The barrel ribs are completely accurate to those used on the blaster in ANH.
It looks very much like a rivet but allows the blaster to be stripped down back to it’s basic form without damage, simply by undoing the screw with an allen key. The original broken off rivet will be removed and fitted with a threaded insert into the blaster body to secure the rail by means of a button head screw. Originally, the rail was riveted at the rear end to the body in front of the rear sight. The scope rail is the correct thickness and width and is made of steel as were the originals (not aluminium), accurately bent to shape and fitted to the blaster body. The M38 scope replica is a real functional azimuth tank scope that obtained from Karl Schmidt, the Bapty armorer who built the guns for the film, and could have possibly been one of the originals used in Star Wars. A key aim of the restoration is to bring the Blaster back to screen used look, whilst ensuring that the process is as non-intrusive to the original piece as possible. The M38 scope, the scope rail, the barrel ribs, the cylinders and the Hengstler counter box. The blasters can be clearly seen in the Death Star sequences, trash compactor scene, the Spaceport scene and all of the desert scenes filmed in Tunisia. The grip and trigger guard are not standard and were custom made from aluminium.Įach of these features can be seen in the clear reference photos that are in the Star Wars Chronicles book on pages 89 and 91 (scans of those images are below, along with a number of reference stills from the film showing these style blasters in action). The original maker had these billets made specifically for these props. The billet extends from the rear of the Sterling tube past the ejector port and receiver, rendering the piece a non-gun. The rear section of the Sterling was cut away and a solid aluminium cast billet was slotted into the rear of the gun. The barrel in the centre was replaced with a simple wooden dowel painted black. The front section of the blaster is an actual Sterling body tube. These features are highlighted on two of the photos below. The custom components are characterised by having They were fabricated to allow the production to take Storm Trooper blasters out to the shooting locations, avoiding the difficulties of exporting and re-importing live firing weapons and to reduce production costs as an armourer needs to be on set (and be paid his daily rate!) whenever a live firing gun is present. These blasters were based on a standard Sterling sub-machine gun and had many non-standard custom alterations for the production of ANH. Ownership of the blasters was never transferred to Lucasfilm. It quickly became clear that these Blasters were custom made specifically for Star Wars.Īs Lucasfilm had a very small budget for the first film most of the prop weapons (including these) were rented and therefore returned to the armourers once filming was completed. Their use in the production of ANH was initially established through conversations with staff who were present and involved with the fabrication of these and other weapons during production.
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