DL-44 - Luke Skywalkers prop pistol

[Mike Cecil]

... at auction, for a starting price of a cool $200,000USD!

Yep, Luke Skywalkers prop pistol is up for auction. Now I've never had a close look at the said weapon, although I thought I knew of it's 'inspiration', but the ABC has published a close up at:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-2...-strik/7109220

Which shows it is not only a slightly stylised Mauser C96 pistol of pre-WW1 vintage with a 'thingy' stuck on the end of the barrel, but the 'scope' appears to be a US WW2-era sight as used on gun mounts in AFVs, reversed and stuck on the top (no doubt someone can identify the 'M' number for us).

How 'futuristic' is that??

Mike

[rob love]

From the interweb:

The DL-44 design comes from the German C96 "Broomhandle" Mauser pistol, an early semi-automatic handgun with a 10 round internal magazine and it was available in 9mm Parabellum or 30 Luger. Well known variants include the "Red-9" which was chambered in 9mm Parabellum and had a red number 9 branded into the grip so that users would not load the incorrect caliber, or the M712 Schnellfeuer variant, which was capable of select-fire and had a 20 round detachable magazine, it was chambered in 30 Luger.
The air conditioning vent on the front of the magazine came from a model airplane and the large flash hider came from the german MG81 machine gun from a fighter plane. The scope is the Hensoldt Wetzlar Ziel Dialyt 3x scope which was often seen on german sniper rifles such as the famous K98. Due to the size of the flash hider, the iron sights were not useable.
Only 4 live C96 Mauser pistols have been remade to imitate the DL-44. Youtube firearm afficianado Jerry Miculek released a video using one of these real DL-44s on the 14th December 2015 with a guest appearence from a live E-11 towards the end of the video

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Very futuristic! And the stormtroopers used modified Sterling SMG's, IIRC

[Keith Webb]

And doesn't the light wand or light sabre or whatever it's called use a part from a R-R Derwent engine?
EDIT: Yes it was! http://www.starwars.com/news/from-wo...ars-the-meteor

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Incidentally, I went to see Star Wars VII last night. The boys are Star Wars fans, I'm not, but seeing this in imax 3D is astounding. Very well made and very enjoyable movie

[horsa]

Some of the British and German weapons used from the original movie in '77. One of the light sabers was based on the Number 3 British rifle grenade.

Before they remastered the films and cleaned them up, you could see empty brass casings all over the place from firefights. They used blank adapted weapons so the special effects people knew when someone fires and where to add laser bursts.

Enfield rifles, Lewis guns, German MG15s and MG34s, and Sterling's in these shots.

[wheaty]

The original was build by an acquaintance in the UK many, many years ago.
I have some pictures of it here...somewhere but they are on film so I have to scan them to post a picture of it and other items used in the movie.
Does that ever bring back memories.
Also, the Star Trooper "carbines" were made from blank firing Thompsons and I almost sh*t when I was looking at them and realized one of the Storm Trooper Carbines was made from an original 1921 Thompson. The Holy Grail of the T gun collectors.
As bit of useless info, and I also have the photo....I had a chance to visit the bar that was used in the movie. The underground bar is/was still in existence just outside Tozeur, Tunisia. Not far from the Kasserine Pass of Rommel fame.
Only found one 25 pounder casing there....... The Arab scrap pickers had done their job well.

[barriefield-brian]

Did anyone have the same thought as I did during the one scene with stormtroopers it looked exactly like one of the Nazi rallies at Nuremburg. Cheers Brian

[Ed Storey]

When it comes to 'The Empire', that Nazi style symbolism that has been prevalent throughout the Star Wars saga. After all, they are the bad guys.