Long-lost X-Wing up for sale

Excerpt from CNN.com

A long-lost model of an X-wing fighter used in the original 1977 “Star Wars” movie is up for auction, with a starting price of $400,000. Used in the filming of the final battle in “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” as the Rebel Alliance fight the Empire above the Death Star, the model “represents the pinnacle of Star Wars artifacts to ever reach the market,” Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auctions said.

The top two wings of the fighter are both painted with a single red stripe, identifying it as the squadron’s “Red Leader.”

The model is part of a collection that belonged to the late Greg Jein, an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated miniature-maker known for his work on “Star Trek” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and will be auctioned on October 14-15.

Long known as “the missing X-wing,” it was discovered by a team of visual effects experts, including Gene Kozicki (“Face/Off” and “Flight of the Phoenix”), as they helped Jein’s family sift through his collection, Kozicki told the Hollywood Reporter.

“This model has not been displayed or modified since it left ILM (visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic),” Kozicki said. “For those of us that grew up in the ’70s or ‘80s, and those of us that work in visual effects, this model is as significant a find as the ruby red slippers or the Maltese Falcon.”