Wow it's been a while since the last update (been focused on my formal studies more than anything as I'm in my final year).
But with that said I'm glad to say I had a bit of a eureka moment with the blaster!
One of the challenges reference wise was you only ever see the blaster in the holster (that’s on all art, statues, figures).
So, there’s not really an ‘official’ reference of the front half. Just as a refresher here's what it looks like on the Sideshow Statue:
Now since I'm huge RMQ Fan, I bought that huge 2 volume box that was released a year and a bit back, and I was flicking through just yesterday and in a section totally separate to Vader there was sketches of random ‘blaster concepts.’ One of which looked to have a back that was pretty damn close to reference material I had for the rear! It’s not 100% perfect but is the closest I can get to an authentic representation. What better way to do that than use McQuarrie’s own sketches as reference to nail the style!
Now I know this is a lot of effort to go to for something that will literally live in the holster, but it's a very enjoyable challenge.
So specifically I'll be using the front half of the bottom blaster with the reference material I have for the rear of the blaster seen in the holster of the statue.
I've made a bunch of progress on a 3D model too, so I'll get some WIP pics up for that soon.