this part..

First thin coat..



Second coat, still wet...

Looking better already, no brush marks so far..

And for the bottom lid, I've got the fixing holes drilled, base sanded down and repainted around holes, edges blacked out..




Top of box is semi dy now, so heres a quick shot of the corner with the macro to check out the finish... Very pleased this time.. much better than before..



Its not that orange i promise!!!

Ok so buttons tomorrow, they are definitely on the way as i got a despatch email from ebay this morning saying they left yesterday..

Will sand and repaint the bottom half of the box tomorrow, clean up the bottom red edges and fit the base..

Also need to cut the USB lead to pass it through the exit hole and rejoin it with a connector block, and sand the perpex to fit the guide button..

Never bloody ending!!

Ok the primer has now dried and gone a fantastic bright white!!



This was the enamel paint i was planning to use, but it comes off with water and looks thin and runny, rubbish, worse £2 spent to date..



So back to Homebase and got some of the good shit, the shit you just cant fuck with, the JapLac, it does what it says on the.. etc.. It dries looking like Japanese Laquer, the type you put on in 500 layers and looks shiny and lovely afterwards, the same as the black..

So lets get this "signal red" on and see what it looks like..

Test paint of first side, ignore the over painting on the edges, that'll clean up afterwards...

Test side 2, bit of a drip on the corner but its all cool..

Test side again..

Final smooth over and left to dry, sorry for the orange tint, but the flash is needed in the evenings and it gives everything a crap colour... Bloody sony tat..

Final front, left to dry..

So that'll get a nice tidy edge tomorrow and the black can have another sand and coat on the edges too...

Hopefully the last 2 buttons will arrive too and i can get the electronics in and start wiring this baby up..

Back soon..

Just a minor setback.... aka being a cock!

Ok paint is finished, and as lee says, looks like darth vaders helmet!!



Given a final polish and clean up, its come up very well, may perhaps give it a clear laquer afterwards if it seems like its not keeping its sheen or chipping and scratching..

Ok the bits have arrived and what a tosser, i've managed to order SIX buttons then as you can see i have EIGHT holes here, EIGHT buttons on the controller, EIGHT buttons on my other stick, what the fuck was i doing ordering SIX!!! cock!

So ebay gets an order for 2 more, not going back to those bloody germans, they pissed me off, free lighter with the order or not, they were too rude to get a repeat and an order, even a small one...

Sanded down the perspex to fit into the now painted frame. Nice tight fit and the buttons line up nicely..



Time to get the stick holes positioned and drilled in..

Mark the holes..



Make the pilot holes and drill the real ones..




And finally countersink the holes under the level of the graphics..




Screw the screws in place to test depth and get the screw threads in place..

Buttons and stick in place.. Time to get that trench round the edge sorted..

Sand back to wood and remove the excess black from the trench..

Prime the trench again...

Trench sanded and primed and left to dry over night..

Side view...

Tomorrow i'll make a go of the red, the stuff i got seems to be water based, so not sure how it will cover, but the primer should help... If not I'll have to splash out on some more bloody jaclac in red!! more cost...

Back soon I hope.. Thanks for checking out the progress..

Smooth as silk.

Hello again, after the painting yesterday which was a quick and dirty job just to get some black soaked into the primer, its time to get a decent layer down, with no brush marks and a nice smooth finish..

Sanded the black back to smooth. Again this always irks me cos to get a nice smooth base to paint on you feel like your taking off everything you put on the day before, but anyhoo..



Box scrubbed down rby being given a good fine sanding..



2nd coat goes on, you can already see the difference to yesterdays finish, although its still wet, it required much less paint and a good layer went on with no brush marks so far..



Looks nice and smooth..

It is black but when i flash photograph it up close it has a tinge of blue, i dont know why, but its jet black to the eye under normal light..

Thats just the top side for today, when its dried i'll do the bottom tomorrow..

Got an email from arcadeparts.de, the parts left Germany today and are being shipped to me as I type, should be here in a few days..

Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now i've got to find a way to get the graphics printed as my usual "supplier" is out of the picture, hopefully Lee will be able to do some borderless A4 colour printing for me? Will have to check..

Back soon..

Paint it black... again..

Update time, the primer is dried now, so i've sanded it back down so its as smooth as the wood was (almost!)






Its one of those times you wonder why you primered it when you seem to have to sand it all back off again to get it nice and smooth though... Still i was told "the black will soak into the timber without the primer" so i do as i'm told and leave some on..



First coat of black on the top side of the box.




Again this will be sanded right back and then painted again to get a lovely smooth finish like the base did.. so it doesnt need to be too neat.. Tis nice and shiny though..




Painted the bottom of the box as well at the same time, it shouldnt drip too much i hope!

Thats not gunk on the side, thats the reflection of my orange T-Shirt the box is so reflective when wet!!

Ok time to leave it somewhere safe and hopefully dust free to dry before i do the second coat tomorrow..

I've left the trench primed but unpainted as this will be red, I'll sand back any black that got in there first, but i suspect the red would just go right over the black anyway with no bother..

Side view showing unpainted trench..

So back soon, thanks for checking it out, hope you enjoy the work so far..