DL-44 ANH blaster prop

Ordered my primer up today so with luck I should see that in time for the weekend! :)

That will give me time to get the model together, real life permitting! lol

I been thinking about hows best to weather something this size, I'm toying with painting the whole gun a decent metallic colour first then overlaying that with black just like a real weapon then wearing the black away with some wire wool! Would that work do you think?

TTFN Matt
 
That would, but
when You do only these 3 steps (the undercolor, prime color, then prime is scribed away) the depths of your scribes would depend on many uncontrolled things like the undercolor layer's adhesion to the primer's surface. It differs from one area to another, so in several places it is easy to end up with bare primer under the paint, instead of the metallic layer.
You would be still able to color that area with metallic paint by hand and get a realistic chipping effect, but there is another solution - the so called hairspray technique.
Whats required is to acquire a can of hairspray from your wife, then I' recommend to spray some of it from the can into some cap. Thats for letting it sit there for a couple of minutes and letting the fumes go away (or else it would all go bubbling on the model's surface in the worst case), and besides You've got to get the can where it was as fast as its possible, before your wife noticed it ;)
After all those steps the only thing left is to apply the hairspray on the model after the bare metallic layer either with an airbrush, or by hand. Then, after the prime color is applied, You can scribe it with a wet toothpick for a great chipping effect.
 
Hairspray technique :eek:
Sounds intriguing, i'll have to look that up when i get home later today, many thanks mate.

P.S. Back in the 80's it would've been normal for a guy to have hairspray but now i need to sneak some away instead. lmao

TTFN Matt
 
Thats a great video John many thanks, it's amazing how realistic he gets that rust to look. :eek:

TTFN Matt
 
You can say that again! Makes me want to go out and get an auto kit and try it myself!
 
Spent the evening looking at ref pics online of 'the original prop' and noticed a few things. All these images claim to be of the exact prop used by 'Han Solo' in the filming of ANH......

Picture 1
830px-DL-44_tech_drawing.jpg

Picture 2
Dl-44.jpg

Can you spot the differences? They're very similar but 'not' the same. ::)
The blaster in picture 1 has a more complex sight (adjustments on the side as well but not visible in this pic), a longer barrel (compare the gap between the end of the muzzle flash suppressor and the end of the telescopic sight) but most obvious is the muzzle suppressor itself (the weapon in picture 1 has a solid body where picture 2 has vent holes in it).

The model i have is obviously based on picture 2 and i believe thats the true one because in all the famous stills of Solo its this weapon he is holding...

Hansoloprofile.jpg
hansolo_refshot.jpg

Thing is one of my books does have an early pre-production pic of Solo holding the weapon from picture 1 :eek:....maybe they altered it slightly before filming began for some reason!?!?!?!

The big question is which is correct and was used in filming and which was used in publicity photos for the film?

I did try watching my DVD but it was so hard to pause the picture clearly enough to see the holes in the muzzle that i gave up and stills from the net seemed just as mixed.

So i've decided to follow picture 2, all of which means i now need to make another couple of fixtures that i spoted in one of the pictures that the model is lacking, i guess when they made the model they only followed images of the weapon viewed from the right hand side. lol

gun1.jpg

Hope that all made sense, tbh my fingers hurt now and i wanna stop typing. rofl

Thanks for looking.

TTFN Matt
 
Great investigative work there, Matt. Interesting. Maybe the prop guy wasn't happy with it and made alterations as the film was being made.

Then again, maybe George had something to do with it...

I only just found out, Lucas actually wore a Han shot first T-shirt on the set of Indy IV. What's that all about?

Is he acknowledging the fans are right? Is he mocking us? What?

han-shot-first.jpg
 
A very good question mate, maybe he's letting us know he just doesn't care what the fans think as it's 'his' film to do with as he pleases?!?!?!

I think personally Star Wars is just a cash cow now, he knows that he can mess with it anyway he wants and the fans will still buy it! I wouldn't mind betting that in several years he releases the original trilogy in their 'original theatrical release versions' on Blu-Ray as another money maker.

Or.....maybe he's following the current craze of making everything 'politically correct'? I guess only he knows for sure. lol

TTFN Matt
 
Dont know if these are any use to you fubar? There taken from a 720p of the blu ray's. It appear's to me (allthough not much evidence to go by) that the end of the barrell hasnt got the holes in :-\?
vlcsnap-2012-01-05-17h31m03s173.png

vlcsnap-2012-01-05-17h37m01s134.png

vlcsnap-2012-01-05-17h37m16s68.png

vlcsnap-2012-01-05-17h38m03s63.png
 
Many thanks for those images John, as you can see the evidence for holes can be confusing.

I'd say thats the gun from picture 2 judging from the shape, length and arrangement of the barrel and scope...it looks more compact also in the second image it looks like the holes are visible in the flash suppressor as the brightness of the shot back lights them.

But as you rightly point out in the other two pictures is almost impossible to see any holes at all. Sigh. ::)

I'm going to stick with picture two i think until i can see for sure that there should be no holes, i'm sure if i carry on i can fill them in at some later date if need be, although making the barrel longer would be a pain once i've got the parts assembled. ???

As for a display stand thats a good question, i dont want one of these wall mounted gun racks that many people seem to like. I'm after a free standing display stand that can also hold my full size E11 if possible and go inside my display cabinet with my other Star Wars figures and models.

As an update on the model, so far i've soaked the parts in extra strong Fairy washing up liquid and filled in some rather large gaps with Squadron white, i hope to start sanding tonight (got my face mask ready as i understand resin dust is nasty) and with luck i may get it glued together as well. ;)

1130cafc.jpg

TTFN Matt
 
Yeah go for the holes! They look cooler! 8) and Hoover up after sanding lol
 
If you can do wet sanding, no dust that way. This is what I prefer when working with models.
 
Really thoughtful, mate. Resin differs in the way of how much dust it produces, but anyway You don't want to breath it in with all that polymerized hardener and other not so healthy stuff. And I'd agree with Grendels - try puting your piece of sandpaper in water from time to time while doing the sanding - thats probably the best way of not letting the dust fly over the house and harm your lacking masks family members.
 
More sanding tonight, managed to get rid of a rather large seem gap...

adf2cfc2.jpg
7ba39b38.jpg

...but now noticed something else thanks to merseajohn's pics.

The thickness of the muzzle flash suppressors walls are way to think when compared to the pics.
Any ideas how's best to thin them down other than spended a few years with sandpaper! lol

d769247d.jpg

This resin is hard but actually very easy to sand away, like you said LOTS of dust so far, and i'm thinking that if i made the walls too thin it may make the supperssor weak and prone to damage. I may try putting a small chamfer on it so it gives the impression of being thinner!

TTFN Matt
 

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