ANH Hero DL-44 Discussion - Three ANH Greeblies Found

[scottjua]

OK guys... my mind was blown... I hope these are cool for everyone else. I found some reference material and did some of my magic to them:

open in NEW Window or TAB for HUGE Size:

Since it's related

Can't get much more out of these.. but they're miles better than I've seen so far for left side and mystery disk.

And finally... I don't have to squint at the chronicles book anymore for scratches reference!!!!

 

[deadbolt]

Nice photos, scottjua! What was your source image for the Merr Sonn? That one seems like it must have shown allot of detail prior to enhancement, compared to the low quality version of that photo that's been floating around.

Thanks for the NR photo too, andyroo! :thumbsup


-Carson

 

[scottjua]

I went nuts on the rinzler making of books.

 

[Vanitas]

WOW! Great quality pics Scott! But for some reason, I can't see the first three photos. Not sure why...
(Edit: I rebooted my laptop, and now they're fine. Weird...)

Now get us some better quality pics of the Mystery Disc. :lol

 

[scottjua]

That's about as good as I've ever seen of that stupid mystery disk... that thing... makes me mad!

 

[Vanitas]

Ugh, I feel... But, if we were to ever figure out the Mystery Disc 100% for sure, then could we still call it the "MYSTERY" Disc? In all likelihood, it was masked by a greeblies when they slapped a layer of black paint on the gun.

Here's the scenario in my head:

The SW guys get the gun as it came from Bapty, with no disc, grill, or sight greeblies, as evidenced by the pre production photos.
"It looks too plain," Lucas exclaims. "add some doohickeys on it!"
So they add a mystery greeblie, similar to the Merr Sonn's Imperial Disc, glue the grill onto it, and put the T-track and push rods onto the barrel. Then they lazily slap a thick layer of black paint onto the thing to homogenize and bend it all together.
At some point prior to filming, the disc greeblie either was intentionally removed, OR, more likely, fell off by accident. Either no one noticed, or no one cared. After all, it didn't affect the gun's ability to fire blanks, and it's not like anyone would ever care about it enough to try and look for it, right? :lol The thick layer of paint would also explain why the Disc looks recessed in some specific photos.
To this day, it's rumored that the original Disc greeblie is STILL sitting at the bottom of Han's custom ANH holster, where it fell off in. Someone needs to check in there...

One thought that I had is that people originally stated that they thought that the Mystery Disc was either the original bluing in CONTRAST with the flat black paint, which could look silver~ish in certain lighting, or that the glue used somehow ripped off the bluing, leaving a bare spot there, correct?

My theory is that the Disc is NOT either bluing or even a bare spot, but a layer of glue residue that remained behind when the Disc was ripped off. They probably used some cheap Elmer's Glue or something the like, which is thick, and WHITE colored, as opposed to being clear. This layer of white glue overtop the bluing would certainly look more silvery than bluing alone, and I can't imagine how regular glue could possibly remove a factory quality blue job. Camera flashes from publicity photos could have also contributed to the silver look of the disc as well. :angel This presents as the most likely scenario to me.

Thoughts/opinions? :confused

 

[OdiWan72]

exactly what I had in mind Scott, hence my try to recreate the disc without any hole by simply leaving the area unblued/ -painted

Thanks for the GREAT pics Scott!!!

Markus

 

[deadbolt]

Gotta love the reference books! Almost all of the best photos of this prop appear to come from the various books that have been released. Interesting considering we're well over a decade into the internet era and not many useful photos have been officially released digitally. Thanks for scanning and posting them, that's easily the best quality photo of a Merr Sonn that I've seen yet.

Great quality pre-pro 'test shoot' photos too! We can see some interesting hints about the Barrel greeblie in those photos. Like notice that even during pre-production, the blaster still only had a single antenna/pushrod. And also no evidence of any part of the greeblie hanging beyond the top-center of the Barrel towards the left side of the blaster, the bulk of the greeblie appears to be shifted to the right side of the barrel only. Which seems to be on par with the top-view chronicles photo.


As for the Mystery Disk, there seems to be 3 major possibilities what it could be. In order of theory popularity,

The Milled-in Theory would be most professional looking, explains why the disk is bright silver in appearance, and also explains the small reflection that runs around the outer edge of the disk at certain angles. But a milled-in disk matching the angle of the Mauser's mag-well would be a tad difficult of a task just for a cosmetic silver disk. So when it comes to the milled disk theory, it doesn't have the likeliness of simplicity on it's side. Quick and Easy seems to be a reoccurring factor in allot of ANH prop finishes, such as the use of pre-existing items for greeblies.

The Masked-in Theory would have quick and easy on it's side since we know that the Mauser was spray-painted, but this theory would be dependent on the underlying bluing to be removed to explain the brightness of the silver appearance it gives off. And unfortunately doesn't explain the reflection around the outer edge of the disk, which would imply an edge of some sort, which in turn leads back to the Milled-in theory. The alternate version of the Masked-in theory that's been going around for a while now, which many of us already know, is that a round greeblie was glued on at some point and fell off after painting at some point, resulting in a round masked-in patch of missing paint. Which unfortunately doesn't explain the brightness of the silver appearance, or the reflection around the edge of the disk.

The Sticker Theory funny enough appears to be the only theory that seems to explain everything we're seeing with the Mystery Disk. A round Foil sticker would explain the brightness of the Mystery Disk's silver appearance, the reflection that runs around the outer edge of the disk (round foil disks bevel slightly on the very edge when being die cut, producing a small independent reflection just around the edge), and also the sticker theory obviously explains the ease and likeliness factor. Also note that foil tape is know to be used on various things throughout ANH.

Personally I think the Sticker theory is the likeliest due to the above reasons, despite none of us, including myself, actually 'wanting' it to be that simple..

But at this time, we sadly can't yet come to a solid conclusion as to which theory is undoubtedly true without clearer and better references showing that area of the prop.


-Carson

 

[Country Paul]

I really love the Merr Sonn but my word that prop is a mess :lol

am I right to think the Tomtit cylinder halves are casts? The ridges look really wonky

I've also never noticed that the "scope" part seems slightly angled left to right across the top of the ejection port, the back right side of the Tomtit "catamaran" part is sat inside the ejector port behind the top of the scallop so that the front overhangs to the right (if that makes sense :lol)

I'm guessing that it wasn't supposed to be looked at too closely & probably just a holster stuffer (not to mention the broken barrel )

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

More curious than that, in that picture of the Model 44, but in none of the other Merr-Sonn pics, the scope is sitting with the front edge lined up with the front of the ejection port. All the other pictures, including the other one of this blaster from this angle, shows it sitting with the front edge lined up with the back end of the bull barrel.

General observation. I'm also not terribly happy the right- and left-side grilles aren't symmetrical. The one on he right side of the receiver sits a lot further forward on both the Model 44 and Power 5. Grr.

--Jonah

 

[Vanitas]

Looking at the excellent Merr Sonn photo, I'm almost convinced that that strange lump on the upper right side of it is a weld mark, though I guess it could be a machining flaw.

 

[ChameleonOne]

Great shout out to Guy Cowen, for weathering and selling me his Dl-44 elite edition.
the resemblance is breathtaking..

Original:



Had to share this.

The pictures don't do it justice.

Happy new owner
ChameleonOne

 

[scottjua]

Looking at the excellent Merr Sonn photo, I'm almost convinced that that strange lump on the upper right side of it is a weld mark, though I guess it could be a machining flaw.

what lump?

 

[Vanitas]

what lump?

The lump behind where the bolt stop is. It was never shown clearly (before now) and was assumed to be a weld bead from when the upper receiver was damaged/cracked in some way, and was left behind to strengthen it.

 

[Vanitas]

Great shout out to Guy Cowen, for weathering and selling me his Dl-44 elite edition.
the resemblance is breathtaking..

Original:
View attachment 381140


Had to share this.
View attachment 381154View attachment 381155View attachment 381156
The pictures don't do it justice.

Happy new owner
ChameleonOne

Looks damn nice! I remember seeing Guy's weathering Elite Edition thread awhile back. I've got an Elite Edition too (mine's still pristine), and I'm torn between weathering it or not. Do you know if Guy still does this nowadays or not (probably not)?

 

[kpax]

...you mean Deadbolt's Lump, as we call it. ; )

that was also seen pretty clearly on the Propstore stunt blaster a while back too! but these new pics from Scott are very nice.
Deadbolt did a whole comparison somewhere in this thread. Maybe a hundred or so pages ago! ; )

I think we agreed that a weld may be the best guess. No other reason for it.

...memories.....


...she was too Old for Yental !

 

[Vanitas]

Yup yup - that's the one! I just thought that the better pic showed a clearer image of it.

 

[kpax]

...some of the stunt pics and holster (show) pics show it really well too.

 

[scottjua]

Well, the bolt stop on the hero live fire looks short and stubby... weird. I don't see the lump on the live fire... so hard to tell from the reflections. My real Mausers look the same way as the prop aside from the bolt stop...

 

[kpax]

...do you mean the real hero live "blank" fire?

The pre production does have the lump.

not sure what you mean about the bolt stop. Looks about right to me. Can you show what you mean?