ISD Pursuer - Constrction Notes
02/08/15

It started with the technic ball from the Ewok Attack set,
which was obviously meant to be a shield generator on a
Star Destroyer.  I procured a second and worked from there.
The other limiting factor for the scale was my 18000 piece 
collection.  The hull drained my supply of grey wings.  In fact,
I cracked open a boxed 6842 for the last two 4x8 wings (I was
close to finishing and didn't want to wait for a BL order).

My main objective was accuracy - especially the overall shape.
The middle part sandwiched between the upper and lower hull plates
is too thick.  It also should be a few studs longer, and it sags a
little bit.  On the bottom, the positioning of the reactor base,
the primary and secondary hangars is a little off (I placed them
where they are for structural reasons). Finally, I wanted to use 
light grey cones for the engines, but don't have any.  Overall,
I'm really pleased with the shape.

There is one intentional inaccuracy: I added two small thrusters
in the back outboard of the larger thrusters, just because I prefer
the way it looks.  The extra speed they provide gave rise to the 
name "Pursuer."

The biggest challenge was getting the angles right.  This was done
with a mix of hinges, click-hinges, and technic.  The shallow angle
that divides the port and starboard sides was done with click hinges
and technic "elbow" axle joiners.  The #5 technic "elbow" is at 
the same angle as the first position in a click hinge.  That part
was easy.  The difficult part was getting the gentle slope between
the upper hull and the horizontal.  The even more difficult part 
was doing the same for the bottom hull plate, but upside-down, AND 
keep the two sections roughly equidistant over the length of the ship.
This was achived with a "T" shaped frame at the horizontal (which the 
larger engines are attached to), and those alligator-jaw-shaped 
hinges.  The hinges are opened only slightly, to provide the shallow
angle needed.

The layered superstructure was made the same way as the hull plates.
Each layer has it's own #5 technic elbow at the centre, which 
connects all the layers to the frame, and rests on tiles on top of
the layer below.  This limits the size of the gap down the middle of
the hull.

A side effect of this method of construction is that the nose is
angled downward when resting on it's pedestals, because they are at 
a right angle to the lower hull surface.

Details?  Sparse, because I didn't want to interrupt the clean lines.
I used dark grey to simulate shading in the middle part and on the 
superstructure.   Of course, there are also the shield generators and
comm array on the tower, the hangers, the round reactor thingie, and
a handful of plates on top.