Sunday, September 20, 2009

Jedi Starfighter

(stamp size 3" x 2.5")

Padawan and I are troopin' as Jedi again today, so I thought it fitting to feature a Star Wars stamp. This is a stamp I carved just for fun and right now it is traveling the country as an event stamp.

It is the later model Jedi Starfighter, which you can see featured in the opening scenes of Revenge of the Sith (Ep. III). Can you even imagine what it would be like to be jetting through space in one of these sweet things? Ah yes, so much for daydreamin'!

So, for the geeks out there, here's a little more information:

Though the wedge-shaped starfighter design was still in use by the end of the Clone Wars, a newer model had earned the spotlight for its use by renowned Jedi heroes, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. This new model was much more compact, cutting away a large portion of the forward spaceframe to have a forked front, bracketing a bulbous cockpit pod. Lining the inner edges of the ship's "tines" were powerful long-barreled laser cannons. The ship also had secondary cannons recessed on the outer edge of each tine.

A full-size astromech droid rested within a spring-loaded socket on the port wing, and the craft's wingtips could fold open, revealing hexagonal panels when the ship entered combat mode. The hexagonal wings and the spoke-windowed cockpit were strong indicators of future starfighter designs to be adopted by the galactic government. This new model also lacked a hyperdrive, so it too had to rely upon a hyperspace transport ring to achieve superluminal velocities. During the war, bigger more robust rings were used, with multiple lightspeed engines increasing their speed and range.

Geeks rule!

(Anakin's Starfighter was yellow so he could be seen well during battle, while Obi-Wan stayed with the standard red coloring. You can see R-2 featured in Anakin's fighter and R-4 well ensconced in Obi-Wan's. In this shot, the heroic duo are flanked by clone soldiers in their ARC-170 fighters. Just thought you'd like to know... *smile* )

2 comments:

Ari C'rona said...

Awesome! I think we need a couple of those...

"Anakin! What are you doing?!"

"I agree, bad idea."

*geekin' out! :o)

Liz Henderson (Hendel D'bu) said...

I'd like to try the 'good trick' I think... :-)

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