Pedro's ANH DL-44 - Denix + Todd's + Scratch

Thanks! If you do decided to stamp the numbers I'd suggest coming up with some kind of jig to align them. I had a pretty difficult time getting them satisfactorily aligned, not pleasant, but very pleased with the result. Definitely worth the $12 investment!
 
Request for info - Does anyone know the screw sizes for the screws on the scope knob? A search of local hardware stores turned up nothing small enough. I don't care about the length and such, just the head, since it's purely cosmetic. I'm thinking #4-40 slotted oval head machine screws may be the right size. Can any well informed RPF'er help a brother out?

The scope mount from Todd's arrived yesterday, woohoo! It will require cleanup work and refinishing for my project, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
 
The scope is pretty much done! Well, pretty much. ;) I still need to finish the adjustment knob, waiting for screws in the mail (DEC confirmed the #4-40 slotted oval screw size). I'll probably re-do the paint on the knob base, I think I went too far with the paint chipping. I was pleased to find that it fits the Todd's mount almost perfectly, with a little masking tape inside the mounts for a tighter fit. The scope has been waxed with clear Kiwi shoe wax (2 coats), which really shined it up. I haven't tried renaissance wax but the Kiwi seems to work great, I'll use it on the rest of the blaster as well unless someone can convince me that renwax is that much better. Here are the pics!

DL-44-scope-5.JPG DL-44-scope-2.JPG DL-44-scope-3.JPG

I scribed some lines in the top of the knob to get it closer to the look of the real one (will forgo the numbers as I can't think of a good way to add them). Just needs paint.

DL-44-scope-4.JPG

Upon attaching the mounting bracket the difference in proportion of the scope bell became clearer, at first I thought maybe I had the knob base in the wrong place, but it measures ok. The bell is a little closer to the rear bracket than the real thing, changing the look a bit, but I'm ok with it, and it certainly has the look of a real scope!

Next up is re-finishing the Todd's mount parts and drilling/tapping to attach to the pistol. I know there's much debate about it, but I'd be interested to hear opinions about whether the mount is blued or painted. Obviously the rectangular bar is painted, but he rest really looks blued to me, at least in the pre-prod photos. Getting close!
 
It's been a hectic few weeks, who invented real life anyway??? But I have been working on this on and off and I can finally see the finish line! So, here's some more info about the build.

After sorting out finding the right screws I finished up the scope knob. I had to buy 100 screws and only needed 2, anyone need some? I also scribed some lines for the setting marks, lacking any good method to make the numbers this will have to do. I drilled holes for the screws, sprayed the whole thing satin black, and used lacquer thinner to weather. All the exposed metal is real brass so it looks very authentic. I'm very pleased with this!
hensoldt-knob-4.jpg

Todd's mounds are awesome, heavy duty steel and pretty darn accurate. The only faults I can find with the design are with the thumbnuts. The 2 outer nuts have a bit of a bevel on the face edge which I think should be flat, and the outer edge/rim on the center one should be thicker. This is minor though, and the outer nuts are correctable (though I won't bother). They also had some deep machining marks/rings, which I filed off.

The lower bracket is also less than flat on the face, there are some machining marks and slight curves on the surface of the U shape, seen here:
dl-44-scopemount-1.jpg

Fixed with some elbow grease and files. I also sanded and sharpened up the rest of the scope mount (machining marks, especially bad on the cross bar).
dl-44-scopemount-2.jpg

This brackets all got blued with Perma Blue, which worked nicely. I couldn't get them quite as black as I might like, but the color matches the rest of the Denix well.

For the mounting bar and thumbnuts I wanted to accurately replicate the paint scratches on the hero prop after filming, ala kpax amazing build. I traced photos of the scratches and cut masks from self adhesive vinyl using my Silhouette cutter. These were stuck to bare metal before spraying with satin black. Here are the masks for the thumbnuts (didn't get pics of the cross bar, I was to excited to spray!), compared with a 1/1 print of the well known prop photo.
dl-44-masks-1.jpg
dl-44-masks-2.jpg

Mounting bar after spraying and removing masks:
dl-44-masks-3.jpg

After the paint was mostly dry but still a bit soft I added some tiny scratches with screwdrivers and such. I also tried to match the more notable weathering marks on the scope bell, and tossed it around in my toolbox for some more random dings. The center thumbscrew is as finished by Todd's and sanded to remove some of the black finish. The scope mount bracket parts received a beating with various metal objects and some steel wool to weather the edges. Here's the mount and scope, also very pleased with how this turned out!
dl-44-weathering-1.jpg

And before I go, here's the whole thing mostly together. I'll talk about trimming the tomtit/heat-sink parts and finishing the flash hider in my next post. Thanks for looking!
dl-44-almostdone.jpg
 
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Fantastic work! Well done. I have the denix and todds kit for the scope holder and the barrel kit. And I was strongly considering buying the scope as well. Seeing how your scope came out, I think I will give it a go on building a scratch piece instead. Also, great job on your finish work and weathering. Shiny is nice but weathered and flat to me look like gold. Hats off to you.
 
Thanks! I love the Todd's stuff, especially for the price. The scope however is darn pricey, though especially tempting now that it is a working model. I started thinking I'd be happy with any relatively similar single bell scope, but you know how that goes. ;) I figure I have about $60 in this one. More than I had hoped but the result is well worth it, especially after the darn accuracy bug bit me. The weathering and tiny details are where the real fun is for me!
 
Dido on the weathering. It adds so much depth and detail. I'm not knocking clean finish builds however I'm just a huge fan and admirer of the authentic look from a real movie prop.
 
Great build. Can you tell us what scope that bell came from?
Thanks! The scope is a Savage Suwa 3239A 4x32 rifle scope. There's one on ebay right now pretty cheap. The bell isn't as perfect as is like, but it's good. I'd think that any number of similar scopes would probably have a usable bell profile.
 
Awesome job Pedro! Just got my Denix in the mail today and about to take my first step into a larger world. Hope you don't mind using your tips. Do you recommend Todd's parts or somewhere else? Biggest thing is deciding where to buy parts that look the best.
 
Awesome job Pedro! Just got my Denix in the mail today and about to take my first step into a larger world. Hope you don't mind using your tips. Do you recommend Todd's parts or somewhere else? Biggest thing is deciding where to buy parts that look the best.

Don't mind at all, we all build on the backs of discoveries and inventions of others. :)

I really only have parts from Todd, though I have a Boba Debt ESB flash hider in aluminum which is also awesome. But from what I've seen Todd's stuff is super accurate and much more cost effective than the short runs I've seen here. I can't recommend the flash hider and scope mount enough, though they did warrant some extra work as described here. The flash hider especially is darn near perfect. It's steel and very heavy (and heavy duty), I think I'd prefer it over aluminum or cast pewter. It really adds a realistic feel to the weapon, and makes a satisfying "ching!" sound like a sword from a movie. :D
 
Nice weathering! I have done a basic weathering on my build but I would like to have a more screen accurate look to the crossbar. I will have to paint it to get right look but I am not sure if I want to do that. I like the idea of keeping it all metal with real bluing like it would have been in the "real" Star Wars universe.
 
Thanks folks! The stencils were fun and turned out exactly as I wanted. I don't see an issue with painting instead of bluing in this case, as that's clearly the look on the prop. Plenty of scratched paint in the Star Wars universe! But I do hear ya, I like the real metal finish on the rest of the gun.

Havent made a ton of progress of late, too busy. I'm doing some work on the grips and finishing touches. I'll try to post an update soon.
 
Your blaster is turning out to be quite amazing. I think this may have pushed me to start work on mine. I have all the parts minus the scope. Been sitting in my office for nearly a year now...
 
Like I said, I haven't had a lot of project time lately, but have been trying to finish this baby up. For the time being I'm sticking with the Denix wood grips, though I'd like to replace them with something more accurate. They don't have a particularly nice finish, so I sanded them smooth and cleaned up the engraved lines, many of which were kind of faint. I also added brass escutcheons, which aren't as accurate as I'd like but that's what I could find! Here's how they look after sanding.
dl-44_grips_sanded.jpg

I guess they're pine or some other fairly soft wood. I stained them with some dark stain I had laying around, then a satin varnish. Much better looking, though still not quite the right color I think.
dl-44_grips_stained.jpg

These were actually pretty beautiful at this point (I love finishing wood!) so I was hesitant to proceed with beating the heck out of them! But since I'm doing accurate to the scratch weathering on the rest of the gun I worked up the nerve to do the same to the grips. This was pretty much beating on them and scratching them with a screwdriver, trying to get all the major scratches visible in the classic black and white photos of the weapon. Turns out to be a lot of fun! Hope I didn't go to far. :) They look a little more natural in real life, the iPhone doesn't seem to handle photographing wood grain very well. Anyway, here they are after weathering. I need to work on the sheen, the whole grip needs a more even matte look I think.

dl-44_grips-1.jpg dl-44_grips-2.jpg

That's it for now, this baby is almost done! Aside from maybe getting some DEC or real Mauser grips someday I just need to finish up the sight greeblie, do some work on the heatsinks and a few more fiddly bits and I'll be ready to move on. Thanks for looking!
 
Looking awesome Pedro. You are making me want to do the same thing to my Denix. I wish mine had the wood grips. They look a way better.


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