It's certainly been a while everyone! Not much to talk about having been cooped up this last year and change, but since I would never pass up the chance to keep this old thread going I feel like I ought to share some progress images!
For a while now I've been tinkering with one of the 1st gen Field Marshal all steel ANH DL-44, as a couple things on the base Mauser replica bothered me. Namely, the way that the trigger and hammer both sit.
Below I've attached a screenshot from one of scottjua's videos to help illustrate my point, which I hope is alright with him!
As you can hopefully see, both the trigger and the hammer seem to lean backwards in a way that they don't on real C96s. This unusual cant seems to be a feature unique to Field Marshal's replicas, and thus makes the base C96 easily identifiable from a real Mauser. So after studying the internals and making a LOT of modifications on several of the parts, I think I've got these minor angles corrected!
Both the hammer and the trigger are now positioned as they should be, and at least to me I think this is a big improvement! It really helps sell the look of a real Mauser overall, even unfinished; as they no longer draw my eye.
The entire upper receiver was shifted forward slightly, which to my measurements is actually correct to a live fire C96. The upper receiver sitting too far back was, in part, why the hammer was originally forced back at an angle. My blaster is currently a bit of hodgepodge of parts (it is obviously a Field Marshal blaster, although it has an old cast Zamak grill and DEC's original steel scope with the engraving customized). I'd love to get the scope and grill replaced eventually, and maybe the scope mount too - but those are distant ideas still!
The trigger and hammer both look so much better to my eye!
This is certainly not to throw shade or diminish all the hard work that went into this project at all, please don't mistake me! All I am saying is that a solid amount of work is naturally required on a piece like this as it comes out of the box, and I happen to be particular enough to tackle minor details like this! They would have been quite a bit easier if I had the assistance of something like a mill, but it just goes to show you that doing these things by hand is always possible!
Anyways, I hope that you all have had as good a year as possible; and I hope to see some more beautiful work on here still!