My serious Hasbro DH-17 blaster conversions - ANH and ESB

Several years ago, Hasbro released a reasonably accurate Rebel Trooper Blaster toy, but only the US. I wanted to get one to convert, and I waited and waited for it to be sold in Europe. Then it went off the market and became expensive... but, it was re-released early this year - and at last in Europe also, so I bought two.
I decided to try to build one into a ANH version, and the other into an ESB version.

My ESB blaster is practially done, while the scope and greeblies for the ANH blaster are still unfinished.
I began in late April and posted a build log over on the Blaster Builder's Club forum, but the forum went down and my thread there is lost. It is about time that I posted here as well, anyway.

I may have gone overboard with these... If you want to build a ESB DH-17, then it would be much less work to start with accurate resin casts of Sterling parts and a Singlepoint instead of resculpting Hasbro parts as I have done.

As far as I know, all DH-17 blaster props in the movies were resin casts, and my aim has been to replicate the resin props, and not to do idealized versions that mimic the original metal British Sterling machine guns too much.
I also intend to troop with at least the ESB blaster, as a Rebel. Nerf suction cup darts stick quite well to Stormtrooper armour, so I wanted to retain the shooting mechanism.


First thing I did was to cut the blasters apart and accurize the trigger assemblies with pieces of styrene. The trigger guard on the Hasbro blaster does in fact have an accurate shape, only in the wrong position, so I reused part of them when building the new ones ... and then I filed them thinner.

I opted to extend the receivers only in the back and not in the front, so as not to disturb the dart-shooting barrel. The electronics are completely removed.
I measured in photos how much I had to extend the back, and I found that the pulling handle was actually dimensioned to the real prop: The first bar on the pulling handle just touches the end cap!
I found cheap small "travel bottles" of shampoo that fit perfectly inside the receiver.

My old E-11 / Sterling patterns from iambubby came to good use when replicating the Sterling parts, such as the new triggers and the ESB blaster's mag well. They also told me to widen the front sights.


I found that the trigger's sliding action did not work properly with a lowered trigger, so I modified them to have a rotating action instead. In this picture I have modified one but not the other.
I think that the new action is smoother than the original. :cool

Because I do not extend the blasters in the front, details on the section between the trigger and front sight had to be made smaller than accurate in order to retain proportions. I have therefore also moved the ESB blaster's front sight forward a bit. I also cut a small bit off the trigger assemblies and filled that in.

The endcaps did not have the correct shape, so I added bulk with pieces of styrene and auto body filler.


Before the first layer of primer.

All barrels ribs were not the same -- or there would be undercuts in the moulding, so I added bulk to four of them on each barrel. I shortened the muzzles a bit to show more of the barrel tip.

After the blasters halves had been glued together, I cut and filled the bottom of the handles. I also added some detail below the trigger guard to make it more authentic to a Sterling. The "bolt heads" in the grips were on the wrong side, so I dremelled them down and drilled the opposite side.

I made a new box on top of the ANH blaster. There aren't many reference pictures, and I could not get anyone who owned a real (nth gen) cast to post detailed pictures, so I am not exactly sure that I got things right. I suspect that the walls of the box should slope, maybe even be parallel to the sides of the front sight.
The rear sight was too high, and had to be lowered. The half-spheres on the are sight were made from Sculpey cast inside metal half-sphere rivets (for leather).

I cut the scopes apart and glued them back together, extended. I did not want to cut the bell parts off their "scope rings", so the position of the scope within the rings is not entirely accurate.
Details of the scope rings were filled with Milliput and the edges sharpened.


A lot of time between the last picture to this one. Most of that time has been spent on detail stuff such as priming, sanding and filling, though, then the paint job ruined all that...
Unfortunately, I could not find the spray paint I wanted to use right away, and I ended up with a water-based Matton paint, that turned out to be crap. It is not matte, as it says on the label, and it stays tacky for days, absorbing dust from the air into the paint. It is reactive with the glue on my pink masking tape (which I think is more gentle than blue tape) and it dissolves easily with water. I will probably have to repaint it, or at least add a layer of clear coat.
Well, at least it makes the blasters look a bit old, dirty and battered, like the original props do now ... :unsure

If I keep the paint, the ESB blaster is almost done. I just need to install the reflector into the scope.
The square greeblies that look like rubber bumpers are rubber bumpers, painted. I know that the bumpers on the back sight are the wrong size, but they can be replaced later.


The sidewinder missile and crank shaft are resin, that I cast from authentic model kit parts. The bomb holder parts and pistons are bought casts. I do not want to use rare authentic model kit parts on a Hasbro toy, and they were resin on the real props.
Unfortunately, I had cast the crank shaft in the wrong orientation, so I had to file it a bit and fill when I installed it.

The trickiest parts of the ESB blaster was of course the scope "rail".
I believe that the "rail" on the original blaster is likely to have been a metal ski pole that tapers slightly. I used a beechwood dowel in 14 mm diameter. The tip was made from the threaded part off one of the shampoo bottles and a couple of push-buttons.
I had painted the barrel and the tip before installing it. I cut grooves in the dowel for the scope rings, but that was not enough. In the end, I glued and screwed small blocks of wood on top and slid the scope assembly onto that with thickened epoxy as glue/filler to adhere and close the gaps. It took me several hours just to attach it straight, but it is sturdy.


The part on the tip of the scope can be seen on the blaster that is shown in exhibitions. It is probably just a pour spout, but the protrusions were symmetric enough for me to think that it might not be.


The ANH blaster so far. I thought about thickening the trigger guard, but that would be weird with the trigger.
I do not have any picture of the port before painting, so you can't see here that I have moved it back a few mm, made the opening narrower in the front and resculpt the wedge behind it to sit symmetrically on the receiver (as it does in all reference photos of the real prop .. but not on MR's blaster ... that the Hasbro was based on).

The safety switch has been turned back a notch and a resin cast Imperial disc has been glued on. The disc can be seen in screenshots.

I will post more images when I have built more, which should be next weekend.

Re: My serious Hasbro DH-17 blaster conversions - ANH and ESB (BIG PICS)

Wow! Those are awesome. Great work on those. Keep it up!

Re: My serious Hasbro DH-17 blaster conversions - ANH and ESB (BIG PICS)

wonderful!!! I wouldn't believe these started their lives as hasbro toys if I had not seen it :thumbsup

Markus

great work man! you have a lot of talent

I didn't do anything weekend that is worth showing.

In some screenshots from ANH, you can see that a DH-17 has a track on the side of the rail between front and rear sight. MR's blaster (and thus the Hasbro) has (inaccurate) T-track. An original DH-17 owned by prop collector Jesper Isberg has a metal bar on the scope rail, but I am not sure that it is not a later addition (like the inaccurate scope rings and resin scope that is on his blaster). However, while I have not seen any credible evidence that there is T-track on the blaster, I do think that it is probable.

Years ago, when there was talk on this forum about the T-track being plastic and people started finding real, but inaccurate plastic T-track, I did find some inaccurate T-track inside some office furniture in a dumpster. The track was both higher and wider than the track used in Star Wars. I trimmed and resculpt a piece to my own interpretation of the track and moulded it in heat-resistant silicone in hope of finding a way to cast styrene in the mould.

Anyway, I cast myself a couple of resin T-tracks for my ANH blaster. I also tweaked my scope for my ANH blaster a bit and painted these pieces with primer today.

Necroposting to see if you have made progress since October Thanks for the help over on the RL.

I'm bumping this up because I really want to see Darth Lars finish the ANH version.

I tried to do a mod but is was not nearly as elaborate. I wanted to do more but wussed out because I worried about ruining the whole thing due to my lack of skill and impatience. However, you are inspiring me. I might re-engage in the future.

The Swedish prop collector Jesper Isberg has conventions in Sweden a couple of times every year where he displays some of his collection. At the last one at the end of April, his screen-used ANH blaster was on display with the front and left side visible. While I have seen the prop at Isberg's conventions before, I have not had a good look at the left side before. Unfortunately, most of the greeblies are still not on the blaster... but some are.

I made a few observations that were new to me:
- The rail between the front and rear sights is not boxy but a cylinder like on the ESB and ROTJ blasters. It is somewhat flattened. You could see the round outline from the front. The space between it and the blaster body has a lot of filler.
- The greeblie behind the front sight (which Master Replicas interpreted as a pyramid-wedge) is a small 14-pin matte black DIP component, and it is in a socket. The socket has been glued to the material below the scope rail which here is slanting parallel to the edge of the sight. It is this slant that would make the chip look like a wedge if you had imagined that the wall had been straight down.
I couldn't see any writing on the package but I noticed that the notch at the front was rectangular. I did happen to have an IC with a matching package at home - and it was made by Texas Instruments' fab in England. Here is a picture of another one, and that one was manufactured in 1974 which would make it plausible as a match.
- There is glue along the side of the rail residue behind the chip. It has a groove in it, indicative of here having been a cylindrical rod or pipe, maybe 3-4 mm thick.
- The blaster has a circular mark on the the trigger housing where an "Imperial Disc" (Michell record player's drive pulley) is likely to have been glued on.
- There is what looks like a short piece of scope rail (for a single scope mount) left on the blaster. However, it is thin, and deep in the middle - as if it had been made from sheet metal instead of a block of metal.
- The top of the resin barrel has radial machining marks.

I did take a few pictures, but I got mostly reflections in the glass with my cheap camera.

Post the pics anyway...please

Markus

OK then...



The scope is obviously a repro, with incorrect scope rings on either side of the original scope rail (if that is what it is...).

I don't know what is going on with the metal on the round knob on the rear sight... That part has been seen in Gus Lopez' mold and in raw casts.

Thanks for posting and with the info as well.

I know this is not a new image but I wanted to post a picture of the same prop here so I can look at the images together.

ISBERG COLLECTION

Prop Information

Star Wars - A new hope - Blaster Rebel blaster used during the opening scene on the rebel blockade runner. The scope has been added later. From an ILM model makers private collection.

Click to expand...

Isberg has usually displayed his blaster from that side. The metal greeblies on the right side of the "rail" have not looked like anything but round metal rods to me. The part at the front is smooth except for the paint chipping - no real features.

When I watch the movie, this blaster looks much smaller than a sterling body (a large pistol rather than something larger such as an E-11). As if the mold purposely/accidentally shrunk. I know that there are some later generation castings floating around the prop replica community and that they are smaller than a sterling body but some have said they believe it is due to the age of the mold after so many years.

My question to you: Looking at an actual A New Hope DH-17, does it look smaller than a sterling base?

For me, the diameter of the receiver looked as if smaller than a Sterling's but not as small as on the n'th generation casts I have seen on this forum ... But it is hard to measure a difference of a couple of millimetres just by eye from a distance - the display case area has always been roped off. I have asked Isberg about closer looks of props before but always been denied ...

The DH-17 would be shorter than a Sterling even if made with 1:1 Sterling parts. I think it also looks shorter because most of the parts are behind the barrel where as an E-11 has more bulk and add-on parts all over.
The mag and ejection ports are (proportionally) the same distance from the pommel as on a Sterling, but the grip and trigger assembly has obviously been moved back.
BTW. My replicas above are not entirely to scale: I have lengthened the toy blasters only in the rear.

I was under the impression they used a Sterling Mk 7 paratrooper as the base. At least for the version with visible holes before the trigger.

http://www.thespecialistsltd.com/sterling-mk7

I think it is likely that they cast a regular Sterling and then modified that cast to make the master for the ANH and ESB Rebel pistols. It is much easier to move things around on a resin cast, and it would also explain for some of the shrinkage.

The blaster with the visible holes was the ROTJ version, which was based on MGC's scaled replica of the Canadian Sterling. Instead of moving the grip/trigger assembly backwards the prop makers cut the receiver behind the grip to make it shorter and then they reattached the endcap. The ROTJ version does therefore have the mag and ejection port above the trigger like on the Sterling.

On the prop, is there any sign of the area where the spring is exposed on a sterling?