WIP: Bandai 1/5000 Star Destroyer

[INVAR]

As far as the bow peg, I wonder if shaving the peg down or widening the hole would help alignment, and pull the hull into a straighter shape.

I cut the insert peg that goes into the bottom hull completely off. The top hull now just rests on top of where it would go as I intended to glue the top hull down to the bottom. But, the light leaks had me hold off of attempting that until I could figure out a way to engineer a fix.

 

[Omnius]

Mmmm I don't have the huge gap on the trenches and when I will glue the upper hull there will be absolute no light com through (maybe your diffusors are not in correct position - to "high"?). BUT there are light leaks problems with the super structure front and the bridge aft.

 

[Dmitriy311]

Mmmm I don't have the huge gap on the trenches and when I will glue the upper hull there will be absolute no light com through (maybe your diffusors are not in correct position - to "high"?). BUT there are light leaks problems with the super structure front and the bridge aft.

me it looked, or this, too, "smiles"?

 

[Dmitriy311]

???

 

[Dmitriy311]

???

perhaps the lens distortion taken as proportions of the model?

 

[INVAR]

Mmmm I don't have the huge gap on the trenches and when I will glue the upper hull there will be absolute no light com through (maybe your diffusors are not in correct position - to "high"?). BUT there are light leaks problems with the super structure front and the bridge aft.

I've taken it apart a dozen times and reassembled it with the same results. I've hunted for sprue bumps I may have missed cutting flush on the diffusers and using tweezers to tuck the LED wires into places that would not affect them, and the results are the same. The gap is worse on the Port side than on the Starboard, and forcing the hull down and holding it into position in which I would cement the hull top to the bottom, makes the warping curvature worse from the bow to amidships.

I've put the model aside for now due frustration and I may revisit it in a few weeks or more. I'm toying with scrapping the LED system it came with and just putting in my own LEDs as I continue to suspect some of my problem is the length of extra wiring that has to be wrapped around and cinched into various areas on the diffusers before the bulb is inserted in the grips. To eliminate bad light leaks in the superstructure means I will have to glue down the superstructure to the hull - or come up with some kind of lilghtblocking and that would likely kill being able to turn it on and off with the LED system the model came with. So, if I order my own, I can get a remote and only have to worry about lifting off the top when changing batteries.

But for now, I have set it aside.

 

[Omnius]

I'm toying with scrapping the LED system it came with and just putting in my own LEDs as I continue to suspect some of my problem is the length of extra wiring that has to be wrapped around and cinched into various areas on the diffusers before the bulb is inserted in the grips.

That's indeed a possible reason ... way too long cables with this stuff and so easy to do the lighting by yourself! Don't give up!

cheers

Dirk

 

[Timmythekid]

At the risk of bringing up some painful memories of this kit , just bumping to ask two questions about your paint, because it looked terrific. For the shoe polish, did you use the waxy cakes of polish and just mix some with water, or was it another product? Also, for your base coat I believe you said you thinned the Stynlrez. Makes sense as it sounds like the white primer in particular is pretty thick, however the little I've read on modelling sites suggests that the paint does not like thinner at all, and to only use it straight - if indeed you did thin it, what did you use to do so safely?

 

[INVAR]

At the risk of bringing up some painful memories of this kit , just bumping to ask two questions about your paint, because it looked terrific.

Well thank you. It's not where I wanted to finish - but I set this project aside because I cannot remedy the curve or the light leaks without a very intensive and serious expenditure of time. So I set it aside as "done" as best as I am willing to go.

For the shoe polish, did you use the waxy cakes of polish and just mix some with water, or was it another product?

I used Kiwi Black Leather Dye liquid in the bottle. 2.5 oz. It has a sponge top after you open the clear cap. Just shake and press the sponge tip down onto a paper towel or plate and the dye fills up the sponge. I dab the tip numerous times to expend the dye into a little dressing cup and usually end up with some foamy stuff that I then thin a little bit with plain water. I mix it with a brush until it is the desired translucency. This stuff is great for washes and I usually thin it pretty good with water to achieve that. However, since I decided to do the panel lines as a dark wash on the bare plastic, I did not thin it with water as much as I normally would so the panel line would be black and sharp and only diluted by the primer when it was coated later.

I did these panel lines on the bare plastic because the dye and water on the very thin micro brush would run well down the length of the panel lines. Because it is dye and not paint, this WILL discolor the white plain plastic, which is why I chose to use dye instead of just an acrylic wash.

Also, for your base coat I believe you said you thinned the Stynlrez. Makes sense as it sounds like the white primer in particular is pretty thick, however the little I've read on modelling sites suggests that the paint does not like thinner at all, and to only use it straight - if indeed you did thin it, what did you use to do so safely?

I poured the white Stynlrez in a mixer jar with a tight lid and added several drops of Pledge Floor Care/Future and several drops of windshield washer fluid to get it just a bit thinner than it comes out of the bottle so my airbrush could evenly spray at 28 PSI. Shook it exceedingly well and used a dropper to dump the primer into a gravity fed brush. Stynlrez already has great leveling properties on it's own and I did not want to lose any of that in thinning it so I added the Future floor care to ensure that would remain but also increase the drying time a bit so I would not get any orange peel. The windshield washer fluid has a good proportion of alcohol to keep the primer thin in the cup but evaporate quick enough when sprayed so as not to inhibit dry time.

I hope you have better luck with your build than I had with mine.

 

[glg20]

I've taken it apart a dozen times and reassembled it with the same results. I've hunted for sprue bumps I may have missed cutting flush on the diffusers and using tweezers to tuck the LED wires into places that would not affect them, and the results are the same. The gap is worse on the Port side than on the Starboard, and forcing the hull down and holding it into position in which I would cement the hull top to the bottom, makes the warping curvature worse from the bow to amidships.

I've put the model aside for now due frustration and I may revisit it in a few weeks or more. I'm toying with scrapping the LED system it came with and just putting in my own LEDs as I continue to suspect some of my problem is the length of extra wiring that has to be wrapped around and cinched into various areas on the diffusers before the bulb is inserted in the grips. To eliminate bad light leaks in the superstructure means I will have to glue down the superstructure to the hull - or come up with some kind of light blocking and that would likely kill being able to turn it on and off with the LED system the model came with. So, if I order my own, I can get a remote and only have to worry about lifting off the top when changing batteries.

But for now, I have set it aside.

I had almost the exact same problems you described. I managed to get the light leaks fixed on the bow and along the trenches but never could in the area of the layer cake section (where the place the battery back itself) So, I pulled the kit apart, pulled the lighting unit out and left it unlit. I bought 4 of the kit and tried on an entirely new build. This time around the light leak was worse. I concluded that the lighting unit just doesn't jell properly with the mold. I left it that way, light leaks and all and didn't touch it again. I burned out on the kit but if I ever get around to the other two I purchased, I will just glue it together, reinforce the forward bow to hopefully prevent warping and use fiber optics instead of back lighting. I will also do an external power supply as having to pull the kit apart to tun the lights off and on isn't ideal.
Bandai has had issues with kits before, but I have to say this feels different. A couple of years ago, the released a sinanju kit that would snap at the waist peg simply through normal assembly. They fixed it on the next release of the kit. Bandai is very critical of quality so I think the issue for them here was cost of fixing it vs. the worth in them doing so. I feel like they are in the swan song of their star wars license and are going to, at the very least, decrease their focus on it.