Han Solo ANH Blaster From RIA, Prev on Pawn Stars

They didn’t add the rifle barrel to a 3 inch chopped Mauser barrel if that’s what you are saying.

They cut the c96 at the point you see the shroud barrel attach.

They drill and tap the receiver and then screw a 3 inch rifle barrel to the receiver.

Revolver barrels are attached to the frame the same way.
 
Yes, that is what I meant. So in all actuality, Todd's own replica bull barrel is of the same style as the hero prop's! Todd's is just a bit long I think (compensating for the length of the inner booster, which is fine for a replica/ease of install!), but it's otherwise in the correct style. The broken MGC I salvaged used his barrel that I got from someone awesome here, so the original presumably would have been done in a similar manner to this! (if not more professionally haha)

The only thing I am curious about is if it would be more structurally sound on a live/blank fire C96 to make the receiver portion into the male section, and have the bull barrel screw unto a barrel that has been fully threaded up to the contact joint.)

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Yes.

When Carson and I designed the DEC kit we offered both the screw in version and a custom barrel shroud figuring it would be easier to fit for most people rather than drilling and tapping the receiver accurately.

The "booster" is also our invention.

The screen used HERO DL44 did not have a booster. It did not need one. The MG81 machine gun did !

Others have copied the same design and details that we originated with DEC.

We designed the booster to "center" the FH on the barrel and locate it accurately on the bull barrel.

If you look at the HERO, the FH is always crooked and off centered. Nothing in there to center the FH.

Another reason I don't believe the PS FH is vintage and maybe not the bull barrel. The FH is centered and on straight!

They also had a restrictor on the barrel to create blowback pressure to cycle the slide with blanks.
 
The "booster" is also our invention.

The screen used HERO DL44 did not have a booster. It did not need one. The MG81 machine gun did !

Others have copied the same design and details that we originated with DEC.

We designed the booster to "center" the FH on the barrel and locate it accurately on the bull barrel.

If you look at the HERO, the FH is always crooked and off centered. Nothing in there to center the FH.
I think Bapty had a booster and stuffed a restrictor in it at least for some part of the pre-production process, and that's where the Merr-Sonn Power 5 came from. The flash hider is riding a lot further out on the barrel. It'd take something about an inch long fitted on the end of the bull barrel, but longer if there weren't a booster. Also, the FH is straight on the Power 5, not crooked like on the DL-44, so something was different with how they mounted it (and a different lower frame, but I'm not talking about that part).

I haven't seen anything to indicate different lengths of bull barrel between uppers, but maybe y'all've seen something I haven't in that respect.
 
I think Bapty had a booster and stuffed a restrictor in it at least for some part of the pre-production process, and that's where the Merr-Sonn Power 5 came from. The flash hider is riding a lot further out on the barrel. It'd take something about an inch long fitted on the end of the bull barrel, but longer if there weren't a booster. Also, the FH is straight on the Power 5, not crooked like on the DL-44, so something was different with how they mounted it (and a different lower frame, but I'm not talking about that part).

I haven't seen anything to indicate different lengths of bull barrel between uppers, but maybe y'all've seen something I haven't in that respect.
Was the Power 5 ever a real Mauser or MGC or Denix or just a casting?

On the cast resin stunt blasters and cast Power 5s I have seen the FH is on straight and on an extended barrel to look different. When making a casting they could stuff the barrel to straighten it up and make the mold. The Luke stunt is about the same length as the Hero but on straight. No booster needed.
A real MG81 booster would not fit the barrel of the Mauser and is not like the one we designed.
It has a spring in it and would not let the blank fire gun cycle and function. It would jam.
 
The sad part is that I really do believe that Chum lee might honestly know more about the prop than Rick, who seems hopelessly stuck in the past.

And while the original prop may not have had a 'booster', what it may have had would be a screw-in adapter that would thread into the bull barrel's open end. Drilling a small hole through this threaded adapter would then plug the bull barrel tightly enough to generate the sufficient blowback pressure necessary for the gun to cycle with the added weight.

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threaded.jpg


My apologies for the crappy cross-secion diagram linework, but hopefully it shows how I think the assembly could have all been made in one piece that would (I think) be functional?

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The sad part is that I really do believe that Chum lee might honestly know more about the prop than Rick, who seems hopelessly stuck in the past.

And while the original prop may not have had a 'booster', what it may have had would be a screw-in adapter that would thread into the bull barrel's open end. Drilling a small hole through this threaded adapter would then plug the bull barrel tightly enough to generate the sufficient blowback pressure necessary for the gun to cycle with the added weight.

My apologies for the crappy cross-diagram linework, but hopefully it shows how the assembly could have all been made in one piece that would (I think) be functional!
Yes. As I mentioned above, it did have a constrictor on the barrel to "boost" the pressure to allow the slide to cycle and function with light blank loads. like this...

You can see the small opening in the Solo pic... unless that is the laser emitter !

blaster booster hero assembly.jpg
 
Yes. As I mentioned above, it did have a constrictor on the barrel to "boost" the pressure to allow the slide to cycle and function with light blank loads. like this...

You can see the small opening in the Solo pic... unless that is the laser emitter !

View attachment 1536779

Yes, that's what I had remembered! I just have the feeling that the constrictor may have threaded into the bull barrel for the most security possible, as the threaded bolt in the flash hider wouldn't be a very secure way to keep the whole thing together.

And your pictures are always a treat! One I finish my current ANH blaster I'd love to try again on a second kit from Field Marshall, but this time go into all the little details and get it close to prop accurate... Namely a PROPERLY functional bull barrel and Carson's lump ;)
 
The only thread in the FH is at the rear and you can see in the PRE images it doesn't screw to anything.

The constrictor could have screwed in the barrel end like mine which makes sense if they used a NR type barrel. If not they could have tapped the outside or welded it on.

Welding would be safest since you don't want anything flying off the gun from blanks which can kill...
 
Yes, I meant the threaded bolt holding the flash hider to whatever constrictor they used - my words just got a bit crossed there.

And it was likely not welded since it seems to have vanished during filming, hence why the flash hider is so crooked by post production... I'm just trying to assuage how the whole thing went together in my mind is all. And from what I know, all the bull barreled C96s were created in much the same way. The same upper as Han's hero prop was threaded to accept a rifle barrel, which means a constrictor could have been made to thread into it easily enough. So they are all (seemingly) had a "NR type barrel".


 
I think I vaguely remember that too!

At the time I joked that they must have stuck the sight greeblies unto the barrel using bubblegum :lol:
 
Yes, I meant the threaded bolt holding the flash hider to whatever constrictor they used - my words just got a bit crossed there.

And it was likely not welded since it seems to have vanished during filming, hence why the flash hider is so crooked by post production... I'm just trying to assuage how the whole thing went together in my mind is all. And from what I know, all the bull barreled C96s were created in much the same way. The same upper as Han's hero prop was threaded to accept a rifle barrel, which means a constrictor could have been made to thread into it easily enough. So they are all (seemingly) had a "NR type barrel".


View attachment 1536781

Likey was screwed in. At that time they didn't have Jon-Erik Hexum or Brandon Lee deaths. Pretty lax safety in the old days when they used REAL LIVE guns shooting behind actors to make the bullet strikes on the walls behind them !



 
I do remember someone saying at some point a long time ago that they heard the prop guys would stuff the rear of the wiggly FH with aluminum foil to try to straighten it out !
"There, I fixed it."

I had forgotten that the Imperial version of the blaster was cast in two parts -- body/barrel, and flash hider. I feel like they filled most of the flash hider with clay or some such, leaving a bit of the rear rim for the illusion of depth, and then moulded it that way. The upper seems to be the NR upper and the lower is the one from the Sweeney, with the scope mount lugs welded to the left side of the frame and cast with it (then cut off after casting).

The "Model 44" version seems to have been made by the simple expedient of just snapping the flash hider off, and, in some places, the resin gave before the glue did.

Credit to lonepigeon for these images I have burned on the skin of my brain...

merrsonn5.JPG

Merrsonn44-2.jpg


What I can't tell is whether they cut down the barrel of the casting so the flash hider wouldn't be sticking out quite so far, or of it was a different upper with a shorter bull barrel.
 
This is news to me, super interesting!
I mean, I wasn't there. It might've been cast as one piece, but from some angles you can see there's a recess between the FH and barrel, and that seems like something they wouldn't want to do with a mold -- undercuts aren't your friend. IIRC, the resin blasters for ESB have the FH flat-backed and were cast as one piece (also no bull barrel, which has always looked wrong to me).

But yeah, photoscaling when I was doing the initial measuring for my Merr-Sonn build showed me that the Model 44 barrel, at furthest extent, was longer than the distance from the bull barrel attachment point to the back edge of the FH on the Power 5, but not by a lot. That and the shadows told me the back of the FH on those blasters is recessed a little bit. Conveniently, about as far as the booster seated inside the FH:

DSC02314.JPG
 
"There, I fixed it."

I had forgotten that the Imperial version of the blaster was cast in two parts -- body/barrel, and flash hider. I feel like they filled most of the flash hider with clay or some such, leaving a bit of the rear rim for the illusion of depth, and then moulded it that way. The upper seems to be the NR upper and the lower is the one from the Sweeney, with the scope mount lugs welded to the left side of the frame and cast with it (then cut off after casting).

The "Model 44" version seems to have been made by the simple expedient of just snapping the flash hider off, and, in some places, the resin gave before the glue did.

Credit to lonepigeon for these images I have burned on the skin of my brain...

View attachment 1536782
View attachment 1536783

What I can't tell is whether they cut down the barrel of the casting so the flash hider wouldn't be sticking out quite so far, or of it was a different upper with a shorter bull barrel.
These are the same castings. I believe them to have been molded from the HERO before they brazed the right side scope mounts on.

Do we know for sure the MerrSonn's were molded without the FH?

What proof do we have? Are we sure the one without the FH didn't just break off at that point? It "appears" slightly longer to the break point but could be from a slight undercut. Rubber molds can pull slight undercuts.

Here the rear safety area has an undercut and the FH also seems to have a slight one too.

This was a different mold made after ANH.

Blaster stunt light.jpg
 
Those blasters have a fake skinny barrel tip in the flash hider too! That always threw me, I knew of the choke at the base of the ANH cone.
 
MerrSonn's were never my study but I think maybe the FH was glued on and filled. Looks that way from other images.
 

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