by Scott Scariot

After Anakin Skywalker crossed to the dark side and became Darth Vader he choose an Eta-2 starfighter for his personal Sith Starfighter. He had the fighter painted dark colors and he also choose R4-K5 to act as his astromech droid. Vader disliked the Eta-2 because his body armor made it difficult for him to get in and out of the cockpit. Vader abandoned his Sith Starfighter once the TIE Advanced was completed.

I based the model of a toy my son has. The model started as a Revell 1/48 scale Jedi Starfighter - Anakin’s to be exact. I sprayed the model parts with Easy-Off to try and remove the paint. After 24 hours the paint did not come off! So I figured it would be okay to paint over it. The model was primed then gloss coated. Then salt was applied. Then the model was painted in shades of Grey. Once the paint had dried I rubbed the salt off for a worn look. This does look like my son’s toy. I’m not quite sure why Vader let his ship get so beat up but I think it looks pretty cool. I re-glossed the model and then applied some black and rust washes to the model. I also applied some pastels to simulate weapons fire and some rust on the edges of the damaged sections. The decals are custom. The red is nice it breaks up the grey nicely. The Vader figure inside the cockpit is custom and was sculpted from scratch.

Image: Right/above

Image: Front

Image: Rear view

Image: Dark Lord

Image: Another look

Image: Above

Image: Underneath

Image: Panels deployed

Image: Left/front