In Boxed: Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer in 2700th scale from Zvezda

The latest Imperial Star Destroyer in 1/2700th scale from Zvezda was a real surprise to a lot of modellers, and a welcome one too! But not many people out there have seen reliable pictures fo what is in the box. Our man Li choo has one and he thought it only proper to show you all what was inside his kit so you can judge for yourself the quality. Let's see what he thought...

In Boxed: Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer
From Zvezda Models 
1/2700th scale
Kit No #9057
New Tool Kit
Product Link

Star Wars, the title that spawned a generation or three of fans with 8 cinematic episodes, two offshoot movies (if you count Ewoks: Battle for Endor) plus a host of feeder series like Clone Wars not to mention, novels, games, comics, books, cosplay, conventions and 501st Legion clubs. Lots of model makers have Star Wars kits in their line-ups, some great, and some....not so good. Now Zvezda has dipped their toe in the water with their own version of one of the most iconic vehicles in the star Wars universe, the Imperial Star Destroyer in 1/2700th scale.

The Imperial Star Destroyer - a brief overview...
One of the more recognisable spacecraft in the Star Wars world is the Imperial Star Destroyer making its screen filling debut chasing that little blockade runner in Episode IV.

The original studio scale models whilst the first trillogy were in production

From the moment this awesome starship swamped the big screen in the opening scene of Star Wars, back in the late 70’s, I was an instant convert. To this day, I haven’t seen anything that made me feel the same way, and quite frankly, I still believe the original Star Wars sets the benchmark for all other Sci-Fi movies to follow.

"Back in my day you would make your own kits from scratch"

George could hardly cover his excitement on seeing the model for the first time...

Used by both the Galactic Republic, the Empire and later on the First Order, the Star Destroyer was one of the most feared weapons in the Galaxy.From the first Star wars films...

To the recent episode VII...

The Imperial Class measured 1,600 m long. Its’ armourment consisted of; Laser cannons, Turbolaser batteries (60) and Ion cannons. Its’ strike power was also complimented by a fleet of up to 70 TIE fighters.

The ships’ crew consisted of 27850 Enlisted men, 9700 Stormtroopers and 9235 Officers.

The only known injection moulded kit of the Star Destroyer is the AMT/ERTL weighing in at 1/4222nd scale first released in 1980. Revell has also released a Snap-Together kit to coincide with the release of the Rogue One offshoot of a similar scale with the AMT/ERTL.

THE KIT
Zvezda has now produced its own releasing in 2016, upping in at 1/2700th scale so obviously it is considerably larger than what you have become accustomed to with your older kits of this space ship.

Given that injection moulding technology quality has improved over the years, this 35-year upscaled update is anticipated if not expected to be a much superior kit. This is not the first Disney-owned item made under license by Zvezda as they have produced easy build kits for the ‘Cars’ and ‘Planes’ characters from those movies.

Packaging, instructions & parts
Firstly, the text on the box and instructions are not Aurebesh but Cyrillic although at first glance one would think the Galactic Empire was merchandising scale model replicas of their capital ships.

The package is a suitcase-sized box with a 3-compartment tray within it to ensure some rigidity to protect the parts during transport with the parts themselves packaged in suitably sized plastic bags and stored in those compartments.

The instructions, (not plans to destroy the Death Star) are all in Cyrillic, presented in a 10 page A4 booklet consisting of 7 major stages.

There are 6 major parts and 7 sprues containing smaller parts that make up the whole spacecraft with no decals all moulded in light grey.  

The sprues:

The main hull is divided into 6 parts; front and back, top and bottom and the rear bulkhead for where the exhausts cones are housed. There are options to highlight the surface details very well either by a panel wash or pre-shade/post-shade method or a combination of both. 

The details in each moulding are sharp and crisp. The panel lines are restrained and will benefit greatly from an application of model wash.  The semi-relief detail on most of the sides would also benefit from a model wash and some dry brushing.

Now a breif walk through the sprues one by one and in detail.

 The rear engine deck is dominated by large sockets for the thruster nozzles to slot into , although there is plenty of detail also on hereapart from that.

 The rear thrusters are pretty well rendered here, We are sure that aftermarket guys will target these and the Deflector Shield Generators, but these look good enough for us.

 This is the top floor of the upper deck, the place for the control tower is marked clearly for you, and the raised detail on the hull is nice and a great template for painting.

 The upper front nose of the wedge...

 ...and the lower front nose, denoted by the hangar bay underneath.

 Showing the cargo bay from the side aspect

from square underneath

 and a flat view showing raised details

 This sprue features a lot of parts of the top control tower.

 Sides of the top "turret" control tower showing lots of detail.

This sprue features a lot of the side spacing fills with lots of detail and the circular Solar Ionization Reactor, a contentious part of the kit, and sure to take some scrutiny

 The detail here is more than any of the previous kits of the ISD we have seen

 The circular Solar Ionization Reactor, loking pretty good.

 This sprue is taken up with the upper side and front deck surfaces. Again lots of raised surface detail to pick out.

 A look at these parts closer showing the detail a little better. A skilled painter could spend a long time on this getting OUTSTANDING detail, where as a rush job could still provide something very nice.

 The top fore deck is in keeping with the rest of the surface detail, very nice...

 This sprue features the very top of the bridge/ control tower. all parts of the bridge are on this siame sprue which makes this just another easy part of the build. Love it when model makers do that.

The front of the bridge - better keep that deflector shield generator working!

 The top of the bridge looking down, with the two side slots for the generators to sit in.

 The underside of the bridge with lug to secure it to the podium of the tower.

 The rear "spine" of the tower podium - I always liked this particular part of the kit I don't know why.

 Upside down here, the rear of the bridge

 This next sprue is the large wedge deck of the upper rear deck, it all sits on top of this large part, and you can see the raised detail even from this high angle.

 The front of the rear deck, again the same detail is present in recessed and raided detail.

 From an angle, you can see the little towers in scale - a step above what we have seen in the past from other model makers.

 The inside of the upper deck slab, showing that not even here is the detail spared.

 The Turbo laser turret positions on the side of the flat decks, another contentious part of the kit once constructed. 

 The lower part of the hull is seen with a large round hole for the Solar Ionisation Reactor to fit straight into.  You can see from there the hangar bay and the raised facets of the hull shapes to good effect.

 lastly, a gret view of the cargo bay showing the good detail in here, although we are so very sure some might find a way to enhance it,  we like what is in the kit enough.

So how accurate is it? Well, it is a replica model of a model spacecraft and the overall shape looks right, with key items like the docking port, thruster cones, bridge are all in the right location.

There is plenty of photos of the original Star Destroyer on the net to refer for alterations or add detail if one is so inclined. If one wishes to scrutinize every square millimetre of the surface of the model, one can pause every frame of the movie sequence of the Star Destroyer to examine the detail from stem to stern.

Things to consider when finishing this model:
The Star Destroyer when built and painted out of the box will just be a light grey finished geometrical 3-D object that will potentially look flat and featureless.

Considering most of the scenes of an operational Star Destroyer occur in space, it will be the lighting that will really improve the character of the model. There is scope for lighting using either LEDs or optical fibre for there is plenty of room within the model to install such items, you could even employ battery-operated Christmas lights as well; the cool or warm white ones should be suitable. We are sure companies like Tirydium Models will be producing a lighting kit for this model int he near future.

Conclusion
This is a large kit with an adequate number of parts to make it highly detailed with the added benefit of painting only one tone; light grey with no paint masking and decal application.
If Star Wars is your religion or subject of interest and you build scale models then this is the kit for you.

P.S Shapeways have both the blockade runner and Millennium Falcon in the same scale for you to depict your favourite movie scene

Li Choo

This kit can be bought from  Zvezda's Distributors Worldwide.