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Just thought I'd start a thread for discussing the latest SW flick whilst it's still fresh in my mind. Obviously this thread will contain spoilers so I'll leave space to protect the innocent (from the dreaded hover spoil!). - - - - - - - - - - Thoughts?

Dear forum members, I have seen the wonderful Turbolaser diorama from Tony Agustin from 2003. I was so fascinated from his work that I decided to build one as well. As I was not a model maker and have never tried to build something from scratch this project has been a big challenge for me. The X-Wings are from Bandai 1:72. In total it took me 200 hours +. I hope you like it!

Have seen one of these on offer for sale 2nd hand. Not mint in box or anything but is unbuilt and complete. Price is reasonable I think... I know it's not really that accurate (inside or out) and not even in the same league as anything larger scale by Bandai or Fine Molds.....but since those are in a galaxy far far away from my budget right now, is it worth a purchase or should I pass on it? Welcome your thoughts.. Cheers, Dermot

Wow as i say a real time Bandit. I think this is the longest build of a Falcon i have had. I was watching the TT pre race shows on tv when i started this. I have been building it every evening since. Wow what a model though. Its just amazing and really lives up to the hype. It fits together flawlessly. This is the Perfect grade standard version. This means it comes with stickers instead of decals and no light system. Dont be fooled by the fact they are stickers and not decals , they are made of a very thin vinyl and settle down as good as decals , and were easier and quicker to use. The lights were no problem to replace as i had some 3mm leds laying around. There are 3 seperate switches to control them. One for the ramp/landing gear , one for the engine and one for the cockpit. Now when i say its finished , a Falcon is never really finished! There will be more weathering added in the form of rust washes on the sidewalls later on and im sure i will tinker with it over time Thanks Bandai , this is a dream model for us SW fans!

Hi all, life got in the way last year to complete the Slave 1, but this year I've found the time and really enjoyed this build. I wanted to show Solo in the carbonite so decided to present him in the lower cockpit bay, I hope you all enjoy the photos.

Hi everyone. I hope you've all had a great Christmas. I've started a new model over the last few weeks; an AMT/ERTL A-Wing. It's quite a basic kit out of the box, and i'm planning to do very little in the way of customisation. Having said that, the two parts I like the least are the raised panel lines, and the terrible pilot. I've never tried scribing panel lines before, but I'm giving it a go on this one. In several places I've slipped and messed up, so had to fill I'm a few bits and pieces, but even though it's a bit clumsy in places, it still looks better than raised lines. The pilot is taken from a set of Hasegawa pilots, not exactly screen accurate, but better scaled, and far better detail. Work so far: The pilot will be painted in screen accurate colours, even though he's not screen accurate himself. Please excuse the rather questionable posing of the arms, with the pilot being larger than the one provided in the kit (this one is better for the size of the ship) I've had to make sure that arms fit into the available space. Thanks for looking folks.

Hi everbody, here is my last build, hope you like it

I've been hiding in passive mode for a while but had to surface today. I know this is all over the net but I couldn't find it here. Behold the Revell Imperial Star Destroyer! https://www.revell.de/en/products/star-wars/star-wars-episode-iv-vi/id/06052.html?utm_campaign=Revell%2BNewsletter%2B04%25252F2017%2B%252528EN%252529&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Mailingliste-EN Funnily enough it seems to have sold out everywhere, I haven't scraped enough pennies together for it yet anyway I just hope its not a limited run!

Snowspeeder & Millennium Falcon Masks (for Bandai & Revell/FineMolds) 1:48 & 1:144 GreenStrawberry The superb Star Wars Bandai kits are click together and don't need painting, but for extra realism and to achieve that beaten up Rebel/Resistance look, it's almost mandatory if you're going for accuracy. The Revell/Finemolds kits are designed for painting, however. The Falcon and the Snowspeeder are pretty liberal with their number of panes of glazing (I hesitate to use the term "glass", as it's Sci-Fi), with parallels able to be drawn between the Bf.109 and He.111 respectively for their canopy styles. Masks aren't provided in the kit, and with the number of panes to mask it can be a bit of a chore, especially if masking isn't your favourite modelling task. Those nice folks have GreenStrawberry have got you covered! Each set arrives in their familiar re-sealable packaging, with a printed black(ish) backing card, instructions folded up within the card, and the masks at the front on view through the transparent packet. The masks are a soft green matt vinyl-like material, and all the panes are pre-cut for your convenience, with a diagram in the instructions showing the associated number for each one. Rebel Snowspeeder (AM014-1/48) This is the larger of the sets, including glazing masks for the big canopy, but also supplying masks for the squadron markings, which adorn the nose, engine pods, and are repeated on the underside of the ship. This will mean spraying the squadron colours first, but it makes for a huge convenience to the modeller. Millennium Falcon (AM015-1/144) Patterned for the Revell/FineMolds kits, the former of which were released some years back and have more recebtly been reissued by Revell, this set provides a complete set of glazing masks for the iconic Flying Hamburger, including both the cockpit canopy and both of the cannon windows from which Luke and Han battle the TIE Fighters in the 1977 original that sparked a revolution in Sci-Fi. Review sample courtesy of

I started very quick build for a competition this kit has reaaaaly good details, i love it

Cant say the kits look fantastic, look like glorified kinder toys sadly

AT-ST Upgrade Set (04017-1/48 for Bandai) 1:48 GreenStrawberry The Imperial Scout Walker was introduced briefly (after a fashion) in the backdrop of Empire, but saw most action in Return of the Jedi, in which it played a large part in the Battle of Endor, receiving a drubbing from those cutesy, furry little tykes, the Ewoks while they assisted our Rebel friends in securing the screen generator complex. It is a 2-legged smaller armoured All-terrain Transport, mounting some decent firepower with a crew of two and little space for anyone else. Bandai's kit breaks the scale of their main thrust (1:72 for the most part), mainly due to the relatively small size of the subject matter. This set from our friends at GreenStrawberry is a comprehensive upgrade to the kit detail that will please anyone that's planning on building the kit with a little extra detail. Supplied in their usual resealable bag with black themed card back, the large Photo-Etch (PE) fret is held in the front, with printed acetate and paper instrument panel sheets sandwiched between the instruction, and a small bag containing short lengths of rod that are used in construction. You can't accuse them of not giving you everything you need! Updates begin with the box-like "hips" of the machine, adding a new rear and exhaust ports, with another port under the overhang. More detail is added on the sides, including replacement in-scale repurposed Flak44 splinter-shrouds, with more on the underside, and moving onto the cabin "head", a set of interior details for the front hatches that can either be seen outside if open, or if closed are visible through the top hatch. The nose cannons have new hollow muzzles rolled into shape and added instead of the solid styrene parts, and the interior of the roof is detailed with a ring and bezel to the circular top hatch, and faux quilted insulation in the roof area, to which some extra small details are added. On the roof's outer skin, there are four flanges added to the grab-rail that surrounds the hatch, and a new pair of hinges are fitted to the front vision ports in preparation for the upgraded covers. The top hatch itself is then skinned with more detail along with a new hinge mechanism, which is where the first piece of rod is used. The feet are given treaded skins for their undersides, and the side armament has a set of three circular detail parts added to the rear of the assembly. The interior of the cockpit is then the focus of the remaining parts, with a substantial overhaul being made to the instrument panels behind the drivers, which all have paper or acetate backed PE parts added. The consoles in front of the drivers have the same treatment, as do the monitors above the pilots' heads. The crew seats are removed and replaced by proper PE seats that are made up from a number of parts each, and have a gentle curve pushed into the backs and a set of seatbelts for your pilot's comfort. The floor in front of the seats is then partially removed and a pair of new foot wells are inserted with "rudder pedals" for each driver. You can still fit the kit crew members into the seats, but they will need gluing in place due to the prior removal of their mounting lugs. Conclusion The kit is excellent, but then so is this detail set. If you're serious about detail then get yourself one of these and you won't be disappointed. It's worth it just for the cockpit details alone! As usual with GreenStrawberry, if you follow the Available Here link, you can see some pictures of the brass in situ and unpainted on the model to give you a good idea of what's included. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

So, I’m working away from home at the moment and have very little time for model building, but I happened across a metal Earth millennium falcon when I was looking for something else entirely in a Maplin in Derby. Bought this for £6.99 and had a quick build: The only tools I had with me was my Leatherman Wave (I was really missing my magnifying visor), so I think the results were ok(ish) considering. It got me thinking though, if anyone out there is looking for PE Greeblies then you can get a shed load for only £6.99 from your local maplin (while stocks last).

TIE Fighter, TIE Fighter Advanced X1 & TIE Interceptor Updates (02016, 02116 & 02216) 1:72 GreenStrawberry It's Star Wars – nuff said. Bandai's new(ish) range of 1:72 kits have been wreaking havoc with the resale value of FineMolds kits for ages now, and despite the fact that we can't officially get them outside of the Far East due to licensing arrangements with the new owners Disney, there seem to be plenty finding their way into the hands of avid Star Wars modellers like myself. GreenStrawberry are similarly minded, and have made a number of excellent sets to improve on even the high levels of detail that Bandai cram into their snap-together kits. They also do Star Trek and many other brands too, so even if you're not a Star Wars fan, you're sure to find something they can help you with. The Evil Empire have Seinar Systems creating the iconic TIE Fighter series for them, with more than a few variants hitting our screens over the years. The original H-shaped TIE and Vader's TIE Advanced from the Titular film, and later in the trilogy the TIE Interceptor for a change of pace. All of these share a very similar central section, especially in their cockpit area, which is why I'm reviewing them all together. All three sets arrive in a resealable clear film package, with a central cardboard stiffener protecting the sheet of Photo-Etch, the header card, and the small resin parts at the back, which are bagged separately inside to save losing the parts. The final layer is a small but concise instruction booklet with sci-fi themed design and simple diagrams showing the way. All sets have a common core of components that are arranged differently on the sheets, but essentially the same up until step 6 on the instructions, and as you can imagine those parts are the cockpits. The initial stages have you building up the multi-layer coaming and controls that are seen in the hands of the pilot for the interior shots, with three layers joined to give them a degree of thickness, before they are attached to the back of the coaming. The kit seat pads are removed and replaced by new parts, and side details are added to the chair before the coaming is fitted into the open front of the floor. Inside the front of the cockpit a detail skin is added to the lower half, and a pair of faceted panels are glued to the "corners", to which the two resin clusters of round-ended tubes are fitted. The "visor" at the top front is removed from its mounting lug and given a new more detailed attachment point to the edge of the windscreen. Underneath the hull is a panel that has a hole in it for the stand, but in this instance if you are planning on using the next set of parts, you'll want to glue in the plug B4 to cover this up. The inner face of the panel is sanded flat, a skin with Star Wars gylphs etched into it, and a ring with extended legs is added. This then clipped inside the lip of the aperture so that the "luggage compartment" is depicted dropped to the floor, which although it might not appeal in all cases, it is a useful option to have on hand. The top hatch receives a partial lip in PE, and the hinge for the hatch is replaced by a new two-part boxed arrangement, with the Ion engine exhaust at the rear being fitted with a hexagonal grille. From here on in the sets diverge from each other slightly, as described below. TIE Fighter (02016-1/72) This seems to be the base set, so refer to the description above for what's included. TIE Advanced x1 (02116-1/72) As well as all the common parts listed in the top section of the review, the x1 also has a set of dual layered skins for the top/bottom of each of the "arms" that connect the ball to the panels. On the inside of each panel there are two small rectangular panels that are filed off and replaced by new PE parts. Two small parts are also inserted into the inner edges of the front cut-outs on the arms, and at the rear of the ball there are two small cranked panels which are skinned with a new detail part each. TIE Interceptor (02216-1/72) As well as the core components, there are three panels on the wing panels that are filed flat and replaced by new PE parts. Conclusion Three super little detail sets that are based around the common core that is the knot of the bow-tie, with subtle variations specific to the sub-type. If you'd like to see the details in situ, GreenStrawberry have helpfully included pictures of the bare parts built into the Bandai kits to show you how they should look, so have a click on the "available here" buttons to have a mooch. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This squadron has been a long time in the making, although it only settled in to this configuration with a flurry of activity very recently. Here we have my converted F-Toys Y-Wing with scratch built hull plating additions, and a Bandai Vehicle Model A-Wing and X-Wing that I painted up to match as soon as I'd finished painting the Y-wing and fell in love with the deep red and cream color scheme (it's highly likely that I'll add a T-70 X-wing to this in the future, with extra shiny silver accents to go with the red & cream). The U-wing is still unmodified from when I finished it last year, but fit right in with these ships. The final ship is Nicholas Sagan's McQuarrie Concept A-Wing from Shapeways, painted in the colors from The Last Jedi. It also fit right in once I'd finished the other three. RZ-1 A-Wing Modified Y-Wing T-65 X-Wing McQuarrie TLJ A-Wing Lots and lots of WIP pics in my flickr albums.

Slave 1 Main Nozzles (01115-1/144) 1:144 GreenStrawberry Boba Fett's ship the Slave 1 is one of the memorable designs from the Original trilogy of Star Wars films, and even put in an appearance in the Prequels in a slightly better state of repair under the helm of Boba's dad Jango. The Bandai kit is an excellent rendition of this craft, and if you have both the Boba Fett and Jango Fett boxings, you're going to need two of these. The set arrives in a small cardboard box, with the three resin parts safely inside a small ziplok bag, surrounded by the short and mostly pictorial instruction sheet. The underside of Slave 1 becomes the rear when in flight, and shows three exhausts, one of which is elongated, the others round. The kit parts are probably adequate for a lot of folks, but for the detail hungry, these replacements will be just the job. Each one is covered in detail, especially within the round exhausts, which have exquisite interior ribbing that would be impossible for your average modeller to carry off. The modeller will have to ensure that any raised detail under the exhausts is removed from the base, and once the parts are cut from their bases, which is clear from the instructions, they can be glued in using Super Glue (CA), most likely after painting. If you want to see one solitary photo that will convince you, here it is – lifted from their site: Extremely highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi there, Long time listener, first time caller, as they say on call-in radio shows. I recently got back into plastic kit modeling after an absence of....oh, let's call it a round three decades. My dad got me the 1/72 + 1/144 Bandai Red Squadron 2-pack for the holidays last year, and after a few months putting off doing anything waiting until I'd picked up an airbrush and made a good workspace in my apartment, I said "Ah, hell..." and jumped into building the tiny X-wing, on account of it being tiny and having water-slide decals. Well, needless to say I was completely hooked immediately. I'll post some of the other vehicles as well, but to start off here's some progress on my latest, my first Gold Squadron Y-wing. This Y-wing I decided would depart from canonical accuracy in a few ways - I like my engine nozzles to look more like real-world engine nozzles, so this one is a dark-ish metal base with sooty pastel weathering. Rather than the yellow stripe on the engine nacelle, I decided this Y-wing once upon a time had fully yellow painted nacelle nose cones, but much of the paint flaked off quite a bit from one too many hyperspace jumps. I also detailed some of the other greeblie bits on the engine pods with metallic paints (mostly shades of Vallejo Duraluminum). Here they are assembled, but with the main engine body pre-weathering. And for the body, I similarly put in a lot of metallic accents. It doesn't make sense to me that all the innards would be painted white under the armor plating that the Rebel Alliance inexplicably removed.... (I need to get way better at detailing those R2-units, though) Still more weathering to be done, but I love how this is coming together. The vehicle model kits are *so* much fun to build! And the skills-rebuilding mistakes hurt a lot less with how inexpensive these kits are :). Full size pics on my Flickr Photostream, along with more that I'll post in this thread eventually. Thanks so much to all the amazing modelers posting on this forum! It's been really inspirational, and gives me so much to draw on.

I have listed some Star Wars kits for sale in the FOR SALE section

I know...I know, a Star Wars 'Build and Play' kit. While I save some modelling funds for Bandai's lovely Millennium Falcon in 1/144, thought I would have some fun with this one which I got on the very cheap in Lidl some months back. Sure, it's not the most accurate kit and most of the details are simplified for kids but the general shape is ok and hope it will look a little better with some improvements. Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_06954_box by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Not many parts to it... Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_contents by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr The solid cockpit will go, replaced with something a little less basic Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_cockpit_before by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr. Drilling well under way Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_cockpit_during by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr And starting the clean up....a lot better. Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_cockpit_after_2 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr The gear bays are very simple so am going to box them in.. Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_contents by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_gear_bays by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr And drilling out the solid radar dish arms Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_dish by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Probably just a little smaller than 1/144.. Revell_Millennium_Falcon_Build_Play_upper_hull by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Will take a look at the sidewalls next. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Dermot

This is the large (40cm long) 1/72 Revell Millennium Falcon Easy Kit, kit 06694 The kit has relatively few parts and is designed to hold together without glue; parts are relatively thick but reasonably detailed. Details are pre-painted so that the model can be built quickly without any additional finishing There is an in-box review with good sprue shots at: I can't justify the £300+ for the Fine Molds version or indeed the forthcoming Bandai one which I gather will come in at similar price. Stunning as those kits may be, £29 for this version (£60 RRP) seemed like a good compromise after watching Last Jedi Originally released a few years back as an 'Original Trilogy' version, this kit has additional parts for the rectangular radar dish from Force Awakens together with slightly different undercarriage and access ramp but the original parts are also included. The kit goes together quickly, plan was to leave main ship parts unpainted other than a coat of Matt Varnish before weathering but the pre-painted side panels were very different in tone so decided to paint everything. Cockpit is basic but thick glasswork makes it hard to see anyway, I modified some Airfix pilots to make a crude Han and Chewbacca for a bit of fun. To avoid a see-through look to the hull I added plastic card squares, coloured black with a sharpie, over the gun position windows top and bottom. The blue painted (on rear) clear engine part was installed and masked with Tamiya Tamiya paint for protection against both scratches and paint. I used the newer 'Force Awakens' undercarriage parts as they seemed more detailed and made an extra radar dish mounting (copying kit part) so that I could use both parts and swap them around. I assembled everything other than the undercarriage doors, guns and radar dishes then masked the clear parts with Humbrol Maskol ready for painting. Lifecolor FS 36440 Light Gull Grey was airbrushed all over, when dry a coat of MIG Ammo matt varnish added extra protection. Red, grey and yellow panels were brush painted back on (using pictures of the pre-painted kit parts as reference along with a copy of Fine Molds kit instructions I found on Internet. When all this was dry, I used Vallejo acrylic washes (Light Grey primarily, with Dark Grey and\or White wash mixed in for variation) to weather the ship. Maskol removed, all finished Was a relatively quick and very fun build, only problem now is that it's too big for display cabinet ! Lots more pictures here: http://blog.cjhm.net/172-revell-millennium-falcon Work in progress pictures on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=cjhm %23REVELL MILLENNIUMFALCON&src=typd&lang=en

Thought I would try out JPG's new Bespin Landing Pad resin kit. It has been designed to complement the Bandai Vehicle Series Falcon so gave me a good excuse to finish one I started a while back. The Landing Pad comes as 4 resin pieces plus a number of greeblies for round the outside and some resin lights, unfortunately they don't light up and the base has not been designed for F/O. There is an electric tea-light and red film for the windows on the round section. I had already started to light the Falcon which now has front running, engines, cockpit and underside landing lights. Need to tidy up the base and paint it then add a bit of weathering to the Falcon. Cheers, Warren

As the title says I am going to be tackle in Revells Rogue One AT ACT. Remember when these first came out I noticed that they were "click and play" and I thought they were not going to be something I'd waste my time on. Anyway just before Christmas Lidl's had a few models in there from Star Wars which were only a £9.99 so I thought I'd take the chance.The first thing I did was some major plastic surgery on the head to get the sound module out and the LED lighting.

YT-1300 Millennium Falcon Upgrade Sets(for Bandai) 1:144 GreenStrawberry The Millennium Falcon is perhaps the best known and most recognised of any spacecraft real or imaginary, with a number of kits popping up over the years in different scales. Bandai's recent release of a raft of new kits has been great for anyone wanting to build a collection of Star Wars related models in a couple of consistent scales, rather than box-scale as seems to be the way with Revell, the main European license holder of late. The Bandai kits are snap-together, but don't let that fool you. They are the pinnacle of the injection-moulded art, and you'd wonder initially how they could get any better with the addition of Photo-Etch (PE) parts. These sets from GreenStrawberry are engineered to appeal to the more advanced modeller who will end up painting their creation, and you WILL need Super Glue (CA) to attach the parts to your model. The sets arrive in a flat re-sealable pack, with a black themed backing card, a chunk of thick cardboard to keep the PE safe, a set of instructions (both of which are hidden within), and the sheet of PE brass on display in the front. They are designed to improve both detail, accuracy to the scale/CGI models, and add a scale-thickness to otherwise over-scale parts. Millennium Falcon Upgrade Set (01616 for Bandai) The main set includes a large sheet of brass PE, plus a small set of instrument panel parts that are printed on sticky-backed paper, to give your interiors a huge lift in detail. It provides a welcome lift to the interior of the cockpit and the gun ports on the top and bottom, as well as some structural parts. It begins with a complex replacement of the mount for the prominent oblong dish that now adorns the Falcon's topside, replacing all the thick bracketry with more delicate parts instead. The base of the dish is also augmented, and the two assemblies are then brought together into one. The kit has a simple plug-in seat with controls for the gun turrets, which is slimmed down and has its lugs removed top accept a new control column/trigger, which is then placed inside the compartment that is folded up from brass parts, with stickers providing the instrument panel detail on the various facets of the walls. These are further enhanced by relief panels added within, and the finished assembly is fitted to the rear of the glazing with a flange around the outside. This is of course repeated for the other turret, giving you two in total. The main asymmetrical cockpit is also upgraded in a similar way, removing the kit instruments from the main panel and roof along with the three lugs that hold the top to the bottom. The canopy has a skin with insulation quilting etched into it, and all the panels are replaced with new ones that have stickers applied with instruments. The roof has a faceted liner folded up, with additional panels and stickers added, which is added to the lower cockpit along with the new replacement rear cockpit bulkhead that is so often visible in cockpit shots from the movie. This is a lamination of three parts onto which the appropriate stickers are fixed after painting, with two location holes included to register the part on the rear of the cockpit assembly. The rear seats are provided with headboxes that are missing from the kit parts, and the front of the cockpit roof is finished off with a "hoop" that bridges the space between the curved wall of the kit and the faceted inner skin. As a point of interest, you can see that all the instrument panels are perforated where there are usually lights on the various boards, which will show through the stickers if you position some LEDs behind them, making for easy lighting of the busy areas in the various cockpits. The landing gear for the SW:TFA Falcon has the now-standard five legs of two types, both of which get new scale-faithful doors to replace the chunky kit parts moulded into the legs, and the struts themselves are fitted with the perforated circular frames that can be only approximated in styrene. The final job is to fold up the insert that shows at the end of the entry ramp, requiring you to remove the blanking plate moulded into the lower hull. This and another part in the roof will add to the look of the area. Millennium Falcon Grilles (01715 for Bandai) The Falcon's prominent exhausts on the top deck are part of what makes it what it is, and this set provides six new mesh grilles to detail this area. Each circular grille is made up from a bottom hoop, a sheet of louvers, then a sheet of framework, with the top layer a frame around the outer edge with details etched in relief. Alignment is key, and there are two styles of top frame, with a distinct forward direction marked on the assembly diagrams. Four of the siz are identical, with the two leftmost (from behind) having a different pattern on the framing, all of which is explained on the last two instruction steps, as well as showing that "forward" in this context actually points toward the centre of the ship in a fan shape that matches the general shape of the engine deck area. Conclusion Another superb pair of sets to upgrade these Star Wars gems, just remember they're only suitable if you're planning on painting your model. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Greetings, members of the resistance. Fine Molds 1/48 X-Wing has been brutally tickled into a rendition of Luke's ride. Sadly, Revell's decals don't measure up to the eye watering 70 odd beer vouchers indicated on the box being pixilated, stiff and impervious to anything south of a welder's torch, so the markings were rendered in paint. Notwithstanding the decals, the kit's a ton of fun. Bare Metal foil was used for the oleos. Come in Red 5... Happy days Steve

Last year I played in an Age of Rebellion RPG campaign. We played members of the crew of the Imperial Star Destroyer Hammer of Justice, who had mutinied against the sadistic Captain Bastrad and joined the Rebellion. Initially we masqueraded as an Imperial vessel to gain the element of surprise against Imperial forces, but eventually we had to publicly identify as rebels - we didn't want the Empire taking the credit for our battles against the forces of the evil Vaki Sith! In order to make our allegiances clear we painted the Rebel Alliance's starbird emblem onto our ship. When I spotted Revell's 1:12300 Star Destroyer kit in my local model shop I decided to build it and paint it up as the Hammer of Justice. When I got it home I discovered that Bandai had released a similarly sized kit (no scale given but approximately 1:16000) that had a better reputation than Revell's offering, so I ordered one of them too. After purchasing some Star Wars decals off eBay I ended up building both ships as Alliance Star Destroyers. Revell's offering: Bandai's: There's a total of 9 pictures of the two kits in a Flickr album here. As is clear from the photos the Bandai kit is clearly the more detailed of the two. It was also easier to build, as the Revell kit required some clamping, some filler (particularly around the superstructure) and 20g of weight to get it to balance. However the Revell kit is noticeably larger than the Bandai kit (the triangular shape seems to exaggerate the difference) and from more than about 2 feet away the difference in detail becomes fairly academic. The ships were painted with Alclad primers, Humbrol acrylics, Alclad varnish and Humbrol washes, all mostly airbrushed on (except for some drybrushing and the washes). The decals were a bit of a faff, they were translucent and stiff and didn't conform well. Overall though both kits were fun to build, I'm happy with the finished articles and hopefully they've broken me out of a long spell where I've not been doing much with model kits except adding to an already overloaded stash!