So after my time with the Medical Frigate MOC I was pretty leery about picking up another MOC set, but the draw of the massive 6500+ piece Republic Cruiser was just too huge.
This was the largest set available from Lepin until this years Millennium Falcon was released, and due to the nature of the Lepin sets, and MOC in general, this was a big problem.
As you can see, this is a 10 ft dining room table. 6+ feet are covered in bricks. There was almost no room to build.
Clocking in at over 130 individual bags, it took over 2 hours just to open everything up and try to get some semblance of order.
I found having a pile of old containers on hand really help, all the smaller elements went into containers so I could have some extra room to breath.
With everything sorted it was time to dive into the massive manual.
The core of the ship went together like any other regular star wars ship, it is really well built and solid, and it would have to be as the ship itself is over 20lbs, so a good strong base is a must.
On top of this, much like the UCS Star Destroyer, the actual stand is built directly to the frame.
This is a bit of a mixed bag for me.
While I appreciate WHY this is done, it still tends to look less than attractive, especially if you set is up as high as eye level (like mine is)
Now, much like the Medical Frigate, this sets design leave a lot to be desired.
There is a pile of guesswork to be done.
First and foremost is the entire bottom of the ship.
Lepin left out how any of this was to be connected, the main under plate just hangs off the ship and rests on the surface it is on. It is suppose to be attached to the plate above it.
This took some real annoying rework as I was expecting this to be addressed in a later step, and was not, so now I had a near complete (and fragile build) that needed to be carefully tweaked to make it work.
So after an hour or so of messing around, and multiple curses later, the issues was fixed.
Next up, and the most atrocious of the entire build is the 4 massive panels on the ship.
Now they assembled just fine, but installation is completely impossible by the book.
#1, the magnets you get are about 1 million times more powerful than a Lego magnet. So the second you try to place them, the magnetic pull rips them right off the panels.
To add insult to injury, the placement of the magnets is completely wrong. so even if you manage to get them to not pull off the base, they leave the panels all skewed and looking pretty uneven.
I had to heavily rework the interior system to fix this, and there was no way it could be done without krazy glue.
Above Pic is a complete custom fix on my part, and had to be glued in to work properly.
Magnet elements 100% need to be glued to work.
It took me almost 4 hours and constant frustration with pieces falling off to fix this.
Lastly, the giant missing panel… This section pictured should have a cover to hide the gaping hole in the top of the ship.
This area is not included… No rhyme or reason.
From what I have read it used to included be back in the day, and suddenly it just stopped, it is no longer in the manual, and the bricks are just not there.
Luckily I have enough spares from other sets that I was able to swap out parts from elsewhere to steal what was needed for the exterior finish.
Instruction were found in the original MOC instruction book (which I highly recommend buying if you get this set)
So all in all, it is an amazing finished product, but it is such a nightmare to finish it is hard to say if it was worth it.
There is little worse than getting to the last mile in a set, and the finish is so terrible it negates all the good thoughts you have about a set.
That is where I am left with the Republic Cruiser.
While it is one of my fave ships in my collection, I am hard pressed to think positively about building it again if I had to.
If you are a die hard Star Wars fan, then it is a no brainer, as it does look damn great when built. But if will cost you some hair from the pulling, and it may go a bit grey too.
A 10/10 for the finished product, but a paltry 6/10 for the actual getting there.
One last thing, this is the pile of spare bits that were left, quite a bit considering a lot of folks claim they have no spares and are missing parts.
The Compulsive Canadian Gamer 