Armata FiberOptic Light Kit for 1/2700 Star Wars Star Destroyer Models (Revell or Zvezda)

Some updates to my original review. I'm adding another star. While it's true that the instructions aren't great, they are just enough. Adding fiber optics to a model is always a laborious affair even if you know what you're doing and a star destroyer needs a ton of fiber optics. This kit really is very good. The battery kit fits inside well. They provide enough fiber optics to complete the whole model. 0.5mm is a good size for the filaments. Smaller would be more accurate, but much harder to work with. The drill bits they provide are the right sizes, though the 0.5mm one is rubbish. Most 0.5mm drill bits snap almost instantly. The good ones are hard to find. I had to buy so many that I can't remember which brand worked the best - but they were from a Japanese company - probably Tamiya - if that helps. But when you do find one, you can drill thousands of holes with just one bit.---- original review follows----Very well thought out kit. But the instructions leave an enoumous amount to the imagination. Before you ruin your beautiful star destroyer model... watch YouTube videos about how to do fiber optic lighting inside this kind of model. It’s great that the lights run off AA batteries instead of some kits that use D-cells which won’t fit inside this model. The layout recommended in the instructions is pretty good, but the challenge is that the LED's can't be disconnected from the battery. This means that you have to thread in all the fiber optics on the upper decks WITHOUT having the LED hoods to thread them into. You have two options. You can thread the fiber optic filaments into short sections of drinking straws that are slightly smaller in diameter than the LED hoods. Then when you're ready to assemble the top and bottom halves of the model you'll need to just slip the LED light sockets over the straws with the filaments bundled inside. This is risky because if the filiments slip out of the straws while you’re finagling them into the hoods you’re doomed. You’ll never get them all back into the straws. Or you can cut the wires leading to the LEDs for the upper decks and attach their light hoods to the upper decks then thread the filaments directly into them - just like on the lower decks. This is risky because you’ll have to label the wires carefully and you’ll have to attach the wires back together which won’t be easy since there isn’t much room to work with between the decks as you’re putting them together. Ideally you’ll need to get some connector clips and attach them before hand. Or better still, buy a soldering iron, then cut off all the wires for the LEDs you were going to place into the upper decks, then splice/solder all the LED's for the upper deck into one 2-strand wire (with a connector clip on one end) then solder the other clip to one of the cut wire strands from the bottom hull. This way all the upper deck LED's are powered via only one connection clip to the batter pack in the lower deck. So when you go to attach the two hulls together, you only have to clip one connector to complete all your circuits. The reason for thinking this all through to such a degree is that the glue joints between the hulls are very long and can dry out long before you get all the light hoods attached to all the upper deck filament bundles. So having only one connector clip between the two decks is key. Look for "2-pin connectors" and buy one that's roughly 22 gauge. You don't need heavy wires for the minuscule current that these LED's pull.One more point. You will need to file notches in the inner edge wall of the upper half of the side walls between the main decks so you don't crush / shatter the filaments that come in through the upper part of the edge walls around the perimeter when you close the two deck together. But you don't need to notch out ever single filament. Cut big notches for 20 filaments and leave some gaps between filaments so you can still have enough of the upper deck's inner edge wall to apply the glue and secure the two decks together. For these long edge glue joints use Tamiya regular glue for its slightly slower drying time than the ultra thin stuff. For the rest of the model, use Tamiya ultra-thin glue for this model. The joints are very tight. You’re welcome :)

Better instructions would be nice.

I don't have the skill to do my own led lighting so was happy to see this available. Looking forward to fitting this to my 1/2700 Star Destroyer.... If I ever get around to building it.