Exploring the ESB sidearm

volkerc

Active Hunter
well, where do i start. i'm trying to find out (like everybody else) what was used for Boba's sidearm in ESB. Here is what I found out.
I do have the nemrod holster, a nemrod mini clipper spear gun, and a nemrod galeon speargun. I bought the galeon cause I read somewhere that Boba supposedly received one of these as well, like the bespin guards just in a modified version. So I thought, cool, get a galeon, paint it brown, and only modify what you see on screen/pics. Which is the end of the barrel, the end of the gun and the grip/handle. Because I'm still unsure if the galeon was indeed used as his weapon, i did not sand the grip/ handle into shape, which turned out to be a good move, cause after i painted the galeon and placed it in the holster, I noticed a few things:

The galeon sits pretty low in the holster.

So I checked the mini clipper again, and it sits in the correct height,.
even worse, the mini clipper has a split trigger guard, which you can see in the ESB pic below(green line).
I have no doubt that a pneumatic spear gun was used. Check the pic with the lines/arrows.
(red lines): the silver tip at the end of the gun is the part of the spear rod that get's pushed into the gun. so what they did was they used a spear to create the illusion of the barrel thinning (blue lines)as well as the tip at the end. They cut the spear to the desired length, and placed it in the aluminum tube. therefore you have a thicker piece at the barrel (aluminum tube) and the then the thinner piece (spear rod).
(red square): i used the crankshaft piece from the V8 model kit, as it was used on the bespin gun, comparing the pics, this piece is absent on bobas gun.
(yellow lines): notice the groove ? this is a groove that holds an o-ring to seal the pneumatic mechanism of the gun. the o-ring sits in a round aluminum piece which is part of the mechanism. so the gun has to be round at the end, not square.

So these are my findings. As much as I liked the galeon to be bobas gun, I'm afraid i have to destroy a perfectly working mini clipper now...

dfs1.JPG



paintednemrod.jpg
 
hey can you post some pictures of the mini clipper
seeker already posted some in his holster thread. but sure i can.
i'm gonna post one where you can see the trigger guard. and there currently is another nemrod holster on the bay, in case someone here is looking for one...;)
 
here is the clipper looking at the trigger guard. the guard is split, so that upon disassembly and maintenance the trigger itself can be removed.

mincli.jpg
 
nice catch with the double guard
the problem with this damn sidearm is that weve never found anything that matches all the visual parts of the gun. when we find somthing that matches the upper receiver area of the gun the trigger & grip are always way off. IMO you have the trigger setup right but the grip still needs to be completely rebuilt aswell as alot of the receiver.
 
nice catch with the double guard
the problem with this damn sidearm is that weve never found anything that matches all the visual parts of the gun. when we find somthing that matches the upper receiver area of the gun the trigger & grip are always way off. IMO you have the trigger setup right but the grip still needs to be completely rebuilt aswell as alot of the receiver.

not only do the trigger guards match, the groove for the o-ring matches, the barrel/spear set up matches as well. that's a lot of stuff that matches up. sure we don't know how the pistol looks cause it's sitting in a holster, in all the pics we know of. imo they filled the handle and sanded it to the shape they were looking for.
i'm gonna do that next with a clipper, and i'm confident i will have a match with all that we can see for now, until a photo of the real piece shows up.

and with the dual trigger guard, how many pneumatic spear guns could be out there with that type of setup. most of them are build like the galeon, even from other manufacturers, and those don't have the double trigger guard, cause they can be taken apart in a different way. i think a lot of guys keep trying to find the same grip/handle when looking for the correct sidearm, but who says that this part of the blaster has not been modified?
 
the only other issue i have with the miniclipper besides the grip is the hight of the back of the gun compaired to the movie prop. the movie prop receiver looks like it ens even with the bottom of the grip. the miniclipper looks like when you add that peice it will be past the bottom of the grip

boba grip.jpg
 
the only reason i say they wouldnt modify, it atleast as much as its going to require, is that its constantly out of veiw. it seams alot of work to put into somthing that you barley see.

but the grip/handle IS the visible part of this gun! and looking at all the stuff they used in the movies, there is even more they put a lot of effort in, and you only get to see it for fractions of a second.
as said before, nobody knows for sure, until we get a confirming photo from lfl.
to me it's enough of a match to believe it was used as the blaster, until proven otherwise. i'm not trying to convince others, just posting my findings and my theory.
one thing i'm 100% sure about is that they did not use a rubber sling spear gun, the rear part of the gun with the groove seems to proof that.
and another point, they used a nemrod spear gun holster for the bespin guards and fett, they used the galeon for the bespin guard blaster. so why would i now in the 70/80's go out and buy stuff from a different manufacturer than nemrod? so i'd use another nemrod gun for fett as well.
but i'd be browsing and looking for more of those type of spear guns with a double trigger guard, who knows, maybe there is another one from a different manufacturer? at this point i doubt it. but like i said, i'm not trying to convince anyone.
if i had a wish free, then i would wish someone would come up with a lucasfilm archive photo and present to us a photo of the real thing used.:cheers
 
the only other issue i have with the miniclipper besides the grip is the hight of the back of the gun compaired to the movie prop. the movie prop receiver looks like it ens even with the bottom of the grip. the miniclipper looks like when you add that peice it will be past the bottom of the grip


it is even. the picture i posted, shows an unmolested mini clipper. the aluminum tubing you see at the end needs to be unscrewed. and it will reveal the o -ring groove you see in all the pictures. at this point i'm not going to open up my mini clipper, just to proof the point, cause this gun survived a few decades and is still fully funtioning. i can assure you that once i unscrew the aluminum tubing that holds air and oil, it will look like the end of the galeon minus the V8 crankshaft pulley from the revell model kit.
 
EDIT: ah ok. well i wouldnt reccomend ya tear up yer mini if its indeed that rare. you have the clipper there with you so you have a much better veiw of it than i. if you do indeed go through with modefying it Plz post progress pics.
 
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I really don't think it is the mini clipper, I remember finding another nemrod with a handle that was identical, I'll try and pull up the picture, its in SEEKER's other thread

EDIT - Here it is Nemrod Corsario

Nemrod-Corsario.jpg
 
..problem is that the butt of the sidearm pictured is more squared whereas the clipper and galeon are both eliptical and much more rounded than what's seen in the promo/prod pics.

I've yet to see anything with that shape which leads me to a positive ID:facepalm

I personally wouldn't tear up a nice Nemrod find to modify to "look" like the ESB....the kit ones are still the best representation of it.

Steve
 
I really don't think it is the mini clipper, I remember finding another nemrod with a handle that was identical, I'll try and pull up the picture, its in SEEKER's other thread

EDIT - Here it is Nemrod Corsario


it's not the corsario either, the corsario has the same handle/grip design like the galeon. and the corsario does not have a double trigger guard, and you won't have the o-ring groove.
 
..problem is that the butt of the sidearm pictured is more squared whereas the clipper and galeon are both eliptical and much more rounded than what's seen in the promo/prod pics.

I've yet to see anything with that shape which leads me to a positive ID:facepalm

I personally wouldn't tear up a nice Nemrod find to modify to "look" like the ESB....the kit ones are still the best representation of it.

Steve
i will get a messed up clipper and sand it to the shape and go from there.
 
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