Randy Cooper Star destroyer FINISHED! Page 7

Finally!!! the most difficult and time consuming process of the assembly is out of the way, now the fun and easy stuff begins.

As you can see I scribed all the rear inner fins and lots of clean up was required between those ridges, the panels are huge and tricky to glue togheter, you really need to plan out your assembly and buy lots of clamps! the side trench don't fit perfect, one side is too short and the other to long, a 1/4 " extention was needed. If done properly not putty is needed at the joints, my fit was so perfect that the joints are barely visible and will dissapear and blend in with the rest of the scribed lines

BTW A belt sander is a must, many long parts need to be thinned out.

GFollano

Tordoc said:

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Take as many pictures as you can. What areas required all the sanding? Can you show us the areas you rescribed? Can you show us a picture of where the 1/4" extension was needed?

Here are some photos showing the 1/4" extension which was added at the joint, the side trenches are made of 3 seperate parts, added another photos showing the scribed rear fins.

Most of main panel edges need to be belt sanded down so the side trenches fit nice and flush everywhere, you need to do the same for the smaller side ledges that go all around the upper and lower areas of the trenches, they are too thick and need some clean up.

The trenches are not consistent and vary a little in width in some areas, like most garage kist it will require some fiddling around these problems.

The casting is TOP NOTCH!!! pratically no airbubbles on such a detailed model, If only Kobarth's
much simpler Super Destroyer was close to this quality.

GFollano

Here's are some new progress pics.

The tower/neck part was a real pain to fit properly, it required major mods and lots of test fitting and sanding, also a extension was needed at the base of the neck to fill gap since it doesn't sit flush.

Randy's instructions states this would be necessary, I went the extra mile and took the opportunity to accurize the side vent detail area which I scratchbuilt, I sanded down the original vent detail and added my improved parts which fill the extension nicely and looks more accurate,

I got the angle of the hull perfectly, all the upper decks fit perfectly flush but somehow the tower didn't, there was no other oprion around this problem.

I also had to rework some fine details from a bad molding seems which misaligned most of the details seen in the last pics.

GFollano

Eagle said:

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As you're aware, I had the very same problem but my gap was quite a lot worse.

Looking good there!

Yes I remember,

I added a 4mm extension, the rear not as much was needed since I added styrene between the rudders like the original, which also serves as a platform for the neck to sit closer.

I tried everything to bring it a close as possible to the hull to minimize the extension as much as possible, still couldn't get it under 4mm

GFollano

tk1608 said:

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Looks great Gerardo, I'm a bit concerned to hear I'm gonna need a belt sander for this..are you sure it's an essencial ?

Cheers

Phil

Hey Phil,

It's not essential but will save you a bunch of time and make it much easier.

The problem is that the main hull edges need to be sanded off up to 1/16 in areas at full lenght so it's even thickness everywhere for the trench parts to sit flush all around, by hand it would take forever, also all the long side strips (as seen in photo) will need sanding down to remove thickness (excess resin material) a belt sander makes the job easier and sanding will be perfectly flat. It could be done by hand but would take a while.

I purchased a simple $60.00 Black & Decker hand held belt sander, I just flip it over and clamp on my workbench, it's worth the money, peices are much easier to flat down or removing excess material in a few minutes, now I use it all the time.

GFollano

Right...ok then, time to visit the DIY shop....DIY stands for don't involve yourself.. I tell the missus that anyway.

Cheers Gerardo, the pics are a great help and that sander looks such a cool piece of kit I gotta get one.

Phil

Slowly but surely,

Fitting that superstructure especialy the second floor was challenging, as you can see the seems are so tight that no putty is needed, every single part does not fit without sanding quite a bit.

I thought assembling the main hull was the ha part, fitting the head/neck and the second deck requires alot of patienece if you want it to fit nice and thight everywhere.

GFollano