Here’s the thing: for *decades* I never had much use for the Star Destroyer from Star Wars. It just seemed “meh” as a design. But for reasons at best unclear, a few years ago the design started to grow on me. And the timing has been pretty good.
For most of the last 39 years, if you wanted a model of the Star Destroyer, you had one option, the MPC kit. And it, in a word, kinda sucked. It was pretty much what you’d expect from a 1970’s sci-fi model… it more or less replicated the shape of the thing, but completely cheaped out on accuracy and details. And even so, for many years the only way to get one of these things was to shell out a bucket of money on EBay.
But no more. There are several good options if you want a nice Star Destroyer to display. NOTE: you *should* be able to see illustrated links to Amazon items. But some browsers /ad blockers don’t show them, so hopefully the text links work.
First up: Disney has had a diecast metal Star Destroyer available for a few years now. It’s quite good in terms of accuracy and detail, and is a good size for a die cast replica – about 9 inches long.
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Bandai, a Japanese model kit company, has a nice if almost microscopically small (well… three inches or so) snap-together kit available. It seems to be pretty accurate and is about as detailed as practical for something of its size. And it’s cheap.
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Revell has released a large-ish (about 16 inches long) snap-together Star Destroyer kit. Like the other Star Wars models they’ve released since The Force Awakens, this comes with some toy-like features and a built-in electronics module that provides sounds and LED lighting. That said, it’s really pretty good. The accuracy overall seems pretty good and detail – except for the irritating “landing gear” on the underside that takes the place of a proper display stand – is excellent. t has been a number of years since I’ve put together a model kit, but this came together just in the last couple days in spare moments. I spent substantially more time in painting it than assembly… the parts come bagged rather than on a sprue, and there are essentially no issues with flash. The kit can be assembled straight out of the box with no glue or trimming and produce a respectable replica… except for reworking the “landing gear,” I put mine together in perhaps half an hour.
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I admit to admiring the Revell Star Destroyer I’ve put together and painted. I think it looks Damn Good. But as I looked at it, it seemed to me that the bridge module looks like it might be a bit wide, so I looked it up online to see if there was any discussion of that. In short… it seems that the bridge module *is* a bit wide (the hypothesis seems to be that the model was based not on the filming miniatures or a CG model made for Rogue One, but the CG models made for “Battlefront” which have the wider bridges). But more importantly, in looking this up, I found several references to yet another Star Destroyer model kit on the horizon. This time it’s coming from the Russian model company Zvezda. It’s not out yet in the West, but it seems to be available in Russia itself. It’s unclear if it *will* be released in the West, and if so, for how much (I saw numerous references to $80-$130 dollars).
But from what I can see, this is the first Holy Crap model of the Star Destroyer that you can obtain without having to sell your car. Behold this unboxing video:
There appear to be some somewhat inexplicable choices with the Zvezda kit. The Revell kit, for example, has eight separate turbolaser turrets, which snap in and can rotate; the Zvezda kit, probably twice the size, seemingly has the turrets in a fixed position. This was likely done to minimize cost, and is not really that big of a deal given how small they are.
The Revell kit is I think the best deal for the money, even with the too-wide bridge module. The laid-back modeler won’t notice, and may even appreciate the “landing gear;” for the sticklers, I’m sure someone will crank out a replacement bridge in resin or on Shapeways if they haven’t already. The Zvezda kit seems like it’ll be the new benchmark in Star Destroyer Awesomeness, just as the 1/350 Enterprises from Polar Lights reset the stage for Trek. But as with the PL Enterprises, the 60+ centimeter Star Destroyer might prove to be problematically large for many people. Of course, like the Bluetooth Communicator Cell Phones I posted about a while back, having one of those monsters proudly displayed in your home might be just the thing if you want to make sure that the ladies view you as Undatable.
Since I have cemented that status for myself, if I see one of the Zvezda monsters – and if I can afford it – I’m’a gettin’ me one.