This kit is the same as the standard Star Destroyer kit, except that now it comes with an electronics and fiber optic lighting kit. The detail on the kit is still soft and very sparse. You can see the stock version at the top of the page. This was built with all of the standard kit parts except I used two fiber optic kits. So you actually only get half of what you see at the top of the page. I'm sure this all sounds pretty disappointing to you. It should. The kit is a nice base to start from, but needs quite a bit of work to really look good. That's why you see a second build.

The second build is my attempt to enhance an otherwise plain kit and make it more beautiful. I started off by super-detailing the whole thing with thousands of bits of styrene and kit parts. I also trimmed down the sidewalls as well as the engine area, the guns were replaced with some parts from the Arvey Model Products Turbolaser kit, and the globes were made from some glass beads and fiber optic strands. I also scratchbuilt a little Rebel Blockade Runner that snaps right into a crane I built up inside the main hangar bay. Some clearer pictures of the detailing can be found on my Regular Star Destroyer page.

The lighting is what really adds value to the finished piece. I didn't use much of anything that comes standard with the kit. They give you about 3 feet of 64 strand .265 fiber optic cable, a battery case (4C), some weak little lamps and a bunch of wire, plastic connectors etc. The only thing from this I salvaged was the fiber optic cable. I then bought about 10 more feet of it online, got myself nine super-bright LEDs, a battery pack (3AA) and some usable wiring. After drilling just about 1,000 - that's right one-thousand - holes using my Dremel and a #81 bit, I added all of the fiber optics. This was a time consuming and difficult task. I used a form of white glue to hold them in. Anything else just won't work. super glue will make them fragile and cement will melt them. Epoxy is your only other choice. I then rigged up seven of the LEDs for the engines. The remaining two LEDs were used to light the top and bottom fiber optic bundles. After that was all I done I closed it up and rigged up the battery pack, which hides nicely inside the body. The engine area is removable to change the batteries and is held in place by super-strong magnets.

The kit was painted Polly Scale White over a base coat of Bar Gray. I then weathered it with some charcoal dust and called it finished. I think adding all of the extra detail and the extra lighting really helps with the look of the kit. The kit itself if quite boring, but with some work can look great. The original kit cost me about $10 off of Yahoo! Auctions. The supplies for detailing and lighting it cost more than that. :)