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Matt Minnichsoffer
28 articles

1:1 Star Wars DL-44 Heavy Blaster - 3D Print

May 24, 2023 · in Sci-fi · · 16 · 386


When I was seven years old was indeed the coolest cat in the entire galaxy. Therefore I just had to BE him after seeing . And God-love my dad who spent the afternoon building me a “Han Solo” . His good eye during the the movie picked up on the sidearm Solo brandished as a broom-handle Mauser. So using his firearms knowledge and help from a World War I book, he built me a kid-sized blaster out of wood. This was well before any of the merchandise hit the shelves.

Those are great memories, and for many years I've wanted a replica Solo blaster just ‘cause. Well this year for my birthday my wife gave me a kit to build. Super cool and super detailed. The kit arrived and did not disappoint. I was not expecting all the internals to be included AND actually function, but they do. Albeit in a “toy” way. But hey, I got to build a life-size Han Solo blaster!

The Build


As I stated, very well printed kit. The parts are a mix of filament & resin prints depending on the strength need for the part. The Filament parts need some pretty serious sanding, but the fit is excellent. The instructions are spot on as well. The store has many cool Star Wars related props—check out Kassaraptor on Etsy if you want to see the product offering. For weight I glued a bunch of BBs in the from mag well. This helps it feel less like a toy.

Rather than build a movie replica, I opted to build MY version. Which is to say I weathered the blaster as I wanted based on a well-used, holster worn sidearm. Sorry to say the details don't show up great in the photos. The whole thing is finished with Vallejo acrylics and Tamiya detail powders.

I primed the entire it with automotive primer filler for a hard base that could be sanded. For the base bluing I painted a pass of gloss blank primer. After that I came back with gloss black with a few drops of metallic steel added to give is the depth of hot bluing. I left the scope more glossy than the blaster itself as scopes usually don't show the wear of the sidearm. After a bunch of dry brushing to the edges and powered applications I sealed the whole thing with a 50/50 mix of matte & gloss clear.



The grips had a cool wood grain look form the actual print layers, so I didn't sand that off and faux-painted wood grain over the texture. For me they look real enough.

There you have it. My very own DL-44 heavy blaster. I wish I had the original wood toy my dad built to display with it but it lives only in memory. Comment away. Keep building.

Reader reactions:
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5 additional images. Click to enlarge.


16 responses

  1. Beauty. Thought it was the real thing in the header

  2. Profile Photo
    said on May 24, 2023

    This is amazing. 🙂 I'll have to look, I'd love to do some props, more from "Star Trek" for me. I have a couple of Steampunk-style props in-process, I do outfits and such.

    I'd be very happy if my final props look as good as your DL-44.

  3. @coondog - Amazing Matt. This is a very cool build!

  4. We all know that is a C-96 "Broomhandle" Mauser. 96 is for 1896, the year of introduction, one of the world's first automatic pistols. Mauser would be amused to see their 1896 invention being used in a futuristic space opera. Speilberg's people just threw a tube on top and a fancy muzzle brake (blast diffuser?) They even kept the "Broom" handle. I had one of these back in the day. For the princely sum of 5 bills the man sold me the piece PLUS an extra barrel in 9mm. I was thrilled but turned out both barrels were shot out, what did I know? And sold it. Now the cheapest one you can get is no less than $2500!. Firearms are good investments.

    Anyway your replica looks very good, now go out after those storm troopers. When I was a yout the thing I Iusted after was the "Man from Uncle" spy briefase, which hid a pistol within and shot when you hit a button on the case handle. Oh, so cool!

  5. Greedo better watch out when he runs into you. 🙂

    Very nice work and a super result!

  6. Excellent job, Matt!
    Looks absolutely cool!

  7. This looks incredibly real, Matt @coondog
    A very detailed printed kit and perfectly build.

  8. Han shot first.

    He pretty much had to. Greedo made it perfectly clear he intended to bring him in dead.

  9. Excellent build! I want one now!

  10. Fun build and great memory, Matt. Aim like a Jedi, not like a storm trooper 😀

  11. @coondog. That is the coolest thing I ever saw! I’m jealous ; )

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