Well, here it is post assembly. I seriously need a better camera..sigh..anyway..

You may have figured by now i have a thing for caution stripeing and artificial weathering. The overall appearance is pretty much what i wanted with the exception that the clearcoat brained during drying..whcih is to say it didnt dry evenly so even though its smooth, if you look close you can see squiggles in it...the only way to fix this would be to sand it all smooth and start over from the beginning... i still cant get teh top face of the module open for reskining.

Okay, i promised to detail my oppinion of this thing. There is actually an improved version of this thing on the market, Its shinier, the palm rest has a blue led instead of red, and it has better software. the keys are also all silver..if you do buy one, go with it..how ever, overall design..lets see...where to start..

It could do to be more adjustable. You can adjust the thumb switch pad, but aside from that its locked in place. the palm rest and the key pad look like they should slide together for storage. This not the case. How ever the pegs that hold the two parts together can be easily modified by simply removing two screws inside the palm rest, making the fact that it doesnt do that out of the box RIDICULOUS. With the cyborg RAT adventing a new line of products for teh company, we may see a reimagining of this product in a year or two...

Back lighting. The keypad does have led backlight, 3 color modes, reflecting different control schmes (the purpose of the control module is to assign the keys either specific key strokes, hotkeys, or macros (a specific order of actions, commands, or keystrokes... for instance, if a game requires 3 keystrokes to get to..say..your weapons menu, say, m-i-w, you can assign "m pause=0.1 i pause=0.1 w" and it will bring you to that menu with only one key press...alternatively, if you like using keyboard shortcuts for normal computer functions and program launches you can also use it for that) Now, the problem i have here is that one of those lighting schemes should have been UV. I realized while playing with some uv LEDs ealier that the clear portion of plastic visible under the painted keys is uv reactive and glows brilliantly. For a game where you might need to see those letters clearly iluminated in an instant, especially in high light, that would be very nice... also the leds could do to be much brighter then they are...

Overall design. This will take a minute.. Compared to the n52 nostromo gamepad, i have to admit, i like the nostromo better. its not adjustable...though really neither is the command module here, but it just feels better, it also has a built in scrollwheel...which is unique... and the new lighted version is probably even better. Moving on, there are alot of areas on the module your fingers really feel like they have to reeeeach for. plus your palm keeps landing on the "shift" key...which is meant to augment the device usefulness, but mostly just gets in the way. The connectivity i outright hate. Okay, im not going to say i wish it were wireless..though it could be..i will say, theres so much room in the palm rest it would have been nifty to install a card reader or something in it..but ill digress on that.. the thing that irks me though is how it connects to the computer.. obviously it uses usb, but in this day and age, who the hell doesnt have a kajillion usb cables lieing around? It should have come WITH a usb cable, and a connection port on the divce... "why the hell should it?" you ask..okay, fair enough, it should, becaaaause...YOU MIGHT NOT NEED 3 METERS OF CABLE! I use this thing while mobile, and the cord gets in the way. id rather use a curlycue cable or a springloaded retracting cable..i get so freaking tired of my work area always looking like a rats nest of wires and cables.

Yeah yeah, i know, they didnt design it for me, im just ranting about how i would fix it if i could...and i could...if i had alot more experience wiring.. i know how to wire leds...but rewiring things is a bit more tricky...