A Pilot's Best Friend...

We here at Alderaan Base are 100% behind the idea of pilots carrying a sidearm. Or two. Even three isn't such a bad thing.

For a formal event you may be asked to remove a holster / gunbelt as the pilots in the films never wore them. However, trying to think from a military point of view, you'd want your pilots to have some sort of light weapon for emergencies. Well, that and most of the Imps carry a weapon, and we wouldn't want to be caught unarmed! ;)

The most common weapons for Pilots seem to be the DH-17 (Rebel Fleet Trooper blaster) and the DL-44 (Greedo Killer, AKA Han Solo's gun). You can go for as cheap or as expensive as you want with the weapons. Master Replicas sells excellent reproductions of both. At the opposite extreme, you can build your own, or even convert a toy to a nice looking piece!

Check out our Hardware DH-17 tutorial:

This blaster is a vintage Han Solo toy from the 70s. It was taken apart, the scope was drilled through to give a clear sight down it, all of the seams were glued and sanded out, it was painted, weathered, and lenses were added to the scope:

For excellent custom belts and holsters, check out ashtonomicon.com.

A word about Light Sabers

If you aren't specifically going for a Luke costume, you may want to avoid a saber. People will notice. One of our pilots was at an event with a Biggs helmet, and was playing with a ForceFX saber. Several SW fans commented "Biggs wasn't a Jedi!".