OK, so this Lego model isn't my own creation. I just thought it would be worth nerd points to document the long and enjoyable process of assembling it. Maybe reading this and looking at the pictures will help you decide to buy it for yourself. :)
Even though most of its 3,104 pieces are the little detail bits along the sides of the ship, this is a great set. I bought it for myself and started assembling it on my birthday in 2004. All told it took me almost thirteen hours spread over seven days to assemble.
While it's certainly no Galaxy Explorer, this is a set worth having if you can spare the money. Counting shipping and the exchange rate it cost me just short of $450 Canadian to get it. It's worth it. You can totally zone out into the Lego Trance for hours at a time putting this one together, and it's a great source of light grey wings and flats for your other space projects.
So without further ado, here's the story of the Great Assembly.
Oh yeah: Sorry for the poor quality of some of the photos here. These were shot under a variety of different indoor lighting conditions, and a few were poorly exposed.
The box. The ISD arrives in the mail in a big brown carboard box,
inside which is this set box. The whole thing weighs about 30 pounds,
so be prepared if you have to pick it up from the post office.
I've put a standard minifig in the foreground of this image for size
comparison. This is a *big* Lego box, and a delight to behold. It's
like the feeling of a kid who likes Transformers toys getting one of
the really big ones.
What's inside the big box: An enormous instruction book (careful not
to rip it!) and four generic white boxes containing the parts. Each of
these four boxes is as large as a typical large Lego box.
What's inside the boxes inside the box that came in the brown
cardboard box: the actual pieces, in baggies.
I grabbed a bunch of small cardbord boxes I had lying around and
emptied the baggies into them. I grouped bags containing like pieces
into the same box - DO NOT DO THIS! Big mistake. Folks, the pieces in
this set aren't randomly packaged. The clever blokes at Lego packaged
together pieces that would be used at the same stage of
construction. By grouping together all the small pieces, all the wings
and all the flats I made it very hard to find some of the pieces
(especially relatively uncommon small pieces mixed in with all those
detail bits). So keep the pieces grouped by the bags they came in,
unless you're like me and actually enjoy pawing through mountains of
loose pieces looking for a particular one.
After I had finished unpacking the pieces, I had a flip through the
instruction booklet tome. I noticed that the little
miniature of the Rebel Blockade Runner was the last thing to
construct. I (correctly) figured that would be a real anticlimax after
finishing the big ship, so I built it first.
Flipping through the instructions also let me spot occurrances of
repeat instructions like "2X" and "32X" before
starting. There are two major instances of repetition in assembling
this set: The details along the edges of the ship, and the internal
frame. The top and bottom halves of the internal skeleton are
identical, so I built them simultaneously instead of one at a
time. This photo shows the basic 'A' structure of the two frames.
As you can see, they're mostly made of Technic beams. It's hard to see
in this photo, but there are lots of little blue Technic joiner/studs
inserted in the holes facing outwards. These are what hold the side
detail strips on.
The side details for the main body of the ship consist of 32 identical
10-stud strips. To make construction easier, I stuck the 32 1x10 flats
together like this. Leave space between them because some of the
detail pieces stick off the sides of the strips.
The completed strips, ready to attach to the frames. It was a lot of
work making these!
Here the two halves of the frame have been joined, one upside down,
and the detail strips added along the sides. An important thing to
note here: The instructions are rather unclear about how you attach
the detail strips to the blue studs along the side. I figured it out
halfway through attaching them because things weren't lining up quite
as shown in the illustrations. The strips are actually attached with a
half-stud offset - that is, the small nibs between the stud
holes in the strips fit into the hollow blue studs on the
frame. You'll understand what I mean when you get there.
The completed frame with the support legs added.
Here's the rear booster assembly. I rather like this design and will
be emulating it in my own models. One complaint I had was that the
large booster assemblies were somewhat weak - one of them kept falling
off, because only a short bit of Technic axle actually holds them on,
and it was a slippery bit of axle.
The rear again, with the two large underside panels added. One
complaint I have about this design (and I've seen others griping about
it on the Web) is that the method of attaching these big panels isn't
stury enough. The four large panels - two on the underside and two on
the top side - are attached with studs at the outer edges, and train
magnets at the midline. Clever, and good enough for the top side, but
the bottom side panels often partially drop off if the ship is shaken
slightly. Stud attachments or more magnets on the lower side would
have been a good idea.
Another view after attaching the bottom panels. Sorry for the lousy
image quality, but this one was badly underexposed.
A bottom view after attaching the bottom panels. The big hole is the
docking bay entrance. The black things below it are the support stands
for the model.
A more dramatic bottom view from the front.
The first top side panel. Note the four gun turrets to the left, and
the one on the side. The big cutaway is where the bridge assembly will
sit.
The interior with the first top panel on.
Now both top panels are on. It almost looks like a fat Super Star
Destroyer at this point, and tempts me to build one some day. That
project would require a *lot* of pieces though.
At this point we put aside the main hull and start assembling the
bridge. Here's the first layer of the boxy structure. It's articulated
so that its sides will be inclined to match the hull angles when it
sits on top.
The second layer of boxiness built on top of the first. Note more
detail strips have to be made to go along the sides here, and some of
them are a bit different from the ones done earlier.
The boxy structure sat on the main hull. It actually just sits on top,
with no solid stud attachment. There are some registration aids to
make sure it sits in the right place. It would fall off if you turned
the ship upside down, but you won't be doing that - it's too heavy,
and there's nothing convenient to grab it by other than the support feet.
The conning tower is assembled from these three components.
The conning tower put together.
The conning tower plus the roof of the boxy part. The loose pieces in
the background were the 15 or so spare parts I got in this set. There
was only one piece missing, and it was a very minor detail piece for
the top of the conning tower.
Sit the conning tower on top of the boxy thing, and you're done!
Here's a higher-resolution picture of the whole ship from the right side.
And from the left side.
The completed ship from the rear...
And from the front.
Detail on the rear boosters with the top and bottom panels on.
Dramatic front view.
Underside view showing how the mini-model fits into the docking bay opening.
Topside detail.
Close-up of the conning tower.
Front-on view, near focus.
Front-on view, far focus. This is a long model - 39 inches long! It's
also 16 inches high and 20 inches wide at the rear.
Side detail. Yes, that gun turret is actually minifig binoculars
sandwiched between two small radar dishes. Neat idea.
Here's the list of construction sessions that got me from opening the box to completion:
Total time: 12h40m. I've see others claim a time of ten hours, but it's not a race - take your time and enjoy it thoroughly.
Go order this set now. You know you want to. In fact, order a second one and keep it untouched for later speculation sale.
You are at Soleil's home page Index -> Creative -> Lego -> Imperial Star Destroyer.
Copyright (c),© 2004 by
Soleil Lapierre.
Last updated July 15, 2004.