WIP: Bandai 1/5000 Star Destroyer

[INVAR]

I thought I would start a dedicated thread on the Bandai 1/5000 Star Destroyer model kit and chronicle the unboxing and build on this thread rather than continue to clutter up the Bandai Release Schedule thread.

I am happy to invite anyone to participate with their observations/ideas/suggestions and kit builds on this thread.

This was my initial post regarding the unboxing, details and the pre-fabricated window holes for light:


Very happy to see my delivery guy this morning:



First thing I noticed upon opening the kit - is that the upper and lower hulls ARE NOT taped to cardboard as a lot of unboxing videos from Japan have showed. My kit had them loose in the clear mylar bags:



I do not know if that will in any wise lessen the warping of the bow in a lot of the builds I have seen. Thanks to what Wolfy762 has shared with his kit, I may employ the same method of shaving down the pegs and gluing the hulls and using clamps for the final assembly.

The level of detail on this kit is unbelievably OUTSTANDING and dead-balls accurate in most places I have glanced over. I can say that as an amateur expert given the couple of years I have spent staring at High-Res pics of the ILM 8 foot model and carving styrene details to put on the comparably plain Zvezda. This photo does no justice to the level of minuscule detail and depth Bandai has managed to obtain on a kit at this scale:

For shiggles and mirth here is the same exact section on the larger scaled Revell 'build and play' model toy:

And here is the same section I carved up and built on the Zvezda:

Looking at the holes pre-fabbed into the kit - I tried to thread a strand of .5mm fiber and a .25mm fiber strand. The holes are likely .30mm to .35 mm because the .25mm fiber threaded just fine and was loose in the hole, the .5mm is too big.

Since I am using a majority of .25mm fiber on the Zvezda, the Bandai will appear to have much larger holes in comparison and likely make the finished scale look smaller - but as far as aesthetics it will still pay off the illusion very well with .25mm fiber.

So, on opening the box and looking at the details, seeing about the holes - I am very excited to get into this build. Thanks to everyone who has been sharing their reviews and suggestions of approach on this kit.

 

[INVAR]

MORE details. Again the ACCURACY to the 8 foot ILM filming model is STUNNING at this scale! Just look at the engine block which has details that NO RETAIL STYRENE KIT has ever included (not sure about the Randy Cooper resin kit - I've never seen one personally).

I had to add those details on the Zvezda kit because it was just smooth on the base kit:

Again, most kits do an approximation of the basic shapes in this center engine block section. Here Bandai NAILS the ILM filming model.

Both the Revell and Zvezda were limited in the details, which were only slightly better than the original molds on the AMT kit from 1980. I again added a whole bunch of piping and greeblies to approximate what I could discern from the high res filming model photos, and not as accurate as what Bandai managed to mold:

The details alone have fully sold me on this kit, and while I may wince a tad at the extra funds spent on the limited edition kit - I am actually satisfied that I will largely be able to build and light this right out of the box and focus on only a few styrene additions, diffusing the windows via some fiber strands or glue and the painting.

 

[StevenBills]

Wow. Very nice! Are you going to be adding more holes for more lights along the trenches as well as in the tower? I'm right now debating whether or not to just leave my Z in the stash and just buy this guy.

SB

 

[3Dsf]

Hi. Could someone with calipers and the Bandai 1:1500 SD ping me via DM? Thank you.

 

[Analyzer]

The details alone have fully sold me on this kit, and while I may wince a tad at the extra funds spent on the limited edition kit - I am actually satisfied that I will largely be able to build and light this right out of the box and focus on only a few styrene additions, diffusing the windows via some fiber strands or glue and the painting.

I think that is what is really underappreciated with Bandai kits, especially when you compare it to Revell kits or other manufacturers which are similarly priced.

I've heard complaints about Bandai's pricing, but if time is money, then you save a ton of money building Bandai kits simply because there is often very little, if anything you need to do to them.

They also can be built by a beginner who does nothing more than leave the pre-molded colors and add decals, or an expert who adds lighting and a few tweaks and fully paints it and still get a far better result than anything Revell or any other manufacturer has ever done.

It proves you do not have to cater specifically to kids with simplified toys vs advanced modelers. You can release a product that straddles that line perfectly

 

[COlson]

I think that is what is really underappreciated with Bandai kits, especially when you compare it to Revell kits or other manufacturers which are similarly priced.

I've heard complaints about Bandai's pricing, but if time is money, then you save a ton of money building Bandai kits simply because there is often very little, if anything you need to do to them.

They also can be built by a beginner who does nothing more than leave the pre-molded colors and add decals, or an expert who adds lighting and a few tweaks and fully paints it and still get a far better result than anything Revell or any other manufacturer has ever done.

It proves you do not have to cater specifically to kids with simplified toys vs advanced modelers. You can release a product that straddles that line perfectly

Well said. And I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[Guns Akimbo]

*SUBSCRIBED*

 

[SirSandalot]

Holy sh**balls you can even spot some parts of sherman tanks, german panzers, V8 engines and so on, which we all know they used for greeblies in Star Wars and yet I find it quite impressive considering the scale

 

[Richard Baker]

Bandai researched the donor kits, then reconstructed them in the computer and scaled them down for detail.
That is true commitment towards accuracy...

 

[ggriffaw]

What styrene additions are you planning?

 

[INVAR]

What styrene additions are you planning?

Some thin antennae atop the shield generator domes (they are not molded on the kit due to the scale), one or two tiny piping additions in the trench area on both the port and starboard sides. On close examination, I do not have to add much at all because Bandai actually molded the original tank parts, battleship parts and other kit parts ILM used to build the 8 footer into this kit. Some of them would be too tiny at scale to reproduce in a styrene kit without breakage.

 

[gedmac66]

Subbed !..., again

 

[star-art]

Here's a question for anyone who has the special lighted version of this kit with clear superstructure parts: Do the clear parts also have the holes in them (for FOs) like the opaque parts? Thanks!

 

[INVAR]

Here's a question for anyone who has the special lighted version of this kit with clear superstructure parts: Do the clear parts also have the holes in them (for FOs) like the opaque parts? Thanks!

YES.

 

[INVAR]

PRE-SHADING

Because the details are so fine and the scale is small, I am worried about too much softening of them with a coat of primer followed by a base coat, followed by panel highlights and wash enhancements. So I have decided to make my primer, my base coat and apply only a thin coat at that. I'll be adding a few drops of machine grey to the white Stynylrez to create a more off-white ILM filming model appearance than a deeper grey on-film appearance, and a few drops of Future/Pledge floor care to achieve a matte finish direct from the airbrush.

So that plan necessitated that I pre-shade the kit, rather than paint and then go in with a wash to bring out the fine details in the hopes that the subtlety will be enough to sell the details without overpowering and create the illusion that the studio lighting achieved without washes on the ILM filming model.

So because I was pre-shading on bare plastic with a water-based wash - I decided to use black shoe polish with some added water to create the wash because I knew that the shoe polish also had dye properties that would discolor the plastic slightly without too much beading that you couldn't get with a simple acrylic wash. And WOW! That brought out the details that are frankly STUNNING. Again - DEAD-BALLS ACCURATE to the ILM filming model at scale:

 

[star-art]

WOW! Looks amazing! Did you apply the wash with a brush?

 

[INVAR]

Yup. A micro brush for the panel lines where I really only needed to dab the tip of the brush at junctions and watch the wash run down the lengths of the panel lines, and a small brush for the trench walls and other greeblie parts.

 

[mb1k]

Black shoe polish huh? Thinned with mineral spirits?

 

[INVAR]

Black shoe polish huh? Thinned with mineral spirits?

Nope. Plain water.

I would not risk using spirits on raw Bandai plastic. Causes it to become brittle and crack. So my primer and my paints for the Bandai ships are always acrylics or water-based media.

Kiwi leather dye is water soluble, but has properties that do not cause it to bead when applying to things like panel lines and hull surfaces to bring out details.

 

[mb1k]

I’ve learned a thing [emoji1360]