GreenStrawberry Star Wars Star Destroyer Engine Bells & Shield Generators (10120-1/5000 for Bandai) 1:5000

[Mike]

Star Wars Star Destroyer Engine Bells & Shield Generators (10120-1/5000 for Bandai)

1:5000 GreenStrawberry

 

 

Star Destroyers.  It’s just occurred to me that despite their name, they can’t even destroy planets, which was why the Death Star was created - as Alderaan found out to their cost.  Still, it’s a cool name.  Apart from Tantive IV, known at the Blockade Runner in the olden days, the Star Destroyer was the first ship to hit the screen at the beginning of Star Wars: Episode IV.  Bandai have the Far Eastern kit rights to the Star Wars franchise, but those kits are so nice that they keep finding their way to our shores here in the West.  GreenStrawberry are big Sci-Fi fans, and have a ton of sets for these kits and many others to improve the detail and accuracy of these kits.

 

This set is intended for the recent Bandai 1:5000 Star Destroyer kit, which although quite a bit larger than the usual 1:72 kits of fighters and so on, can still be improved upon.  The set arrives in a small dark-themed box, and inside are five resin parts and a fret of Photo-Etch (PE).  The three larger parts are the replacement engine bells without the thick fluted lips of the kit parts.  They still have holes in the centre for the lighting kit if you’re lucky enough to have that variant (Brag: I do!), and the three surrounding baffles that are visible at the very tip of the engine bells are supplied on the PE sheet together with a more in-scale fluted section of the engine bell that should be rolled to match the size of the bells and is attached on a tiny dropped lip inside the edge - you can just see that in the picture below.

 

 

The other two resin parts are the shield generator “golf balls” that sit atop either side of the bridge superstructure.  They are moulded on small casting blocks with a central support section, around which the visible PE structure is fitted.  The PE part has the support shape etched-in, so that you can glue the resin ball in place before you begin to fold it to shape.  Before the outer struts are folded up, the inner ladder-like supports are folded up and glued in place on the etched squares that gives them a good contact patch.  With those fitted, and there are 12 for each generator, the outer legs are folded up to touch the underside of the faceted spherical skin.  The completed generators are glued into the space left by removing the chunky kit supports, after which the tiny little antennae are glued to the top at the intersection of the facets, as per the accompanying diagram.  A scrap diagram shows how the supports should look from the side to assist in placement.

 

As an aside, you can see some holes in the model that have been drilled to accept fibre-optics later in the build in these pictures.

 

Conclusion

Another great set from GreenStrawberry.  A little delicate folding will be needed to do it justice, and those tiny antennae are best left off until the end.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of