42" Star Destroyer (Randy Cooper Version 2)

[Mose Harper]

After oscillating back and forth over whether to get this, I finally pulled the trigger back in May and just received my kit this past week.

This is my first stab at a resin kit and it looks like I'm going to get a good education with this as many of the pieces are going to need some serious correction before I can even start test fitting.

Here's the basic layout- when built it'll be 42" long and 2' wide.



And this is the kind of warpage I'm going to need to fix



The last one there represents what I think is going to be the hardest problem to address. Apparently putting warped pieces in boiling water can make them pliable and able to be reformed. The trick is going to be contracting it vertically while at the same time keeping the other dimensions and angles intact.

I'm expecting this will take well over a year to finally complete. If I'm lucky to get a run of good weather in my down time, I hope to have it assembled and fully painted by Christmas 2019. I'll be surprised if it's any sooner than that.

I'll be hitting up Lowes today to get parts for the internal support structure as well as a respirator mask as this resin is supposed to be some seriously toxic stuff. At least the dust from it is, and these pieces are going to need a lot of sanding.

 

[Patriot666]

I've always wanted this kit. Good luck! Subbed.

 

[Kamandi]

Randy has some assemble videos and he discusses how to soften and shape parts with warping. Going from memory I don't think you need to do much more than warm the part up with a hot air gun or blow dryer.

 

[rayeknor]

Awesome kit. I just wish there one day would be a non-grown man sized super star destroyer kit available for people with less then 2-3 feet shelf space too

 

[Walls]

Wow some of those parts look pretty rough, keep us posted as you go!!!

 

[Mose Harper]

Awesome kit. I just wish there one day would be a non-grown man sized super star destroyer kit available for people with less then 2-3 feet shelf space too

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Bandai kicked out a SSD at some point. If they did, it would likely be on the smaller size.

Randy has some assemble videos and he discusses how to soften and shape parts with warping. Going from memory I don't think you need to do much more than warm the part up with a hot air gun or blow dryer.

I reached out to Randy with some specific questions and concerns on the process of doing that and only got back the same rote response he uses in vids and his directions- run boiling water over it, press it in to shape and then use cold water to set it.

That's fine for a bridge piece (like the third photo down) where it just has to be pushed back a few degrees. The size of it can easily fit in a pyrex dish and it's just a matter of curbing the angle it's spreading out at.

The huge problem with the hull piece is that it is stretched out. It's going to need to contract about a 1/4" , which I don't know is even possible, and it's going to need to do that while hitting the proper dimensions on that interior cut out.

I'm thinking that piece is definitely going to require a jig to squeeze it into when it's warm and pliable, with probably another keyed piece screwed in, after it is in position, to maintain the proper interior cuts.

Outside of using the bathtub, I can't think of any other large container I can fill with super hot, let alone boiling, water that will be big enough to hold it.
It's also a thick piece and to get it pliable the core has to be warmed up. I'm concerned that to get that far I'm going to be imperiling the surface form and detail.
The one thing Randy did specifically answer was my question about using a heat gun. He said not to do it. Just use the boiling water.

I've got a lot of work I can do before I need to concentrate on that issue specifically, so I'm not going to rush and just hope inspiration strikes, or my experience with correcting the smaller pieces first helps guide me when the time comes.

Wow some of those parts look pretty rough, keep us posted as you go!!!

Yeah, there is a lot of flash, which I expected, but also a lot of general crud sprinkled throughout, that will have to be clipped/shaved off or gouged out.

I've been watching build vids of other resin kits like the Anigrand SD, and the one Model Man Tom got in looked like a mass market styrene kit it was so clean, and devoid of the usual resin BS. I watched Flory's build of the same kit and his was apparently a nightmare in that nothing fit right and major corrective steps had to be taken.

I'm ignorant enough about resin to have the confidence that any of these issues I'm seeing can ultimately be overcome. That's why I'm going to be taking it slow.

I've always wanted this kit. Good luck! Subbed.

Thanks!

If I know there are people interested, it will motivate me to update this thread regularly every few days, as well as taking the time to document things with photos.

 

[Kamandi]

If you have a seriously deformed or unworkable piece you should ask him to provide a replacement. It's a bit much to expect a customer to magically shrink a large piece by .25"

 

[FlyAndFight]

I have the Anigrand version and while not large as Cooper's, it is definitely a cleaner mold. I was thinking of selling it and picking up Randy's v2 but now I'm not so sure. For the price, and the fact that the version is better designed, I was expecting a better molding.

I'm still contemplating a Sandcrawler, though...

Good luck with the build, Mose, and I'll be following your progress.

 

[Kamandi]

How do those pieces compare in shape and size to their complimentary parts on the lower hull?

 

[Walls]

I do t think the pieces need to be corrected while submerged, I did one resin kit and all I did was slowly pour hot water over the piece until I was able to bend it.

 

[Python]

Oh I'm subscribing to see this unfold. Best of luck with this one. If you can tame it, it makes for a beautiful and impressive kit.

Flory models did a great build series, I think they're all free to view on youtube now. Might be worth checking out.


Edit, here you go, starts off with the basics, but he does a lot to it by the end and it looks impressive..

 

[Mose Harper]

Kamandi: I haven't laid out the lower hull since that first night. I don't recall any glaring issues that stood out so I may assemble that side first and then orientate everything else to that.

here's the lower pieces laid out



Not great, but not as distorted as that one top section. This is much more what I was expecting- just needing a few thin strips of styrene to fill in some gaps, maybe in conjunction with some putty or bondo.



Hey Python!
Yeah I've watched and re-watched those a couple times already. A great build series. But that's also where I got my trepidation about using hot water to reshape these pieces. The way Flory describes it, you don't have any warning. They can be rigid one second and when they turn soft and pliable they can totally collapse and then good luck getting the shape back.

However I've been hearing since then, from other sources, that resin has a bit of memory. That it won't become batter once it's heated, just lose it's rigidity.
That tells me I'm going to need to practice on less essential parts first, to get a feel for it's properties.

The first time seeing his trials and tribulations with the Anigrand kit, is what kept me from initially ordering this Cooper one. I was heavily debating sending him payment early in January. That would have gotten me the first casting of the kit. Not knowing enough about resin, I decided I'd let some more knowledgable builders out there take the first stabs and trouble shoot it.

I went and re-watched those Flory vids again after the first people finally started getting their kits a couple months back, and I came to the conclusion that Flory's troubles with his Anigrand were due to
1) the way it was designed which wasn't especially lighting friendly without major modifications. It also didn't have a built in interior support structure.
2) The fact that it was over twenty years old and who knows what kind of conditions it was stored under in that time.

I figured there was no way a freshly cast kit, that would take less than a week to ship to me, and that was designed inside out to be more build and lighting friendly, could ever be anywhere near the headache that Flory's kit was.

So yeah, hold my beer...

Tried to take some more pics last night of various pieces, but only a few of them came out well. I wish I had a better camera but I'm too busy spending money on statues and model kits.

Here's a pic of some of the supplies I compiled last week. I've been hearing good things about the primer adhesion promotor but it's likely going to used first on a few other kits including a couple of 1/350 PL Enterprises that I'll be building over the winter while this SD is on ice.



I still need to get some foam board and make the two jigs, one for the upper hull and one for the lower. I was going to use coupons for Hobby Lobby, so that's going to be seven trips total. By the end of the week I should have enough board to assemble them.

 

[Python]

Oh I forgot it was the Anigrand Flory built, sorry. It's a while since I watched them. I'm sure the exterior finishing will be similar, but hopefully you'll have less of a headache than he did with his. You're still in it deep though no doubt and I look forward to seeing you progress. I've often considered getting one of the two, but I'm not sure I'd have the patience or ability to deal with such warping, these beasts demand a high skill level and I wish you luck. The results will no doubt be worth it.

 

[Patriot666]

Oh I forgot it was the Anigrand Flory built, sorry. It's a while since I watched them. I'm sure the exterior finishing will be similar, but hopefully you'll have less of a headache than he did with his. You're still in it deep though no doubt and I look forward to seeing you progress. I've often considered getting one of the two, but I'm not sure I'd have the patience or ability to deal with such warping, these beasts demand a high skill level and I wish you luck. The results will no doubt be worth it.

That's exactly where I've been on this for years. It's a very intimidating project to start, plus I've never even built a resin kit. Youtube has made doing a lot of things the first time easier, though the pros sometimes make things look easier than they are.

 

[Mose Harper]

Python, no worries. Even though it's a different kit of the same subject, it's definitely a help to see his strategy for tackling it, and what issues he ran into unexpectedly. In fact, I'm checking out a lot of vids now on a lot of different resin builds just to see how different problems are being solved.

For the Cooper kit, there is a builder already posting his series.



He got one of the earliest cast kits and only mentions a few pieces with mild warping that were easily corrected. He's booking along at a very fast clip (in his third video he's already running fiber) so his kit appears to have fit well off right out of the box.

As I review each piece further, especially after taking photos and examining them close up on screen, I'm seeing more and more evidence of mold degradation on mine. I was hoping I'd gotten my order in early enough to avoid that, but it’s clear that wasn’t the case.
I'll walk through some of the individual pieces and what they will entail in a later post tonight.

Now that I have the respirator I'm hoping to get out and start cleaning the flash off and doing some preliminary sanding.

I'm resigning myself to the likelihood I'll have to cut that one hull piece. I'll still have to use hot water to tamp down the general bowing it also has, but I have no faith I can get it to contract 3/8” in one direction. It's stretched out and extends past both it’s opposite pieces on the right side as well as the lower hull directly underneath. It's just going to be easier to trim that overhang off. The main concern will be how taking that much out will affect the registration with the side trench pieces.

None of these four main hull pieces have consistent measurements in relation to the other pieces opposite them either right/left or top/bottom.
It's going to be a long, tedious process getting these to fit even close enough to fill in the seams.

I'll have a better idea once the flash and crud is fully off and everything can be laid out on the jigs.