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1/2256 Anigrand 28 inch Imperial - class Star Destroyer resin kit


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Hi all, this kit has been in my stash since 2016 when I bought it from a guy in Texas USA. I have only now plucked up the courage to tackle this beast of a kit! 

My kit is good condition; however it will still have warp issues and fit problems, it has got sharp panel lines and crisp details, which leads me to think that this was one of the first examples to be pulled from the original moulds.

 

Obviously, I plan to light it, but I am not after a film accurate replica, I plan to just build it as a nice looking model with modern lighting added. So, I will be using a few dozen 0.5mm drills to get the windows opened up, and then I will be adding 100 metres of 0.25 fibre optic strands. I think this should give a nice scale lighting effect.

 

I fully expect to spend about a week just getting all of the parts to fit together, also I plan to have a pole mounted through the bottom reactor dome, this will involve some tubular structure in the hull of the ship to support the model and stop any possible future warpage and sag issues.

 

Let's hope the modelling force is with me for this build, I look forward to receiving your comments as always.

 

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Edited by Lee Chambers
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.....wow! Even larger than the 1/2700 Scale Star Destroyer from Zvesta! This will be fun to watch your progress.

 

If i remember correctly there are some Build Videos on the YouTube Channel of Florymodels. a bit frightening to watch what they had to do to improve the inner structure of this heavy monster.

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4 minutes ago, Reelyator said:

.....wow! Even larger than the 1/2700 Scale Star Destroyer from Zvesta! This will be fun to watch your progress.

 

If i remember correctly there are some Build Videos on the YouTube Channel of Florymodels. a bit frightening to watch what they had to do to improve the inner structure of this heavy monster.

Yes I have watched his video builds, I think he rushed the build and over did the weight by flooding it with resin.

I have had similar issues ,just in different areas, resin kits don't like sitting in a box for 5 years, but it will get sorted.

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I built mine a few years back .....the warping is a pain as it's such an angular shape that even the slightest twist becomes more noticeable  I ended up putting saw cuts on the inner surface reinforcing struts and packing them out with plasticard which helped straighten things up

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21 hours ago, Neil Lambess said:

I built mine a few years back .....the warping is a pain as it's such an angular shape that even the slightest twist becomes more noticeable  I ended up putting saw cuts on the inner surface reinforcing struts and packing them out with plasticard which helped straighten things up

Sounds like your kit was much worse than mine, I have done a lot of cutting and re jigging to try and get the bottom of the hull to flatten out, it's getting there slowly.

But all said and done it never was going to be a shake and bake kit, which is part of the challenge. 

And it's the first real large scale resin kit of this subject ever produced, you could say it's the nearest model kit to a real studio replica, yes Randy coopers kit's are wonderful, but they are modern replicas of this kit albeit on a grander scale. 

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Hi all, I have managed to get the main parts together, and the top and bottom decks to fit correctly. I had to scratch build some new front sections of the upper decks due to having to cut out some areas in order to get the parts to fit, as they were warped out of shape and I wasn't going to risk damaging the parts by using heat etc.

 

Before I glued all of the sections together, I used 0.5mm drill bits in my Dremel to drill out all of the holes for the fibre optic strands; this was easier than having to do it when the ship was complete. The lower bow section was warped and needed lots of internal supports cutting away and about 8kg of weight pressing down on it overnight to correct most of it.

 

I have built an armature support to take the weight of the ship, this was a section of metal tube that was bent to the correct angle and using slow setting Araldite it was set into the lower reactor dome. The tube ends are threaded, it is part of an old IKEA lamp stand that has a heavy base, and this will form the stand for the model.

 

I gave all of the parts a few coats of Mr Surfacer black from a couple of rattle cans. Now the long tedious part begins adding the 0.25mm fibre optic strands. I originally thought 100m would be enough, well I was way out on that estimate, and it’s going to take near 300m to light this ship up!

 

Guess it will be like building up tank tracks over the next week. Bye for now guys, take care.

 

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7 hours ago, rockpopandchips said:

That's is one impressive kit. 

It's one of those Grail kit's you only get to buy once, so I am taking my time to get the details right. I have completed fitting all 190 metres of fibre into the top decks of the hull. Now I am adding the fibre to the lower hull, not sure how much fibre that's going to take, but I will post an update soon.

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On 19/08/2021 at 00:04, Lee Chambers said:

 I have completed fitting all 190 metres of fibre into the top decks of the hull. Now I am adding the fibre to the lower hull, not sure how much fibre that's going to take, but I will post an update soon.

 190 metres of fibre optic?! Wholly carp!

I guess if yer gonna do it, you might as well do it right!

 

This thing is a behemoth however you look at it.

Looks good so far, you're moving right along here.

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35 minutes ago, Tzulscha said:

 190 metres of fibre optic?! Wholly carp!

I guess if yer gonna do it, you might as well do it right!

 

This thing is a behemoth however you look at it.

Looks good so far, you're moving right along here.

It's a mino compared to Randy Coopers 42 inch monster! I have put a total of 300 metres into the top and bottom hulls.

Still have plenty to keep me busy.👍

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Hi all, here are a few pictures showing the progress this week. I crammed 190 metres of fibre into the top decks including the separate bridge decks and another 90 metres into the lower hull section. The fibre was held in place with PVA glue.

 

I have used cool white LED's for all of the lights on the top part of the ship, with a sprinkle of red LED's here and there. For the lower hull, I have used warm white LED's with a sprinkle of orange LED's in the side trench areas. The hangar backs have warm white fibre, with some blue LED's to fill the main decks and hopefully when painted in the light grey scheme it should give off a nice glow to both bays.

 

I ran out of solder this weekend so I wasn't able to wire up all of the fibre on the lower hull, I should get that done next week. The lower hull has about 3 times more lighting than the upper hull, mainly due to the side trenches, but it really needs it in that area. Overall, I am happy with how the lighting is looking so far. Bye for now, and happy modelling.

 

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Hi all, here is an update on the build so far. After installing almost 300 metres of fibre into the ship, I added the engine bell lighting. I used 5mm warm white flickering LED's in the 3 large Ion engines and 5mm cool white flickering LED's in the 4 small thruster engines.

 

After double checking all of the electrical connections, the top and bottom of the ship was clamped together for a test fit. Once I was happy with the test fitting, I marked up some reference lines with a red marker pen. I had scraped all of the mating surfaces and used JB Weld slow setting epoxy to glue both sections. The clamps were left in position for 16 hours for the glue to set.

 

Once the clamps were removed, I found a few areas that were slightly out of shape, so I used a flat blade knife to separate the joint slightly and a few shims of styrene sheet will be added to square up those areas, but it was no big issue. Then I test fitted the upper tower section, made up the power connections and used 15-minute epoxy to glue the tower in place.

 

I have added a couple of lighting effects boards into this build. They ramp up the 4 thruster engines and give the effect of jumping to light speed, this works by a quick push of a momentary switch button. I have 7 multi coloured SMD's installed into the lower bow section which with holding the momentary button down for 1.5 seconds bring an 8 second flashing sequence that mimics the lasers firing as seen in the beginning of the New Hope original movie.

 

The lighting boards also give some random slow blinking SMD’s in the side trenches of the ship. The lighting still has to be refined and toned down to a more scale like look, but overall, I like it. Although it may not, please the purists!

 

I need to put the project to one side for a week or so, before I begin the painting stage. So, I can work out what paints and colours I will use, happy modelling.

 

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Edited by Lee Chambers
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5 minutes ago, Tomjw said:

Lee, that looks incredible. Absolutely incredible 😀😀😀

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

Cheers Tom, obviously the fibre is too long deliberately and will be cut shorter when the final painting is complete.

I have a work in progress video showing the lighting effects on my YouTube channel skyray models.

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5 minutes ago, Lee Chambers said:

Cheers Tom, obviously the fibre is too long deliberately and will be cut shorter when the final painting is complete.

I have a work in progress video showing the lighting effects on my YouTube channel skyray models.

I'm definitely going to check out your video Lee.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all, here is the final paint scheme for the ship. I wanted the top deck area to have a bit more detailing, so I took a chance on adding loads of very thin vinyl tape over most of the top decking area, this was sprayed over with Tamiya LP-35 Insignia white.

 

Then the vinyl stripes were removed to reveal the black lines, trust me it looks better later! Next, I got my local vinyl cutter guy to make up 12 masks panels; I had drawn out the panel shapes from a plastic template used for plumbing fixture plans. I then set about airbrushing hundreds of the panels, first with a mix of AK Real colors RCO21 Pale grey, mixed with Tamiya XF-2 Flat white, thinned with Rapid thinner.

 

I then added a few panels sprayed with a mix of AK real colors RC003 White grey, mixed with AK RC221 ADC grey. This gave a warm white/grey tone. I then sprayed a thinned blending coat of Tamiya Flat white mixed with ADC grey. Next, I sprayed a thin coat of AK RC508 clear smoke, in the areas like the side trenches to give a slight shadow effect. The whole ship was sealed with AK RC502 gloss varnish mixed with 50% rapid thinners and left to dry overnight.

 

Then I sprayed a few light coats of Flory Models grey weathering clay wash. This gave another blending coat. Once this had dried, I only lightly removed it with a damp cloth (old T-shirt). I then spent a good few hours, cutting back all of the fibre strands with my new Tamiya PE scissors; they were ideal for this purpose.

 

I then gave the ship a final coat of Alclad II ALC 313-60 Matte clear, mixed 50% with rapid thinners. Some highly thinned 502 Star Ship filth oil wash was gently brushed into areas, such as the side trenches and deck sides/rear engines, to bring out all of the detailing. Once dry, a quick check to make sure all of the lighting was still working, which thankfully it was.

 

Overall, I am delighted with the look of the ship; it’s got a bluish grey tone to the overall colour, but changes to a very light grey in bright lighting. The panelling I think looks in scale with the ship, and the lighting in person looks amazing. Next is to fit all of the wiring and control boards into the base and then mount the ship on the base stand.

 

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