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Zvezda Star Destroyers - Avenger Class Imperial Twins


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With some rather tasty Shapeways 3D printed extras, I have a pair of the Zvezda / Revell over-badged Imperial Star Destroyer on the bench. The packaging may be big and there is plenty of plastic inside it, however its quite a straight forward modular assembly with plenty of long flat surfaces and nice angles that butt up good and proper; however its also a kit that can probably be built in under an hour if you don't get distracted. The kit is particularly well engineered with ample detail for a kit of this large scale - it makes the old MPC kit seem like a micro-machine in many ways.

 

Well done to the Ruskies for producing something so well designed and a faithful reproduction of the Avenger class destroyers. I'm a few hours into my build, slowed down only by the cleaning up of 3D parts and dremelling work required to fit the new Shapeway parts

 

here goes..

 

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to give you an idea of scale

 

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plastic surgery starts...

 

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this 3D printed hangar is designed for fibre optic lighting but after the major lighting work undertaken on my previous Randy Cooper Star Destroyer, I simply don't have the will power to start the process all over again and are happy to build these ISD's as unlit models

 

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18 minutes ago, rockpopandchips said:

You must love these ships but it will be fun to see what you do with these two.

Hi there - the original 3 Star Wars films fascinated me - I was 10 when ANH came out so I grew up with the magic that ILM brought to our imaginations - the Star Destroyer was the absolute symbol of might and militant power at the age of 10 and it somehow had more going for it for me than anything that Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica could ever offer.

 

Its only been in the last 3 odd years that I have returned to sci-fi modelling having previously been hooked on 1/144 civil builds - Its a nice change for me, and I am lucky enough to belong to a IPMS club with guys my age and older that still enjoy sci-fi modelling, Gerry Anderson TV and sci-fi nitter natter every week - "Old Guys Rule" springs to mind...

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there is some good quality workmanship going on in the side wall trenches - they fit very nicely

 

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Shapeways 3D printed main hangar installed into 1 of the ISD's

 

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you cant quite see them, but in the left hand side internal hangar bay are a pair of TIE Fighters on a launch chute

 

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Zvezda have done a decent job with their kit sub engines but they are not quite right and these Falcon 3D supplied alternatives rather save the day

 

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KIT A - rear bulkhead with kit supplied engines

 

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KIT B - rear bulkhead with Falcon 3D engine set

 

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Ive got a brilliant local tool shop in Gibraltar that sells these clamps for £2 for a set of 4 (the large clamps) - they came in handy on my previous larger resin ISD kit and have paid off their weight in gold a second time over

 

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A nice little support is provided to keep the hull halves straight and helps prevent the rear bulkhead popping out while being clamped - I have memories of the old MPC kit being a nightmare in this area

 

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and the same for the mid section to help keep the kit in shape

 

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Again, I must praise Falcon 3D for their fantastic work at producing such a brilliant set of main engines

 

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They got a tad warped in the heat over the summer - the bases made a perfect insert to hold the shape as a perfect circle once they had been steamed a while

 

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Upper super-structure slowly being added and clamped

 

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Shapeways and Falcon 3D's Garbage chutes - I misjudged where to cut the insert but luckily had the other kits part to use once I had noticed my error

 

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what a great pair of kits these have turned out to be, and a far cry form the old MPC kit which wowed me out back in the day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Yeoman1942 said:

Did I spy a sand crawler in one of the photos? Looking forward to that one.

 

keep up the great work

Hi Yeoman

 

You did spy right with your little eye - that is Randy Coopers 1/96 sand Crawler that is being "fiddled" with between drying times while these 2 ISD's come to a close - it should look something like this once completed - this was Randy's picture he sent me with the assembly instructions

 

Finished (1)

 

 

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So these 2 kits are now built and are ready for the paintshop - they were a pleasure to build and very worth the "higher" price tag that Zvezda/Revell Germany call for. Having spent the last 4 month working on crusty warped resin that had to be engineered and made to fit, these kits are an absolute delight to assemble.

 

A few days on the window sill and the Falcon 3D engines are now the right shape again, helped by the use of adding their waste bases to retain the shape over the last few days

 

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The Tower assembly

 

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Falcon 3D parts vs kit parts - The Deflector Shield Generators

 

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Making room for the Falcon 3D printed deflector shield domes

 

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So I messed up and inserted the centre engine spacer inside the hull - the instructions were not too clear and I accidently added the spacer to the inside of the bulkhead assuming a second spacer was to be added further along the assembly line - not so as it turned out. So here is the home made modification used to redeem my oversight

 

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The assembled kits

 

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Now, where's that Tamiya light grey primer....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Gimme

 

Thanks for confirming about the Sand Crawler. Cant wait to see what you do with it. Sure it will be great. It has to be one of the most iconic vehicles even though it only has a little screen time.

 

Great work on the Star Destroyers/

 

Yeoman

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12 hours ago, Yeoman1942 said:

Hi Gimme

 

Thanks for confirming about the Sand Crawler. Cant wait to see what you do with it. Sure it will be great. It has to be one of the most iconic vehicles even though it only has a little screen time.

 

Great work on the Star Destroyers/

 

Yeoman

Hi Yeoman

 

I got round to putting up some pics of the Crawler today on the WIP area here

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