Giving fans a chance to customize their set further, LEGO included two different nose art decals вЂ“ a Kowakian monkey lizard holding aВ missile, with the text вЂњlaugh this offвЂќ in Aurabesh and blue-skinned TwiвЂ™lek female in clone trooper armor. Forming part of the Clone Wars collection, created to support The Clone Wars animated series, the second System-scale Republic gunship had two large Slope 10 6 x 8 plates on either side of the fuselage, below the flight deck, that allowed specially created nose art stickers included with the set to be placed on them. It was the appearance of this heavily modified LAAT/i, with a snarling rancorвЂ™s mouth painted on the nose, below the cockpit and covering the frontal turrets, that gave the Star Wars galaxy its very first depiction of nose art.Д®ven though LEGO had produced 7163 Republic Gunship in time for the theatrical arrival of Attack of the Clones in 2002, It wasnвЂ™t until the release of 7676 Republic Attack Gunship in 2008 that LEGO adorned one of their sets with nose art. ThereвЂ™s no way to know for certain if it was this design that inspired Genndy Tartakovsky to decorate the LAAT used by Muunilinst 10, an elite group of ARC troopers, in the Chapter 21 of the original Clone Wars cartoon series. Perhaps the most famous nose art of all time was the sharkвЂ™s mouth made famous by the Flying Tigers, a clandestine air unit created in 1941. Competition between the crews became so fierce that squadrons would sometimes commission graphic artists вЂ“ including ones from Disney вЂ“ to adorn their aircraft. Initially seen as a way to inspire fear in the enemies, provide talismanic protection to the aircrew, or simply evoke memories of their home life, pilots and ground crew would collaborate in their downtime to decorate the nose of their fighters and bombers with cartoon, pin-up models and patriotic characters. In the real world nose art is largely a military tradition, and while вЂ“ for most people вЂ“ the history of nose art on military aircraft starts in World War II, however the first recorded example was a sea monster painted on an Italian flying boat in 1913 and later, during the Great War, some German and Italian pilots took to painting stylized squadron insignia on their aircraft.Д¬onsider by many to be the true age of nose art, World War II saw the art form flourish.

Popularized by the Memphis Belle and Enola Gay, the practice of decorating the front panels of the Republic gunship grew out of a developing need for clones to express some non-conformity and their growing sense of individuality.

Star wars nose art