became this:
I first played pop'n music a little over a year ago when Secef brought his Ransai up for a visit to the Ho-House. I was instantly addicted and had to get it for myself. I placed an order for a Ransai soon after and received it a few weeks later.
Bryan, one of my friends from high school had had one of his friends, Justin, do some painting for him on a computer case and an arcade cabinet. The work was quite impressive. I had also seen some pictures of some of his other work. He's a full-time painter for an Indy car team, so he certainly knows his stuff.
I thought it would be really cool if he could paint a Ransai and contacted him about doing just that. We came to an agreement, and I ordered my Ransai in basic, no-frills white with the intention of having Justin paint it.
Unfortunately, a string of scheduling issues delayed the project for almost a full year...until last week. Last week Sunday I finally had the opportunity to meet with him and put the Ransai in his quite capable hands.
My main goal with all this was to attain a smooth and shiny finish for the controller, and I communicated that to him. I really didn't give him any other direction as to design. I just said I wanted it smooth and shiny. I mentioned that my favorite color is red and that I also like blue but that I would not be disappointed if he used neither.
I got an e-mail from him mid-week that he had come up with an idea and then another on Friday that he had completed the work and wanted to give it the weekend to dry. So on Monday I met him for lunch to pick it up.
He pulled it out under a towel and put it in my car to do the reveal. I was totally blown away by the result! I had full faith in him as an artist that he'd come up with something cool, but he totally exceeded all my expectations. This thing is really a sight to behold. Pictures hardly do it justice, but it's the best we can do on the Internet, so here we go...
At the beginning of this post is a picture of the Ransai the day I got it in its basic white paint. Following that is a similar shot of the controller after its custom paint job was complete.
Here's a front view of the controller
Here's an overhead shot
The following three shots are various closeups showing the detail and the metal flake in the paint.
This picture shows the unbelieveable glossiness of the paint. You can see a practically perfect reflection of the glass blocks on the front of our bar on the surface of the controller. It feels like glass to the touch.
This picture shows his tag "PainterGeek" ... afterall, you really should take credit for something this awesome!
Finally, here is the controller setup in front of the TV, ready-to-play
