Silverstone 2

Painted main deck & Tower Also today I stared with the finer detailing:

Today's update: Glued all the building on now, head unit is still dry fit only as this will need airbrushing first before final fit. Otherwise the underneath of bridge section will be very hard to airbrush, once fitted due to clearance. If finally found the right base colour too, which is great news. Priming first then finishing of with #166 "Light aircraft grey". I will then be giving the whole ISD a dark-wash, this could taske some time and about 1000 cotton buds Followed by high lighting with #196 and probably Ghost grey to pick out different panels. The painting is going to take some time Here is a picture of the building reinforcement to keep the ceiling straight - Albion alloys sq-tube Hull reinforcement posts to prevent sagging of the large resin casts: Buildings on:

Last Pics for today's update, more tomorrow...... Dry fit only again scale wise this is on a queen size bed. Good thing it's the spare room bed!

Some picks taken this afternoon. The superstructure is now bonded only along the ceiling join in order for me to still be able to manipulate the shape for the final fit. It's natural resting place seems to fit pretty well after some careful profiling. It is quite easy to see where the fit issues are with both halves, simply resting each piece on the hull and seeing how parallel the join is going to be once fitted. The top join: (important to get this detail aligned correctly!

The gap in front of the Tower on the top section of the superstructure is caused by cast-warping. I will remedy this problem by creating beams along the inside ceiling. I will use 6mm Sq. Albion alloy tubing for this. more picks to follow!

Some more pictures; To get an idea of size, I've included a cloths peg and a 1/32 Fw 190 A-6 for scale comparison: The "Blocklade Runner"

The superstructure and buildings have most of the warping found in this Studio ISD model. This is probably due to there complexity of joined molds and size. So I Have started numerous test fitting and used some large sellotape again to see how this all fits now they are sitting correctly on the hull angles. I've also dry-fitted the Tower and main deck to give you some idea of how this is going to look once finished, minus some detail parts still awaiting their fit. Hopefully the radiator behind give some idea of scale and size. The ISD is very heavy, the hull alone is weighing in at 7-8 kgs hence why lots of internal support is necessary. The main hull geometry and fit is looking straight edge detail still awiting. but this will all go on last. The rear quadrant is also bonded in place now...more pictures of this area to follow. (some of the edge details will need re-working where the molds haven't come out properly

Bit more of an update, After gluing the first top half I noticed some sag on the front section (bowing), due to warpage and natural weight of the long casts. So i built a support from hard wood: This enabled to solve 2 potential problems as I wanted to reinforce the front section anyway as it's m mainly hollow in front of the middle bulkhead. The other half went on nicely and has joined up well in the middle. Now i have a finished main hull! Superstructure and buildings next......

This build is eating through adhesives like it's going out of fashion. I've already used 3 x 25ml Epoxy and 2 x 1/2oz Insta-cure thick CA! More or order as I predict at least another 1 oz CA and 2 x Epoxy will be needed.

Today's Update: Have finished the 3 large engines now. Lots of adjusting to do on the exhaust rings, as they come too big to fit correctly on the engine shrouds. Bit of splicing as sorted this fit issue. Also bonding corners first and then adjusting with fingers to create a round shape coincident with the engines. The engines had to be heat treated first to bring back to a round shape rather than oval. This ISD is truly a labour of love! or perhaps insanity? Also fixed the top halves-seem issue this morning and have test fitted both sides. One side is now epoxied into place. I made register marks on the structures to check alignment during this process. (Need a lot of clamps!) This is very strongly recommended. Because it will be extremely annoying if there is any creep or movement in the curing process. 5 min epoxy really takes the Full 24H to really get it's strength.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, I promise to have the build completed in the next few weeks! I hope? It's extremely fulfilling tackling such a difficult build when the end results emerge. I will be getting a proper metal display stand for this once completed. Ideally I'd like the ISD to stand about 80-90 cams high on a custom stand. A bit like the old stands used for static airliner models in travel agents. Best Phil

Some Pictures of Bridge and the Blockade Runner, still WIP:

Here are some pictures i took today of the finished bottom section and completed Blockade Runner:

The 2 remaining top sections still need some work on the front-half joins: You can see the gap at the rear the is created due to the ill-fit! No probs all fixable with careful sanding! This close-up demonstrates the curved profile that must be straightened to solve the fit issues:

Finished the trenches yesterday, You can see the structure reinforcement i made on the longitudinal access to correct some warping in the structure and to provide more rigidity. The Cross bracing is very important in this resin model due to it's large size and apparent weight. used quite a bit of plasticard as spacers for the trenches which worked very well Also primed and sprayed the rear engine section although i think a lighter grey is what's needed here. This is still only held together with tape:

I have now bonded together the 2 lower halves and built the hanger and even started on the trenches: The Tower & Bridge are also finished although still some detailing to do around the deflector shield generators, the underside is looking very good and i'm very happy with the level of detail of the Resin casts. the hanger looks truly amazing! I'm not putting any fiber-optics in this ISD nor any lighting of other sorts. I'm going for an authentic weathered look with very high detail paint scheme. Quite o lot of sanding and finishing to be done on all the seems:

It is very important to obtain the correct Geometry of all the main pieces. So after careful preparation of all the parts i stood it up to look down all the edges, everything is coming together nicely!

I've bonded all the main upper and lower sections together now (triangular pieces). This now gives me the 4 main pieces: upper Left/Right and Lower Left/Right sections. I used 5 min epoxy for this and left 24hrs drying. I had to buy a Black & Decker Flat sander for this model in order to get the finished section flat (seamless) on the inside faces. This is essential for getting an accurate fit of the internal structure and trenches. Now these 4 sections were complete, i could now tape it all together again to get an idea of overall fit. It's BIG!

There is a lot of work to do, and it's only sensible to tackle the build in stages. Here you can see the warp-tastic on the upper superstructure. Nerve racking to look at but I've found that as the ISD assembles, a lot of remedy solving becomes apparent, just need patience. The piece of the Blockade Runner for some idea of scale: the overall length is 1m and heavy!

This is my first SF post as i'm mainly Aircraft and AFV builder at heart. STAR WARS is on my mind a lot at the moment with the new film coming out later this year. My favorite space ship of all time is the legendary ISD, right from the first encounter in episode IV when it is in pursuit of the "Blockade runner". I have been looking for some time at the MPC and even the Anigrand Star destroyers but I wanted more. The MPC kit is far too basic and the Anigrand although decent size at 27" (70cm) hard to find and expensive if one ever turns up? Then there is the Randy Coopers version 38" (1/1700 scale), which is in a league of it's own IMHO! This rendition does the ISD justice in terms of scale and detail. The Bandai forthcoming version looks very basic even compared to this: All this detail and scale comes at a price though, in terms of both money and effort in building this huge replica. I purchased this from Randy in December. shipping was quick, only taking 8-9 days door to door. On examining the huge resin casts and parts, i thought i'd bitten off more than i can chew! So i couldn't wait as the suspense in building something so difficult due to extreme fit issues and mold accuracy I started 3 weeks ago. First I prepared all the parts.....sanding......sanding...... scribing.........sanding. This is very labour intensive and requires more patience than any other model i've ever built. But i'm thoroughluy enjoying the challenge! Once the parts were prepared, i began on test fitting using strong cellotape just to get an idea of where i was, fit wise: There is warping galore on all parts including some size issues due to such large molds. All fixable though through careful profiling and heat treatment. Even the engines are not round until a bit of careful manipulation. After 5-6 hours, I first built the inner frame and attached the large faces and buildings, all taped:

Hi Matt, Not sure how much further I'll go on the interior detail, still wish to do an Early KT with the zimmerit finish. abt 501 or 503 most likely. I really want to get the most authentic exterior finish possible without over doing it. The 1/35 trial has given me some ideas of what I want as a finished result. Are you using primer for you acrylics or are you spraying colour straight onto the plastic surface? The reason I ask is the only pain I find with the acrylics spraying I've done mostly on aircraft is all the priming. The 1/35 KT was all enamels. Phil

Hi Matt, Really enjoying this build! What colour paint did you use for the Oxide red? Are you using Enamels or Acrylics? Phil P.s. I'm starting my KT next week now I have got the 1/32 aircraft finished.

An absolute must! just like the Do-335 and B-17! Cant wait for the Lancaster

I can't wait for this 1/32 Lancaster! if it's anywhere close to being as good as their B-17, I'll be one happy bunny I will most certainly be getting this irrespective of how big my stash of 1/32 & 1/16 models is getting

Lovely Shading and weathering, a real masterpiece!