Re: ANH Hero DL-44 Discussion
Interesting, maybe the previously thought larger even fins actually do taper slightly. It's hard to say for sure since it has to be cut into three separate pieces on the blaster prop anyway. It may be that each piece is on a slight angle.
I was referring to the upper part which if the same piece as the Merr Sonn would taper more obviously. There's a fin missing though if it is part of the middle section of the grill.
Are you thinking all three pieces are exactly the same, but the top one is pushed further back? If the same pieces as on the Merr Sonn it's cut rather oddly.
I tried to overlay the Merr Sonn piece, sized, over the Solo HERO grill and the fins don't really line up well for the scale. Not only are the fins much longer, (which could have been trimmed), but the spacing is a little different, at least as far as I can tell lining up the inner tube vs the fin spacing.
I think the HERO is made of three pieces, The top piece is indeed very odd and seems to be only a small portion of the rings. I think the top section only covers the very front of the mag well and doesn't wrap around hardly at all as seen on this left side shot. Note that the fins are on the round front section of the mag well and only curves to the break line where the mag well is flat.
You can also see that the top section on the left side has sustained some damage from pic to pic and a small portion of the top two fins are chipped off but at least we can see that the top section only covers the front rounder part of the mag well in the middle picture best.
On the right side the cross bar extends all the way to the edge of the flat so only the front round section of the mag well is able to have the fin section.
I think the bottom two segments/sections are inverted pieces of the top one and are identical except for the curious larger square edged rings that connect them. They are as you point out misaligned and sloppy. Why does the larger square edged ring on the top/middle let the fin below stick out further than the bottom one? Sloppy assembly? The two larger square rings do not connect to the fins the same way either, the top one lets the fin bellow stick out more than the lower one which makes you wonder why if they were the same piece. They are also not glued on straight as many have pointed out and as can best be seen on the right side,= which does not help when trying to replicate this piece.
There seems to me no doubt that the sections are tapered. You can't get them to line up straight on any of the HERO shots even if you try, but the sections do match each other if you copy and paste them, except again where they are cut and glued. They all show a taper and the taper is consistent and matches all three pieces (the top one upside down of course)
If you look close at the drawing below, you can see a subtle change of curve of the fins. The top section does not seem to be concentric with the bottom two.
The top section has the fins pressed against the mag well flatter or pushed back more (GREEN ring) than the bottom two...or at least that's what I think.
Funny thing about that Merr Sonn piece, The diameter seems to be close to the GRILL diameter when compared to the FH. and it has a straight section and a tapered section, so why didn't they use this part? It is not the same part, since it does not have those thicker square edged rings separating the sections. Why would they cut up a part that would fit in one piece and was straight in favor for a mismatched 3 piece part that they have to jury-rig together and add those thicker square edged rings?... curious...
Trying to figure out what it is and why they did it can drive you crazy... the best we can do is observe as best we can and try to replicate the look of it.