James Kenobi made a..... Blaster? Luke DL-44

[James Kenobi 1138]

All I can really say is this reminds me exactly of my first real Lightsaber build:

I did a terrible job, I learned a lot, if I make another one I know it will look better, I had no idea what I was doing, I made lots of mistakes, overall I'm okay with it but not really happy.

My biggest enemies were time and tools. I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn't have enough time and rushed many parts, and I should have waited and bought the right tools for the job instead of relying on adapting what I had available.

On with the pics. Started with:

Ended with:

Due to an accident, the lever located next to the hammer broke off. I attempted to repair it to no avail, so I just sanded the area smooth and moved on.

 

[Sym-Cha]

Oh no ... so uncivilized! ...

Still rather pretty though ... for a blaster.

Chaim

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Some WIP Shots.

Stripped the paint off the gun and worked on the barrel to fit the flash hider:

Weathered the flash hider first. I liked the darker flash hider from one set of promo pics, but the less weathered scope bracket from the other promo pics, so I made an idealized blaster of my favorite parts from the two Luke/Han guns.

Next I blued the gun with Permablue and soaked it in gun oil. I really wanted it to have the rich, black.grey color of a real gun and not looked spray painted black.

First mock-up with all the parts. I was going to use some wood grips for the build but I had to abandon them. I made cuts to the gun handle to accommodate the wood grips, but when I went to modify the wood I ruined them. So I was back to using the plastic ones but because I tore-up the handle brackets I had to make a new fastening system. It works, but I'm not happy with the screws I used but they were the smallest I had in my shop.

The bracket came already spray painted black and I thought it was going to look okay until I mocked-up all the parts and then I didn't like the way it looked so I repainted and reweathered it.

I used a small, second screw to help hold the bracket in place and keep it from rotating on the bolt.

The scope was the worst. It was really poorly cast with a HUGE seam on the top covering the lettering on the end and parts of the cast were chewed-up a little. It was cold-cast bronze I believe but it didn't really matter because I could never get the weathering to work the way I wanted.

I must have painted, stripped, and repainted this scope 5 times. Maybe 6.

I thought I would spray black over the bronze, let it dry, then lightly sand the black paint off revealing the bronze color. Without primer, the paint would not stick properly and stayed sticky, even after a week of letting it dry. Next I tried using a primer first, then black, but no matter how lightly I sanded the weathered area would go straight past the bronze and expose the tan resin under the bronze.

I also tried a satin and semi-gloss black, both did not look like the reference material. I ended up using a flat black, and then using a plastic polish to shine it to the finish I wanted.

Sprayed flat black:

Top half polished, bottom still flat:

Polished flat black paint:

Then I went back and dry-brushed the accents with gold paint:

 

[Country Paul]

Nice Blaster it looks great

I like the Luke DL-44 a lot it's kinda stripped down looking

 

[scottjua]

Dude! Looks awesome! Love it!

you're in luck... I have an extra luke knob for you. Remind me to bring it to the prop party for you.

 

[Robert McLain]

I see nothing wrong with it, I think you did a great job Love the weathering!

Robert

 

[NeoRutty]

Can't say I know a lot about blasters at this point -still learning- but that looks pretty good to me. I hope my first attempt looks as good. Nice work.

 

[jkno]

Really cool blaster! I like the way you weathered it and the scope.

 

[OdiWan72]

Hey James...STOP whining about that "terrible job" you did. It came out great!

Love the subtle weathering and fact that you blued the Denix.

Well done, "saber boy" ! !

Markus

 

[LeMaxim]

Very nice work!
Clever fix with the extra screw for the bracket.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Overall I'm happy with it I've just seen so many amazing blaster builds that I'm in awe of, I feel comparing my gun to everyone else's blaster it comes up short. Building an awesome blaster really takes skill and so many of you guys are true Han and Luke blasters artists.

I guess I'm seeing all the things I did wrong and I know how I thought everything was going to go together.

I want to upgrade the bracket knob, and I've got to figure out the scope optic display. I'm tempted to get another Denix and a real scope and try it again, using what I learned on this one to make one even better. I thought I'd make just one DL-44 but I'm already thinking about making a better one.

 

[Andymac84]

Hey James. I think for your first attempt it looks more than great. Well done. Luke would use it)

 

[thd9791]

You know, for all your own ball busting, I still think this is a beautiful blaster.

What is it and how did you get the main screw for the scope mount in the magazine..area..thing? The

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

I just drilled into the mag housing area and threaded the hole to fit the bolt. I screwed the bolt in a little and put a nut on the inside to hold it tight. Then I screwed the bolt all the way in so the end of the bolt was against the opposite side of the opening, and then tightened the nut to the hole side.

The bolt I used had a bolt head but I cut it off at the length so it would be the right size with the scope bracket and thumbscrew on the outside.

 

[majormalfuntion]

nice build chap . where did you get the brass bolts to fit the scope ?

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

They came with the scope. I don't remember who I got the scope from, but I think they included them because the cast was so poor it was a nice upgrade.

They are threaded 10/32, if that helps your search for a set.