Star Wars build: Crafting a working Ruger DT12 Heavy Blaster Pistol (PHOTOS)

Connecticut-based Mad Pig Customs was recently tapped to put the finishing touches on classic space opera blaster. While most of the guns used in the follow-on films are purpose-made resin fantasy guns, a lot of the hardware in the original Star Wars trilogy were working firearms visually modified by the UK’s famous Bapty prop-house to resemble something from “a galaxy far, far away.”

For instance, Imperial Stormtroopers carried British Sterling sub guns and Lewis LMGs while Princess Leia’s long-barreled “DDC Defender” was actually a customized Soviet Vostok Margolin .22LR pistol. Space smuggler-turned-Rebel-icon Han Solo, himself well-armed with a model C96 Broomhandle Mauser, controversially faced off against green-skinned bounty hunter Greedo in Episode IV over a bad debt — with said ant-eaterish skip tracer spending all of his on-camera time brandishing a BlasTech DT-12 Heavy Blaster Pistol.

The DT-12 itself, according to IMFDB, was a “Ruger Mk I modified with a short barrel, finned flash hider, slightly modified grips, and several apparently targeting-related devices.”

To do Greedo’s Mos Eisley hog leg justice, custom gunsmith Phil Larocca started with the same type of venerated rimfire pistol and cut the barrel down to 2.5-inches, threaded it to accept the custom muzzle device, and machined the bolt so that it cycles standard velocity loads.

(Photo: Phil Larocca)

Then he mounted an old-school Single Point Occluded Eye Gunsight. Predating today’s red dots, the OEG dates back to the Vietnam-era and was used by the Son Tay Raiders, an elite special ops unit that predated Delta Force.

Dig the Solo-esque blaster booster brake muzzle device (Photo: Phil Larocca)

And finally, the gun went off to Mad Pig for an approximation of the Endor-style camo used by the Rebels in Episode VI. The pistol got a set of Lyman G10 grips while the “Endorcam” cerakote was applied freehand with artificial distressing.

(Photo: Mad Pig Customs)

(Photo: Mad Pig Customs)

And the finished product is something that a half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder would recognize: