Someone did a drawing of a ship on the Star Wars Artists Guild. Basically their inspiration for that ship was a G.I. Joe Sky Striker, but it was backwards. It made it look familiar and airworthy, but alien enough to be from Star Wars. You could try to do something similar with the Rattler. If you couls reverse the cockpit & canopy, I would suggest either removing the enginer in the middle of the tail, or trying to turn the tail upside down.