Jump to content

Alliance Star Destroyers


Recommended Posts

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:

39087033464_9e877125be_b.jpg

 

Bandai's:

39765289792_05155c69ec_b.jpg

 

39765296552_5156caed2f_b.jpg

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!

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

very nice - I am really at home with a Star Destroyer themed build so this posting is right up my street.

 

I have 2 of these little Revell ISD's on my desk now - the first was a present from one of my club members and the second arrived as a backup for my desk at the office. Looking at your comparison of the 2, I can certainly see that Bandai have added more detail to their offering however at the age of 50, had I invested in the Bandai kit to keep my Revell kit company, my eyesight is now too poor to see the difference from the distance I would effectively look at both of these 2 kits for me to actually notice the difference in quality.

 

I love your paintwork and decals used on these destroyers - the Force must be strong with you....

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Overall the Bandai is a nicer kit, it has more detail and it goes together more easily. The difference in detail in the vertical parts of the kits is quite noticeable, unless your eyes are young and healthy (mine aren't) or you're looking closely it's fairly academic and the larger size of the Revell kit gives it some extra presence despite its simpler detail. Though actually the panel lines on the Revell kit make the front of the ship look a little less sparse, even if you can easily take apart the logic of having panel lines on a 1:12300 scale kit. :)

 

Enjoy building your Revell kits! There were a few more mould seams and small gaps to clean up around the bridge but otherwise the most awkward part of the build is fitting in the tail weight needed to compensate for how far back the stand is mounted.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...