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COMPLETED Imperial Star Destroyer - Randy Cooper resin 42" 1/1500 scale


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This kit is a monster - both in sheer size and by measure of the amount of work that will be needed to complete it. Ordered from Randy Cooper in the US in the Spring, this must be one, if not the last of his old Devastator mouldings. A nice challenge ahead - when was a short run resin kit ever meant to be a simple lick and stick job. If I'm honest with myself, I'm quite looking forward to the amount of work needed here. The Hangar parts are not really usable due to shape distortion so I have commissioned a 3D build which will be an upscaled hanger produced for the Zvezda 1/2700 ISD - the proportions and dimensions work well when enlarged and nothing that a bit of filler and plasticard wont put right to blend the hangar into the hull when I get to that stage.

 

Randy is working on a new and much improved ISD kit in the same scale with some updates and what I believe to be a more simplified build - but here goes my attempt. Randy's new ISD is based on the larger 9 footer studio model used in ESB and RoTJ - his Facebook pages are being regularly updated for anyone in the market for one of the new kits - I have slipped one on back order for myself hoping that this build will be the "dress rehearsal" of the 2.

 

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This kits really is like building the Titanic - its taking over both my workshop benches and the resin dust is making life hard work even with protective glasses and masks. The detailing on the kit is outstanding however the pieces are different thicknesses and badly distorted in shape which rather puts a downer on the kit considering the price paid. I have had some 3D engines printed up which should arrive soon.

 

Internal skeleton

 

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Yep - those are CM measurements on the cutting mats so you can get an idea of how mega the engine bulkhead is

 

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Test on internal skeletal frame on intended display upright pole

 

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Window lighting jig for LED and Fibre Optics

 

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Belt sander fixed in vice for long edge / surface sanding and make good

 

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Keel Plate 1 on

 

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stand pole bored out

 

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The rear baffle flaps sections of the kit (upper and lowere) were pretty much a complete right off when I took a closer look at them - the mould detail had been lost over the years so I had to dremmel new channels from scratch and remake all the detail groove channels here on all 4 sections

 

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test on display pole

 

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One of the many side trench walls being marked up for lighting drill holes

 

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Screws caped over and some plasticard surgery make good on one of the joins to blend matters together

 

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new ZVEZDA / Revell Star Destroyer vs the mega Randy Cooper GIANT !! -

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Tidying up and blending in the stand housing hole

 

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That's all folks -

 

 

 

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Wow! That kit is crazy mad massive. 

Comes to something when major carpentry is involved in a build.

Did you have to design and build all that wooden framework, or did it come with the kit? Hope you have a strong shelf to support it.

I looked on the randy Cooper website, but this kit is not currently available, as he's re doing the molds for it. Mind you, I did see a nice kit of the bubble ship from oblivion. Would love it, but don't have $400 spare at the moment.

Good luck with the drilling of the windows, hope you have a good supply of drill bits. I've heard you might get through a few.

Nice idea with the sander, mounting it like that, bet it saves a load of elbow grease!

 

Looking forward to seeing more. 

 

Matt

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10 hours ago, S5 modeller said:

I did see a nice kit of the bubble ship from oblivion. Would love it, but don't have $400 spare

Matt

Like you I've seen the bubbleship and would love one but the price puts me off. 

 

This kit is amazing though, but a lot of work. I like the idea of the slightly offset mount too - just seems 'right' somehow. Enjoying your WIP immensely; keep up the good work

Edited by The Chief Smeg
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10 hours ago, S5 modeller said:

Wow! That kit is crazy mad massive. 

Comes to something when major carpentry is involved in a build.

Did you have to design and build all that wooden framework, or did it come with the kit? Hope you have a strong shelf to support it.

I looked on the randy Cooper website, but this kit is not currently available, as he's re doing the molds for it. Mind you, I did see a nice kit of the bubble ship from oblivion. Would love it, but don't have $400 spare at the moment.

Good luck with the drilling of the windows, hope you have a good supply of drill bits. I've heard you might get through a few.

Nice idea with the sander, mounting it like that, bet it saves a load of elbow grease!

 

Looking forward to seeing more. 

 

Matt

cheers Matt - the kit comes with 3 internal structural pieces but they are not really strong enough to hold the kit together if displayed on an upright pole as I have chosen. My structure distributes the downward weight across the main rear structural section to keep it from weakening - but even now its getting very heavy..

One of Randys kits has just been taken on by Pegagsus Hobbies - you may find it to be that bubble ship

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This kit is on my bucket list.  Great start and the popcorn is in the microwave ready to sit down and watch where you take this!

 

It is out of stock at the moment as Randy is updating the master including adding clear parts to make lighting easier.

 

Pegasus used Randy's Mars Hopper to produce their kit, the bubbleship is available in 1/48 from Fantastic Plastic but doesn't look as impressive or as big as Randy's!!

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every hour spent working on this kit leaves me thinking about the ingenuity that Randy put into not only developing the kit in the first place, but making it into an assembly that can then be reproduced as a kit for purchase - the detailing is brilliant and I am enjoying every second of this major build. I confess to having a back order with Randy for his new revised ISD so this model will be 1 of 2, with an Anigrand build of the same inbetween.

 

The 3D engines I have produced are ready now

 

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21 hours ago, Gimme Shelter said:

One of Randys kits has just been taken on by Pegagsus Hobbies - you may find it to be that bubble ship

That would be a treat and a half. 

 

Looking at at the support structure you are building to distribute the loads from your mount (and the size of the mount itself of course) it would seem that you are expecting this kit to be HEAVY, any idea how heavy? I'm not asking because I want to build one (not yet got the skill level to do this kit justice), but the engineer in me is screaming for information and your build looks truly solid and already looks amazing!

Edited by The Chief Smeg
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4 hours ago, The Chief Smeg said:

That would be a treat and a half. 

 

Looking at at the support structure you are building to distribute the loads from your mount (and the size of the mount itself of course) it would seem that you are expecting this kit to be HEAVY, any idea how heavy? I'm not asking because I want to build one (not yet got the skill level to do this kit justice), but the engineer in me is screaming for information and your build looks truly solid and already looks amazing!

Hi Chief

 

I would say that what is presently built (having been made heavy by the timber) weighs around 4 pounds in weight to date. My main concern is that there is no real way to secure the forward section to the middle bulkhead - hence the rear end internal structure so I have built a frame that can carry a forward pilon as the completed kit will be mounted from the underside on a single pole, making the forward section vulnerable to simply dropping off if not correctly supported when banged.

 

Randy's facebook pages (screen shot below) show a new internal structure which would have been a better design for me to have started with - but I have only just seen his new internal workings and will look forward to building his new designed ISD once he has it in production

 

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John

 

 

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Looking at your screenshots he must have had exactly the feedback from other people as you mentioned regarding the support of the front. 

 

So so you are going to build your own fleet of these!  That truly is 'Impressive'

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some updates here - my Fiancée is very understanding and has no issue loosing me to at least 2.5 hours a day to work on this beast in my man cave

 

lower rear "space flaps or could these be space speed brakes?" - pinned and fitted. The odd shaped pieces of thin Evergreen plasti-card fitted over the main assembly screws were shaped using dress maker scissors that have a rectangular shape blade

 

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lower dome - heated and flexed to fit

 

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carpet fitters mesh used to hold the forward fuselage halves together once trimmed and edged with the correct angle

 

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I've lost count of how many 1mm holes have been drilled over the last week but this is where it started for the fibre optic lighting

 

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May the Force be with you - John

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more progress made during the hot UK evenings this week

 

Trenches tidied up

 

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lower hull forward keel plates now installed

 

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A strip of 1.5mm x 6mm plastic glued to the stern ready to be trimmed down into the baffle flaps that had to be sanded off due to poor casting

 

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4 hours work over the weekend. Rear lower baffle flaps completed, lower engine bulkhead fitted, lower keel tidied up and main hangar test fitted

 

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OK so I have spent a few hours this week working on the hangars. In the scale I'm working with here, these hangars are large enough to add some detail that will easily be seen - the main hangar being nearly 4 inches long and the forward approx. 1" long.

 

A pair of 3D printed 1/1500 scale Lambda / Tydirium shuttles will feature in the forward hangar - 1 stood at the ready on the lip of the hangar and 1 on its decent from the hangar mouth. With hangars so large, the internal forward hangar chambers in the main hangar will also be visible. The replacement 3D printed main hangar features 2 forward internal hangar chambers with TIE fighter launch cradles and 2 TIE Fighters. Hence, the additional work scratch built here over a few evenings this week. Once the main hangar is inserted, the internal hangar chambers should blend in giving the area a feel of depth with a ceiling to obscure the internal fibre optics. Both hangars are being prepared to accommodate 2.2mm fibre optic lighting - hence the drilled out holes. Intricate nerdy fun...

 

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The resin is a good 5mm thick so to make the forward hangar more easily visible when unlit, I have dremelled out about 3mm of resin to lower the hangar floor

 

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Scratch builds - Forward hangar walls, roof - fibre fixings

 

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main hangar fibre optic spacer bar

 

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starting work making lower long edges into a neat straight line for the trench walls

 

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it needs a bit of edging and a tidy up but here is the forward hangar after its first prime

 

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main hangar inner chamber - needs another prime and tidy up but I ran out of time last night

 

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another 2 hours last night saw the completion of the hangar prep workings

 

Primed - the main hangar showing off its internal TIE fighter launch chute

 

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room for 23 fibre optics of various sizes

 

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forward hangar lip tidied up

 

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main hangar - light block in matt black

 

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plasti-strip added to long lip edge - a tidy up where trimmed edging left uneven lip

 

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I think it is important on this build to get the Geometry of the Hull correct before the build.

 

All joining lines - Centre/Front/Middle join to need to square first.

 

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Basically the ISD is 2 Isosceles Triangles each made up of 2 Right angle triangles. These 4 major hull pieces need to be built up first in order to ensure they are completely flat on the surface detail side. This way all major seems/gaps & joins can be avoided.

 

Then they simply lie on the internal structure, which yes did need a bit of reinforcement. 

 

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The Hull and it's integral geometry when built are extremely strong.

 

The shape and structure is very tough and not too much extra support is required.

 

Although some additional vertical support is required later before the superstructure buildings at the rear are mounted, this will prevent any sagging of the main hull where there is no support. Also the front section needs a rib too.

 

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As do the buildings need a few roof beams, due to sagging and warping of the relatively thin resin here.

 

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Once completed and all wrapped up, the ISD is strong as you'd ever need it to be. Trust me i've accidentally banged into almost every door frame in the house and it doesn't even care.

 

The vertical braces ensure the superstructure can lay flat on the main hull without any gaps, just the way you need it to be!

 

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