This is my scratch built (Denix & 3D printed) HOTH blaster from The Empire Strikes Back..
I’ve been studying these dl-44 blasters under a microscope for a while now and every time I think I have it figured out a new detail emerges. But this is where I am at today. When I started on this Hoth blaster mortifactor first hand notes/posts where extremely helpful. But there have also been plenty unnamed sources I pulled from over the years. I looked at multiple threads and screen grabbed pretty much everything and anything I could find with regards to this prop. Recently scottjua was kind enough to share some info that corrected some of mortifactors observations.. namely the spacer as it apparently is not made of two parts but just one solid part.
Mostly though I just obsessed over pictures I was able to find of the actual film prop itself. In the end this is my take on this Hoth replica prop. I fully welcome feedback.. positive, negative, constructive. It all helps. One observation I’ve added is to the mount itself as it seems to be on a bit of an angle on the back inside?? I’ve not noticed this discussed or really talked about before but it does seem to be there on all the pictures I’ve gathered. Also I created a “mystery knob” but that is (obviously) highly subjective as the only pictures we have are very much inconclusive.. but I really wanted to see what it could have possibly looked like intact.
For this build I used a denix as its a great base for an MGC build but I did modify it heavily.. including subbing in a new MGC designed trigger and hammer. Lastly the flash hider was a tough one. The details are hard to see and scaling from pictures is extremely difficult as we all know (fisheye lenses, distortion.. etc) but I think overall it came out really nicely.
All parts are printed on multiple printers using different materials (depending on strength and/or details) to capture each as needed..
I’ve been studying these dl-44 blasters under a microscope for a while now and every time I think I have it figured out a new detail emerges. But this is where I am at today. When I started on this Hoth blaster mortifactor first hand notes/posts where extremely helpful. But there have also been plenty unnamed sources I pulled from over the years. I looked at multiple threads and screen grabbed pretty much everything and anything I could find with regards to this prop. Recently scottjua was kind enough to share some info that corrected some of mortifactors observations.. namely the spacer as it apparently is not made of two parts but just one solid part.
Mostly though I just obsessed over pictures I was able to find of the actual film prop itself. In the end this is my take on this Hoth replica prop. I fully welcome feedback.. positive, negative, constructive. It all helps. One observation I’ve added is to the mount itself as it seems to be on a bit of an angle on the back inside?? I’ve not noticed this discussed or really talked about before but it does seem to be there on all the pictures I’ve gathered. Also I created a “mystery knob” but that is (obviously) highly subjective as the only pictures we have are very much inconclusive.. but I really wanted to see what it could have possibly looked like intact.
For this build I used a denix as its a great base for an MGC build but I did modify it heavily.. including subbing in a new MGC designed trigger and hammer. Lastly the flash hider was a tough one. The details are hard to see and scaling from pictures is extremely difficult as we all know (fisheye lenses, distortion.. etc) but I think overall it came out really nicely.
All parts are printed on multiple printers using different materials (depending on strength and/or details) to capture each as needed..
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