Vegg

Stephen Lesley
Many thanks, Torsten. Bandai make such lovely kits.

Dora-13
This looks absolutely fabulous!

The following has nothing to do with your build, but as there was mention of various scales in the comments, here's my share:

About nine months ago, I did a little research for another site I frequent. Maybe it has changed in the meantime, but back then, Jedipedia said that Death Star 2 was 900 kilometers in diameter. But then, a kit in 1/2,700,000 should be about 33 centimeters in diameter. This kit here is a bit smaller than a tennis ball, about 7 centimeters.

Wikipedia agrees that Death Star 2 had 900km diameter, and explicitly says that earlier references quoted the same diameter as the first Death Star, which was 160km.

Wookieepedia on the third hand says that both Death Stars were of the same size, which would be 160km.

The size of this kit, coupled with Bandai's scale quote, suggests that Bandai based it on the (according to Wikipedia, earlier) assumption that the second Death Star was as big as the first.

I don't know from where these three encyclopediae got their data, and if there actually are any references anywhere which would reliably tell us the true sizes of those fictional spacecraft.

The quoted scale 1/2.700.000 would be correct if the second Death Star was the same size as the first. Or if it was a model of Death Star 1 during the build phase...

However, if Death Star 2 was actually 900km in diameter, and this kit was a scale model of it, the proper scale should be around 1/13,000,000 lol

Stephen Lesley
The issues I found were with the lower hull and the rear panel. These have to be carefully lined up or it can affect the fit with the upper hull. The turret was slightly warped which affected the fit with the turret ring and how it sits on top of the hull. The most annoying issue so far is the fitting of the side skirt brackets to the frame and the frame to the hull. The sprue gates for the brackets are on the mating surface so if you don't file them perfectly flat, they are out of line. And in a complete brain fart on behalf of Tamiya they designed the kit in such a way that if you attach all the tool racks etc on the the right hand side of the hull using the mounting holes, it prevents you attaching the side skirt frame properly, because the tools end up too low on the hull side. In the end I had to break off the jack block and some of the tool clamps to make the frame fit on the side. Not happy!

Spanjaard
thanks for all the info!

Guy Rump
Great result, paint job is stunning! 👍

Stephen Lesley
Thank you Bernd and Guy. Much appreciated 👍🏻