DH-17 Rebel Blaster [by R2D2Worshop]

Andrewhitc

Active Member
Hello world!
Wanna share our current progress of creating DH-17 blaster.


It was commisioned by Russian Outpost members and firstly was thinking just 3D print it, but now it is currently 6 people who want it so we decide tp make an resin cast too.


So there is our current 3d model, we use MR blaster as most reference + movie+)
Maybe you can help us to improve it just before we started to print it out.

















 
The real blasters in ANH were cast in resin, then scope rail, scope and various greeblies were added to them.
When MR made their replica, they did not have any actual prop with actual greeblies. They had only nth-generation recasts of bare casts of the gun and blurry photos.
Since then, people here have been able to identify parts and greeblies better. I have seen one in person that has a couple of greeblies left - but most of them had fallen off but with some glue residue showing where they had been,

- The detail behind the magwell port should be centred height-wise. (MR shouldn't have got that wrong..)
- The scope rails are two short pieces: one under each scope mount. Each one is like it was cut from hexagonal pipe, so they have quite thin walls. If you look closely at stills from the movie you will often see through below the mounts - which you won't be able to do with regular scope rails.
MR used the wrong type of scope mounts also.
- The "rail" that the scope rails sit on is actually a flattened pipe - but it is quite irregular in casts. It looks like it was squeezed in in-between the sides of the rear Sterling sight. It has been filled in below quite irregularly, so that it has sloping walls. I would say that at the front these walls are parallel with the Sterling front sight.
- T-track was never used on the blaster. These were rods or pipes.
- There is not a "Lego rooftile" part on the scope rail - that is a Texas Instruments 16-pin IC in a socket, mounted on a sloping wall.
These are the same types of IC's and sockets that are on the sides of the Mouse Droid.
- Michell tonearm parts at right side right in front of the endcap. MR made their interpretation based mostly on guesswork.
- An "Imperial Disc" on the left side of the trigger assembly.
- Some blasters had some coiled wires also, like the wires on the E-11's magwell cylinders but it is unknown how these were connected.

Your model looks very very nice, but there are a few things to nitpick:
- The Sterling endcap should have a bevel at the back edge.
- The ring on the endcap is not D-shaped...
- The sides of the endcap release should be flat. (Except for pinholes).
- The magwell port (that is missing a magwell) should be symmetrical.

Resources:
* Blueprints and patterns available for the Sterling E-11 over at the Blaster Builder's club.
* Nice blueprints of Sterling E-11 and DH-17 (also patterned after MR's...) over at Wizardofflight's Deviantart page.
* More info on the tonearm parts in the Greedo Blaster thread.

BTW, a trick about the trigger guard: If you give it an oval cross-section, then you could make it thicker without it appearing as if it is. ;)
 
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I question the use of a real Sterling to determine proper sizing of the A New Hope DH-17.

When you watch the movie, these blasters look smaller than those built at the same proportions of Sterling components.

There are castings out there and they are smaller. A lot of people believe it is due to age or multiple generations. Some of that may be true but I also think that shrinkage occurred (accidentally or on purpose) during the build of the original prop. I think a casting was made of a sterling. That cast was then carved up and was used to build the master of the DH-17 blaster (receiver, barrel, scope rail). And then a mold was made of that one to produce the actual props. During those castings and recasting to make the final mold, there was plenty of opportunity for shrinkage.

I have zero facts on any of this. I guess the best way to know would be to compare a real sterling with a single point scope with that of a real prop with scope attached since the scope would be the only for sure known constant.
 
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