Revell Imperial-II Star Destroyer - second attempt 5 years in the making

[giuliodondi]

In 2019 I built the Zvezda 1:2700 ISD kit, my first kit built since my teenage years. That kit would be my first try at fiber optics lighting.
It was supposed to be a one-off endeavour to make a nice home showpiece, so no build log as well as corners cut left and right (impatient me).

This thread is about the second attempt, with a lot more attention to detail. So I'd like to start the build log by showing the previous attempt and list all the things I was going to improve on.

- Since the ISD is meant to be a grey triangle, I thought I could get away with coating everything with grey primer and calling it a day. No panelling, highlighting of details, weathering etc..
- I used a primer not meant for modelling and I put way too many coats to try to make everything uniform. Lots of detail lost in the process
- No kitbashing or detailing whatsoever, except a very sorry afterthought attempt in the rear trench recess
- Used 0.75mm fiber optics, too big for this scale, and in a few places they're not placed uniformly
- trench and hangar bay LEDs are too bright
- An accident on one of the superstructure roofs badly re-touched, more lost detail
- The seam between the two hull sections was filled with thick acrylic paint and painted over, as opposed to putty and masked with greeblies. Looks poor and it also catches dust more than the surroundings
- The display can use some improvement. I like the underside mirror thing, but the triple stilts look janky

The second build began in October 2020 as a Covid lockdown project. Now, in July 2025, it's coming along nicely but nowhere near finished. In the following posts I'll showcase all the pictures I collected in the meantime

 

[Analyzer]

The first build was pretty impressive for a first effort since being a kid, especially with the lighting and the base

Looking forward to the second build. I think faint panel lines and odd colored panels would be an improvement over to the first build

Like on the ESB filming model you can see the subtle tone variations. A very fine point mechanical pencil would be a good way to add/darken the existing panel lines. Plus if you make a mistake, you can literally erase it. Just be careful with weathering and stay away from heavy/ drak washes or heavy handed weathering. A little misting here and there with the lighter color than the base color to fade stuff would be more appropriate

 

[giuliodondi]

2020-2021: First attempt at greebling

These are my first experiments with styrene stocks and harvesting parts from other kits. At first I even tried recycling old thick optic fibre that I wasn't going to use, as well as the part sprues themselves.
I started off from the engine section:

Several of these details will be amended much later down the line. I decided to go for thick pipeson the large engine bells.
The white kit parts as well as the brass railings are from a very old Titanic kit I never ended up building.

Then I invested in flat styrene strips and 0.3mm HSS micro-drill bits.
These are the olny ones that don't snap after 2 holes drilled, but they require low speed and care not to gunk up the bit with melted plastic.
Time for the bridge faceplate (This will receive more detailing years on):

First holes drilled in the top hull islands, with qa couple accidents here and there:

It's in the middle of this that I invested in the Falcon3D parts set.
The hangar receives further details as well as the 'roofing' harvested from the original Revell hangar:

The hangar section of the lower hull is excavated and flattened, no hull details yet:

The tower spine also gets the waste chute part, still open at the far end as I hadn't worked out the LEDs yet:

And finally the elongated pier at the front of the superstructure (This will also receive more work):

 

[giuliodondi]

2021-2022: more kits for kitbashing:

At this point I was getting bored of the Titanic parts and I researched which kits I could cannibalise for greeblies. I selected a Trumpeter 1:700 Tirpiz.

Little details on the forecastle (also not yet finished):

The bridge roof is prepared for the Falcon3D sphere arrays and detailed:

The two the superstructure roof pieces:

The process of drilling the fiber holes into the superstructure walls, then marking them onto the scaffolding with a hand drill:

and finally drilled through with a coarser tip:

Then, long summer days workign on all the superstructure parts:

and some group pictures:

 

[INVAR]

YES! Greebling! I had missed the arduous task done with my Zvezda/Revell (which I have still not finished) - and a few months ago I found myself looking at the Revell Build-And-Play Rogue One ISD TOY that they released as a model kit, and .. I was impelled to suddenly rip out all the toy electronics and accurize it better. I originally wanted to just fix the side trench height and add detail - and.... well, I got myself suckered into doing the whole thing.

This was more difficult than the 1/2700 because the scale for this is closer to something like 1/4100 so the greeblies that I had to hand carve was tiny and miniscule compared to the 1/2700. I'm not lighting this kit, I just wanted to accurize and paint it.



I am glad to see you tackle the bigger kit and share your progress. You are making it look good.

 

[Analyzer]

Great job with the greeblies!

 

[giuliodondi]

The first build was pretty impressive for a first effort since being a kid, especially with the lighting and the base

Looking forward to the second build. I think faint panel lines and odd colored panels would be an improvement over to the first build

Like on the ESB filming model you can see the subtle tone variations. A very fine point mechanical pencil would be a good way to add/darken the existing panel lines. Plus if you make a mistake, you can literally erase it. Just be careful with weathering and stay away from heavy/ drak washes or heavy handed weathering. A little misting here and there with the lighter color than the base color to fade stuff would be more appropriate

View attachment 1948945
View attachment 1948947

Thanks for the tips! when the time comes for painting will definitely research on panelling techniques and other builds. Far, far down the line from the current status, though

 

[giuliodondi]

YES! Greebling! I had missed the arduous task done with my Zvezda/Revell (which I have still not finished) - and a few months ago I found myself looking at the Revell Build-And-Play Rogue One ISD TOY that they released as a model kit, and .. I was impelled to suddenly rip out all the toy electronics and accurize it better. I originally wanted to just fix the side trench height and add detail - and.... well, I got myself suckered into doing the whole thing.

This was more difficult than the 1/2700 because the scale for this is closer to something like 1/4100 so the greeblies that I had to hand carve was tiny and miniscule compared to the 1/2700. I'm not lighting this kit, I just wanted to accurize and paint it.

View attachment 1949268View attachment 1949269View attachment 1949270View attachment 1949271View attachment 1949272View attachment 1949273View attachment 1949274View attachment 1949275View attachment 1949276View attachment 1949277

I am glad to see you tackle the bigger kit and share your progress. You are making it look good.

Thanks!
Actually your 1/2700 build has served as an inspiration for my own, especially with raising the trench which will come in not too long.

That's some seriously fine work at that small scale!

 

[giuliodondi]

2022-2024: more hull details, then work wind-down

I kept working on this the whole summer of 22, then more an more sporadically as my actual employment work was keeping me in another city.

Modifications to the superstructure forward tip:

Roofing details on the pentagon structure (will receive more):

Photo-etch details around the turbo-lasers:

More superstructure and top hull details:

 

[giuliodondi]

2025: superstructure work resumes


This spring I found the motivation to resume work, and setup a small work-bench space in my flat.

I glued the top floor superstructure parts together save for the large roof piece, might need to keep it open for wiring:

I put a couple greeblies that 'clib a step' there at the front:

I also put details on the underside of the back ledge of the roof part:

And on the ledge of the middle roof part as well:

I should mention the additional greeble sources I acquired:
9 Tamiya Japanese ship kits I got for cheap:

As well as parts from two old half-broken kits I made when I was 12 or something, 1:2700 Venator kit and (i think) 1:400 Titanic, both by Revell.
This is before paint-stripping with oven cleaner:

 

[giuliodondi]

2025: revenge of the pipings

First, re-worked that empty spot above the central viewing platform (striggling to invent names for all the sections):

Then, I miiight have gone mad with the pipework at this stage:

One shot in the dark was to add turret barbettes at the very stern of the ship. They will receive two of the Venator dual turbolaser turrets.
In my lore, this was an afterthought modification to this ISD-II after someone pointed out the weak spot at the back of the ship:

And, the superstructure as a whole:

I'm calling the superstructure mostly done, barring the occasional greeble to cover a seam.
The hull will most likely receive scattered details once it's time to join the front and back segments

 

[giuliodondi]

2025: Bridge detailing, part 1

More detailing on the bridge front faceplate, including replacing two brass details with styrene strips, as they were flimsy and rattled themselves off:

Realised I never showed the antenna cross-bracing (work was done years ago):

a ton more detailing on the bridge roof (looking at the pictures I realise there's a detailing not quite set right that I'll need to fix):

and with all the array parts:

the two sides:

And the back. This is not finished as is, I intended to add more detail when the tower neck will be sorted out:

 

[giuliodondi]

2025: Bridge detailing, part 2

I'm particularly pleased with the underside work. Taking inspiration for other builds, I too recreated the ESB equipment pits:

Excavation starts with a drill bore and then hand-chiselled to a square:

the pits were built larger on purpose, then detailed wall by wall:

I did my first LED tests at this stage. Full-brightness 5v LEDS are too bright and will cast a light on the superstucture roof. On the latter two images I tried undervolting them to 3.3V

completed work:

Finally, the back, sides and underside of the bridge are glued together:

 

[StevenBills]

This is a herculean task that I hope to undertake one day. Yours is looking good so far!

SB

 

[giuliodondi]

2025: Tower neck, part 1

The infamous bridge tilt, one of those subtle details which you can't unsee once you're aware of it.
Didn't take long for me to decide I had to do something about it, or every time I would look at the finished model I would be reminded of it.

The issue is that the bridge and the roof of the neck come out of the box parallel to the ship centreline (the waist trench). While in the original ESB studio model, they need to run parallel to the superstructure roofs, which follow the slant of the upper hull:

I saw 2 possible solutions:

Solution 1 is the one most builds seem to go for. Tilt the entire neck-bridge assembly forwards, cut out the bottom edges and excavate a new slot for the superstructure overhang. Solution 2 is actually what came most natural to me. Leave the neck mostly as is and pivot the bridge forward at the attachment.

• solution 1 leaves the neck details parallel to boththe bridge and the superstructure as they should.
• solution 2 is far easier to craft. No precise chiselling that must be exact on both sides, and the extra wedges can be re-made if they're not right
• solution 2 would have neck details that are not parallel to either the superstructure or the bridge, but by a minor angle
• likewise with solution 2 there's a break angle between the bridge and the roof of the neck
• solution 2 creates a sharper angle between the front of the neck and the 'chin' of the bridge, which to me looks closer to the ESB model
• in solution 1, those square details at the base of the neck would look very tall

I didn't feel confident enough making solution 1 look right, so I went for solution 2:

and a few shots of the resulting:

around this time I also took care of the far wall of the trash chute, with a passage for a future LED:

I used one of the hangar gate parts harvested from the old Venator kit.
Finally, the front neck part:

 

[giuliodondi]

2025: Tower neck, part 2

The neck parts receive a fair dose of greeblies, especially to mask the wedges I added:

those little flaps are meant to integrate with further details on the backside of the bridge:

I used some sawtooth styrene sheeting to craft those plate parts at the base of the neck:

The completed neck is assembled for fit tests:

Note the piping at the top of the neck, slanted forward slightly to try and dampen that break angle effect.

Not perfect by any stretch, and there will be more filling in at the very bottom of the neck spine.
But still rather pleased with the result, and it's quite something to see the thing start to take the shape it should have

 

[edge10]

2025: Tower neck, part 1

The infamous bridge tilt, one of those subtle details which you can't unsee once you're aware of it.
Didn't take long for me to decide I had to do something about it, or every time I would look at the finished model I would be reminded of it.

The issue is that the bridge and the roof of the neck come out of the box parallel to the ship centreline (the waist trench). While in the original ESB studio model, they need to run parallel to the superstructure roofs, which follow the slant of the upper hull:

View attachment 1950152


I saw 2 possible solutions:
View attachment 1950156View attachment 1950150

Solution 1 is the one most builds seem to go for. Tilt the entire neck-bridge assembly forwards, cut out the bottom edges and excavate a new slot for the superstructure overhang. Solution 2 is actually what came most natural to me. Leave the neck mostly as is and pivot the bridge forward at the attachment.

• solution 1 leaves the neck details parallel to boththe bridge and the superstructure as they should.
• solution 2 is far easier to craft. No precise chiselling that must be exact on both sides, and the extra wedges can be re-made if they're not right
• solution 2 would have neck details that are not parallel to either the superstructure or the bridge, but by a minor angle
• likewise with solution 2 there's a break angle between the bridge and the roof of the neck
• solution 2 creates a sharper angle between the front of the neck and the 'chin' of the bridge, which to me looks closer to the ESB model
• in solution 1, those square details at the base of the neck would look very tall

I didn't feel confident enough making solution 1 look right, so I went for solution 2:
View attachment 1950165View attachment 1950164
View attachment 1950167View attachment 1950166

and a few shots of the resulting:
View attachment 1950168View attachment 1950169View attachment 1950170View attachment 1950171


around this time I also took care of the far wall of the trash chute, with a passage for a future LED:
View attachment 1950173View attachment 1950174

I used one of the hangar gate parts harvested from the old Venator kit.
Finally, the front neck part:
View attachment 1950183

You are a wiser man than I am. I tried a haphazard take on version 1 and messed up the neck pieces on mine.

I was finally able to buy replacements of the bay of e.

 

[giuliodondi]

Casting greeblies, and hangar work

The first post that reports new work and not retrospective.

I will soon begin work on raigin the waist trench by (probably) 2mm. Taking inspiration from Moska's work, I made resin casts of the trench parts so I could use them for the coarse detailing on the extra height.
This is my first time working with resin and one-part moulds in general, so the result won't be stellar. I made a mouldingbox with foamboard and play-dough, then used 2-part silicone:

No pictures of the polyurethane resin casting as I was more concerned with not spilling or breathing toxic components. Only the result:

This is 3 casts, two from one mould and one from the other. There is a fair amount of bubbles here and there but I think I can work around them and greeble them up. Else, I still have the moulds and plenty of compound to try again if need be.

I'm waiting for the styrene strips of the correct dimensions, so in the meantime I set to work on the hangar bays:

I re-did the greebling on the two open hangar bays as they were hiding the hangar roof details. Also greebled up the aft end of the main ventral bay, as it was rather barren.

I also set to work on excavating another hangar on the forward bay. Greeblies both on the forward side and the aft:

Drilling and chiselling the one hangar bay was fiddly enough that I didn't do it again for the aft side.
Finally, took out the 0.3mm hss bits again for fiber optic drilling on the forward hull islands: