by Nathan Kelley

In the years following Grand Admiral Thrawn's defeat, Ryan “Joc” Darklighter and Green Squadron were assigned to pirate suppression duties. Taking the lessons learned from the Thrawn campaign, Joc decided to bait and switch the pirates by assigning “inexperienced” pilots in “outdated” star fighters to escort duty. Since most of the sector reserve fleets assigned to convoy duty were using old X-wings, he decided that Green Squadron would pose as newly formed reserve X-wing squadron. With the help of Joc's chief mechanic, Tannis Holtz, Green Squadron began to upgrade their requisitioned X-wings into a variant they nicknamed the T-65H (H for Heavy) X-wing.

To provide superior firepower, they changed out the standard wing cannons with heavy triple blasters and a side mounted pulse cannon. Twin blasters were added over the additional proton torpedo magazines on both sides of the nose. Two blasters were added also mounted to the new retractable wings in between the S-foils. Twenty-eight (seven per wing) concussion missile tubes were mounted under armor plates on the wings. An experimental heavy rail gun was incorporated into the fuselage below the cockpit with a single ion cannon mounted to the droid cover in the unlikely event that they needed an intact enemy fighter. Upper and lower independent dual pulse cannons were also added to the back of the X-Wings to prevent “trench runs with Vader”. The lower fuselage was also reinforced to carry optional weapons payloads (i.e. the seismic charges shown) to suit different mission needs. Finally an additional four engines were mounted to each wing to help power the additional weapons and to keep the fighter moving at an acceptable combat speed.

With their newly modified X-wings, Green Squadron soon became a serious deterrent to pirates in the sectors to which they were assigned.

The kit is the culmination of several sketches done during my engineering classes and an old 1989 AMT/Ertl Large X-wing kit that was beginning to fall apart on the shelf that my wife said had to be fixed or go.

The wing cannons are aluminum tubing and some spare B5 Starfury cannons mounted into the original wing cannon housing. I made the ion cannon and small blasters from leftover parts from various military aircraft models. The rail gun underneath, droid cowling, and side pods were formed from the spare engine cowlings of the Fine Molds X-wing (both 1/72 and 1/48). The missile tubes are made from the leftover aluminum tubing and the leftover wing panels of a couple Ep. III Jedi Star Fighters. I also made the stub wings in front and the retractable wings in between the S-foils from leftover Jedi Star Fighter wing panels. The additional engines were generously donated from another Large X-wing reissue kit. And I cobbled the back guns together from B5 Starfury cannons and the leftover seismic charge clamps from Slave I. I used Camouflage Grey as the base coat with medium green highlights and a yellow and black checkered pattern on the nose.

Image: Top view

Image: Rear view

Image: Bottom view