Jedi on my Mind

I finished off a very productive summer last year with this tiny little Jedi Starfighter from Attack of the Clones. The scale is 1/144 so it is quite small, but as usual with Bandai kits, the detail is still incredible. Several years ago I built the 1/72 version of this ship when it was made by FineMolds, and I remember having a terrible time with the decals and all around frustration with the small size. For a kit that is half the size, I found this one twice as easy to assemble.

The assembly took almost no time, as I believe there were about two sprues in a tiny box. I primed everything and gave it a white base coat, and everything else was done with decals. If I had used the Bandai decals from the box I probably would have pulled my hair out because they were stickers and not slide-on decals, but fortunately, one of my favorite decal makers on ebay (yogurt80) had a set designed specifically for this kit, and they worked beautifully. I think there is a lot of room for building a fleet of unique Jedi Starfighters, but I do not have the money nor the painting skills to try it. Plus, I love Obi-Wan.

The ship slides in and out of the Hyperspace ring well, and the base attaches only to the starfighter for display purposes. I am definitely considering an asteroid field diorama with Jango Fett's Slave I in the same scale, but display space may play a role in whether that ever happens. 

The only weathering I did was a dark gray wash and some oil streaking, which gave it a weathered but not overdone look. Jedi do not seem the type to keep their ships too dirty. If you can still find this kit I would recommend picking it up. It is cheap, has great detail, and many possibilities for customizing to your Jedi of preference. Make sure, however, that you either find good decals or have fantastic painting skills.