Sunday, October 5, 2014

1/4222 Dagger Class Star Destroyer

From time to time, I browse DeviantArt looking for new ideas to build. Most are designs that I could never hope to build, but sometimes I come across a ship that just might be doable like the Dagger class. Following the classic Star Destroyer lines, this mostly angular ship should be within my abilities to scratch build.

Here is the only reference picture that I have to work with, It has a Lambda shuttle in the foreground for some sense of size.

 I started out with trying to make a top view of the ship so have a pattern for cutting out the styrene:

 This was far to wide and so I revised it again. During this process I found out that trying to draw a top view from only a perspective shot it really hard. 

 After posting to the Starship Modeler Facebook page for help, a friend posted this image. Still seamed a bit skinny, but was a huge help.

I combined his image and mine to produce this, my working template for the build:

After lots of thought, I decided to go with a 4 inch length for my build in 1/4222 scale. The designer of the ship never listed any "official" length, so I used a 1/4222 Utar Ships Lambda shuttle to get an estimate of 440 meters for the "real" ship.

I have plans to maybe make a kit out this build, but that all depends on me getting permission from the designer to do so, so far have not heard back from him. In the mean time, Nicholas Sagan (a pro-builder from Keeper of the Force) sent me lots of supplies. I even have some laser etched stryrene to build the hull from!


I decided to do a test build in plain styrene first. This way I can work out the bugs in the process before moving on to the good stuff.


Adding a little detail to the sides with sheet styrene:

Adding the engine plate and the side trenches:



And lastly, a comparison pic with the .JPG Interdictor kit. I'm using it as a reference point for detailing. 

Feeling pretty good about this one so far. Now to see how far I can take it.