"I can feel it. We are very close."

Here's what I started with tonight, basically what I showed from last night in the garage.

This is what the motherboard looks like with the shell off.  Note the fun outline of the ribs along the top, and upper left and right sides.

 

 

And by the end of the night this is what I ended up with, or at least the last picture I took.  I put the shell back on the motherboard before I quit for the night. 

I was able to put on all of the labels (I think, I may have missed one, I'll have to double check).  I also put in the lenses for the red and blue lights, but haven't put the lights themselves in yet.  The lenses aren't mounted permanently yet, I just wanted to see how it looked.  I put all of the parts back on and fastened everything down.  The cables are where they are supposed to be.  The only thing I really need to do is hook the vacuum tube into it's spot right under the gray crank knob.  The back of the motherboard might get a coat of paint too.  After that, it's on to the lights and doing a little refurbishing on the particle thrower.

For the first time it's easy to look at it and say, "Wow, that's a proton pack."  It has it's imperfections, but I can live with them (so far), and I'm proud of the way it has turned out, especially since most of my progress takes place between 10 pm and 3 am.

I might be done for this week.  Thanks for following along with my build.  I appreciate each hit I get on this blog and 'Like' and comment I get on Facebook.

-Matt