Thought I'd throw my 2 cents in...
While everybody recognizes that J.R. found the only known surviving dispersion nozzle, Drew is correct in pointing out that we only have his word on its origins. I distinctly recall Jeff making lots of waves about having discovered the way the Hero ANH Han blaster's vertical and horizontal scope brackets attach together, and even made an impressive 3D animation of it, but he was later proven wrong. So I take his nozzle claim with a grain of salt and to date have found no known fire extinguisher that sports such a nozzle. It could not have possibly been that rare, since vintage fire extinguishers in pristine condition are offered on eBay every day in the US and UK. I've also always found it odd that a fire extinguisher nozzle would be gun-blued... Check out the hero:
Notice that there's no front sight on the bull barrel the way MR inexplicably designed their replica. I'm still scratching my head over that one... And the bull barrel is off-center (an illusion, as the bore is lined up with the breach, but the thicker barrel wall rides over the top where the original barrel was colinear). It's also chamfered in 3 places on top where it mates to the Mauser upper body, unlike many replicas where it's concentric to the original barrel with no chamfer.
That being said, it would be nice to have a more robust replica of the nozzle/suppressor, and I've come up with a 3D model of one that could be CNC machined. I apologize in advance for the false perspective:
The model isn't finished yet - the knurling is missing from the cylinder, but you get the general idea. Also, there are threaded holes on the top and bottom of the cylinder for a 4-40 hex-head screw and a hole in the back to fit over a cut off Denix Mauser barrel. I could also add a bull barrel extension, but in the hero blaster the suppressor was off-center, so purists might object to a concentric barrel and prefer to fabricate their own.
I welcome criticism and suggestions. If there's enough demand, I could get a run going with one of the RPF's resident machinists or through one of my sources. Please don't PM me - post here if you're interested and after a few days we'll tally up the numbers and go from there.
- Gabe