by Bill Human

Time: 7 months prior to SW Ep. II

“Go, you will, to Kothalis, and negotiate the release of the hostages, you must. If fail, you do; fear I, that Kothalis will vote to join the Separatists. Happen, this must not, Obi-Wan.”

Yoda's words still hung in his mind as Obi-Wan started the countdown to re-enter realspace. Yoda was right, If the hostage situation were not handled… delicately, the Senator of Kothalis would motion to withdraw from the Republic, as she had threatened.

The ship slowed, and dropped out of hyperspace. A warning in the Force. Instantly, Obi-Wan hit the release, redlined the Aethersprites engines, and slammed the yoke to port. The laser blasts of three droid fighters super-heated the space he'd just vacated. “Blast! This is why I hate flying!”

The negotiations had begun…

As has been mentioned elsewhere; what a lovely little kit! This is the first Fine Molds offering I have built, and I love it. Assembly was quite uneventful, except for the 1-year span between building this little gem and putting any paint on it.

Let me clarify; I love the kit, hate the &%$#@! decals. One, they're the wrong color: much too purple. Two, there's too damn many of them. And three, they'd cover all the detail. They, alone, are the reason I put it back in the box after the glue had dried.

Then the contest came around and I thought I'd finally tackle the bizarre paint scheme. This led to much experimentation with masking the ship, but every one of my attempts led to tears. And cursing. Thus I decided to hand paint her. I'm still in counseling for this.

Colors are Wal-Mart flat white, and a mixture of one part Delta maroon to two parts Vallejo cavalry brown, acrylics. The green is Vallejo dark yellow (?). Washes were applied and various shades of gray, sandstone and silver were drybrushed onto the ship. Further shading was done with chalks.

The cockpit 'glass' was attached using rubber cement, because later, I'll need to redo some of the details on Obi-Wan. Figure painter I'm not.

All in all, a nice little kit. Intimidating, but nice.

Image: Front view

Image: Above right

Image: Dodging

Image: Behind and left