A Saturday Afternoon Diversion
The first snap kit I have done in ages
A couple weeks ago Amazon had a deal on select model kits, so I picked up a Republic Star Destroyer (the kit I most wanted) and this Republic Gunship Kit from Revell. I normally don’t snatch up pre-painted snap kits, but I had heard good things about this particular kit and the price was pretty good with the deal.
Surprising amount of parts and detail for a beginner snap kit
On a Saturday three or four weeks ago I wanted to work on a model kit, and I had just finished the Corporate Alliance Droid, but did not want to start a huge new project yet. Conveniently, I had this nice little kit sitting right on top of the pile and decided to go for it.
I will start with some general thoughts about the kit. The entire assembly took about 2-3 hours to completion. I debated doing some extra weathering or painting, but decided I didn’t want to invest that much in this particular kit. Maybe some day. The overall quality of the kit is pretty good. The parts are solid, and they fit snugly for the most part. The gun turrets were a little flimsy, and I had to glue one that was snapping, but otherwise there were no problems.
One of the cooler things about this kit is the sliding doors on the sides. I decided to leave one side closed and the other open in order to display the clone troopers standing inside. The clone troopers are made out of a different material, which is rubbery, and they slide into holes in the ships’ deck. The fit was a little loose for my liking so I glued the troopers in.
You can see a few of the troopers standing inside as well as two in the cockpit.
The pre-painted weathering effects are ok, but they do look pre-painted. Again, I just didn’t feel like investing more into this kit than the one day. I think there could be some great potential if you really wanted to accurize this ship to its fullest extent. There is no scale label on the box, but based on the size of the troopers, I would guess it is around 1/72. This is the perfect scale to fit with many of my other Star Wars ships from FineMolds.
Overall, this was a great minimal commitment, diversion kit. I do not feel nearly the sense of pride about this kit as I do about the others that I have assembled, painted, welded, and dedicated hours and weeks to building, but it’s a cool little display piece nonetheless. I don’t see myself picking up too many snap kits in the future, but since there wasn’t a regular kit for this ship, I decided it was worth a day’s work.
Here are a few more shots of the finished kit.
Side with doors closed
Life to Scale 