This is one of the largest, heaviest and bulkiest kits I own. It is studio scale! That means it is the same size as the models used in the movie. I found this on eBay a few years ago and had no idea what it was or where it came from. All I knew was that it was BIG and I wanted it! When I got the package I was disappointed to find that it was very poorly cast. There were air bubbles everywhere, soft detail, broken pieces and no cannons at all. I knew it was going to be a big project. I started by fixing all of the crack and breakages. The main body and wings were cast in a black material that I found out was something called GelCoat. Apparently it's a component of fiberglass or something. Anyway, it was very brittle so there was plenty to fix. After that I filled in as many air bubbles in the resin cast pieces as I could. There was a lot and some weren't even fixable. After that I performed some general cleanup and fixing of soft detail and broken/missing parts. I also built some cannons out of styrene rod. They are horribly crooked and I need to fix them someday with brass tubing. The cockpit was by far the worst cast of the entire piece. I just cut the whole thing out and bought some parts and a pilot from Captain Cardboard (who makes a very similar kit) to replace it. I then assembled the whole kit. I started by putting on a base coat of white primer that went on nice and thin. Then I sprayed Flat Light Aircraft Gray over the whole entire thing. After that I went to painting the markings for the ship. I used the large Red 3 model traveling with the Magic Of Myth tour as reference. All markings were hand painted or airbrushed. Obviously the kit didn't come with any decals. I weathered it by washing, dry brushing, and airbrushing various dirty colors all over the ship. It came out pretty neat. It wasn't until a few years after I finished the kit that I found out what I had bought. Back when Icons made X-wing replicas, they were provided with a casting of one of the pyrotechnic models used in the original movies. Some people made castings of that and distributed them. Well apparently one of them filtered down to me. I had no idea what I was getting when I bought it! You can bet I was surprised. I almost feel like I own a piece of Star Wars movie history. That would explain the poor casting quality and the lack of cannons as the blasting miniatures just had sticks for the guns. I paid about $100 on eBay for it at the time and looking back, I got a deal!