by Clifton Simmons

The ANNIHILATOR is the precursor to the EXECUTOR Class Star Destroyer that was seen in Star Wars V & VI and as a result is not as massive. I'm not going to make up some story about this ship and her service to the Empire. It was built for fun so let me get right to the build.

This is what I call a “Quick and Dirty build”, which means, in my vernacular, that I wanted to build this sucker as fast as I could. The first thing up was planning. I wanted to keep it the traditional star destroyer shape but in the style between the third and fourth Star Wars films. One of the other reasons I decided on this type of Star Destroyer was I didn't want to build an EXECUTOR and then be raked over the coals by those anal model builders out there who would say “Well, it would be prefect but you didn't add the .00020 millimeter strip along the aft leading edge, like ILM did.” I wanted to keep this project FUN…and that's what it's been.

After I decided I was going to enter this contest, I grabbed an old sheet of coffee-stained poster board and drew up what came to mind at that time. I used some old photos of the EXECUTOR from Episodes V & VI and some DVD screen captures of the clone trooper transports Episode II for reference and to keep the general shape of what a pre-EXECUTOR should look like. I didn't go through any drafts. I just thought up the first thing that came to mind and stuck with that. Look closely at the plans and you will see no eraser marks. Remember, this was a quick build.

The main hull pieces, four in all, are cut from some scrap .020 styrene sheet plastic and formed around Popsicle sticks and Plastruct tubes for rigidness. After the shape was glued up I used some of my scrap kits for engine detailing. Among these were:

• Tamiya 1/350 ENTERPRISE Aircraft Carrier
• AMT Naboo Starfighter, Snap Kit
• Tamiya 1/35 M113 Personnel Carrier
• Revell 1/72 PT-109
• Revell 1/426 USS ARIZONA (four of these babies!)
• Academy 1/35 BLACKHAWK helicopter

The engine bells are steel thimbles that I got at the local hobby store. I just liked the way the ridges looked like an engine! The internal parts on the engine bells are scrap parts from the Tamiya Enterprise kit. The bridge area and other assorted greeblies are from PBX phone connections, from my full-time job, augmented with small scrap plastic.

The leading edge is an Evergreen styrene 282 (H-column) strip and the hull is covered with various .010 and .020 thick styrene shapes, cut first in strips and then cut into smaller pieces. All the parts were glued on by hand.

Total parts' covering the hull is about 2000, give or take a few. The neatest thing about the build is that I used parts from the Naboo Starfighter for some of the engine detailing.

The base is a wood plaque purchased at the local hobby store and the Imperial insignia disc is cut from some .030 thick styrene with a decal made by first scanning it from my Empire Strikes Back soundtrack. I then printed it out on some decal paper and applied it to the pre-cut disc. The date plate was done the same way. Both decals had some bubbles that wouldn't flatten out with decal set so I just left them that way. Hey, fun right? After securing the data plates to the base I coated the whole thing with gloss coat and that was that!

The hull of the ship was painted with Testors Model Master Camouflage Gray spray paint with the darkening of the superstructure using Testors Model Master Gunship Gray bottle paint, thinned down and washed on the surface to bring out the details. Afterward I drybrushed the hull to bring out more detail. Additional detailing on the model was done with technical pencil and a straight edge. After all was said and done the whole thing was sprayed with a coat of Testors Dull Coat spray and then more hull lines were added after which another and final coat of Dull Coat went on.

There are some screw-ups on the model because I built it so quick but I won't tell where they are! Total time from start to finish: 3 weeks, working weekends and some nights of the week after work. I think the whole build came together rather well and this is the first scratchbuilt model that I have entered into competition.

Image: Starboard side

Image: Right/rear view

Image: Bridge, from behind

Image: Upper half, center

Image: Bridge, side view

Image: Engines

Image: Under construction

Image: Lots of detail