ANH Hero DL-44 Discussion - Three ANH Greeblies Found

Reel Fakes said:
I used a combination of paint and bluing to make the parts look the way I thought they did in reference pics. Some parts are even blued, then painted, then scratched to reveal blue steel under the paint. :) It was tons of fun making this blaster!
Click to expand...
Did you use cold bluing liquid or did you get them hot-blued?
I am considering getting the bull barrel and scope from my DEC kit properly hot-blued, but I wonder if it would produce the right hue.
 
Like Reel Fakes I used the Birchwood Casey Super Blue on my DEC parts. I've got the bull barrel, scope mount, and Mauser frame soaking in Barricade right now, but I finished my scope. At least for now. Here's my scope right after bluing sitting next to my very beat up and reblued real HW scope:
Scopes -1.jpg

My real scope has the wrong knurling but the engraving is accurate. I'm pretty happy with it and think it will look good on the gun.

Here's my DEC scope after beating it up and weathering it. The weathering looks more extreme in the photo than it does to the eye:
Scopes -2.jpg

I used Clutch's technique of rattling the scope around in a box of tools, I scraped at it with a rusty hammer, and then I used white vinegar to lighten some areas and weakened bluing solution to darken others. It's certainly not perfect, but I think it looks pretty decent.

And here's my flash hider.
Weathered FH-1.jpg
Blued with Super Blue, then soaked in white vinegar for five minutes to make it a little lighter while leaving the darker bluing in all the nooks and crannies, and then zapped with a blowtorch on the tip to give it the look of metal that's been heated by repeated blaster shots. Perhaps not completely screen accurate, but I like the effect. As with the scopes, the weathering on the FH isn't as prominent to the eye.

What do you guys think? I'm fairly new to builds like this and weathering these parts has been an interesting experiment. I value your thoughts and opinions.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to assemble my live fire Han Solo Hero DL-44!
 
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Thanks Reel Fakes!

Jedifather, my scope was from the second run and wasn't coated.. I just sanded and used Scotch Brite. Unfortunately, you can't blue over the oxide.
 
Man those parts look awesome! Can't wait to see the finished product.

your flash hider looks almost exactly like mine, minus the torched areas.

I used my MGC based flash hider for my test fires, and after 100 rounds noticed the outside appearance of it wasn't affected at all. It smells nice and gun powdery authentic now, but that's about it.
 
Thanks, Scott. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Here it is in sort of pre-production mode.
Getting There-17.jpgGetting There-20.jpg

I've got a lot of weathering to do, as well as the mystery disk and grill, but it's coming along. I'm really happy with the bluing of the gun frame. It's a really good match. The DEC scope came out way too blue compared to the other parts. I think I'll stick with the real HW. The crossbar is painted with a primer and came out too flat. I'll have to hit it with a coat of satin black before chipping it up. I've also got the DEC grips, but I'm still working on those.

And here are two shots of it in less controlled lighting that give a better idea of what the various finishes look like to the eye.

Getting There-23.jpgGetting There-24.jpg

This thing feels great to hold!

Thanks for looking.
 
Stop me if it feels like I've hijacked the thread! I do plan to start my own build thread, but I thought I'd post the current state of my live-fire DL-44. Can't hurt to keep the thread alive.

Almost There-15.jpgAlmost There-16.jpgAlmost There-21.jpg

I still need to age the DEC grips, and the lower and upper receiver finishes are a pretty serious mismatch, but I kind of like the variety of patinas.

The mystery disk is my own interpretation I guess. It looks to me like the hole in the center isn't so much a "hole" as it is an asymmetrical low spot that retained some bluing when the area around it was sanded down. If that even happened.

What do you guys think?
 
Looks bloody awesome!!!!

I need to cradle mine now... that.. look great man!

I'd say I like the mismatch, except the bull barrel. Do the vinegar trick on that some more to get it to match-ish the rest of the upper.

Too awesome... no go shoot it and get some video!
 
Thanks for the input guys! Yeah, the bull barrel. I'll try the vinegar to lighten and age it a bit, then maybe I'll seal it, and the whole gun for that matter, with tinted lacquer. I'll have to do some testing on a reblued shotgun receiver I have.
 
If you seal it you can never easily adjust or redo anything you may change tastes on later...

Or can you? I don't know much about it, but the term "seal" sounds permanent.
 
I'll definitely leave that for when I'm satisfied with everything, but the cold bluing I did seems very fragile. It fades and wears very easily. When I blued the lower receiver a week ago it actually matched the upper pretty well, but just handling it while working on it has changed the finish. Maybe I'll try something like Renaissance Wax first.
 

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