Subject:
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Trebuchet (was: Sneak preview Estuary Stronghold)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.castle
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Date:
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Wed, 2 Feb 2000 06:45:18 GMT
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Viewed:
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2665 times
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In lugnet.castle, Bill Jackson writes:
> Wow. That was one piece of work. All those creative uses for pieces,
> especially the round towers and the rock raiders canopy, really gave it a
> realistic look. I'm gonna round the towers on my castle now. And is that a
> Trebuchet in two of the pics or is it just a crane? Because I've got a huge
> Trebuchet in towards the right wall of my castle. I don't have many soldiers,
> so until I do, I'm going for the defensive approach by building a Trebuchet
> the size of the state of Rhode Island. If you don't know what a Trebuchet is,
> it's like a catapult except that there are usually pieces of wood lashed
> together in a triangular form on either side to form the base. The
> counterweight is suspended between these. The firing arm is tied down,
> loaded, then the counterweight drops and the payload is rocketed a great
> distance. Since my giant trebuchet is immobile until lego makes some
> elephants or something to pull it, it's mounted on a rotating circle. I'm
> trying to get it to be able to go up and down, too.
I just watched the Siege Weapons edition of the Nova "Secrets of Lost Empires"
miniseries on PBS. Basically, the hour-long show focused on the efforts of two
groups of people to build two slightly different trebuchets using medieval
methods, and knock down a typical rubble-filled masonry-shell wall.
It was _very_ inspiring.
I just finished building my own Lego trebuchet, using the mast from the Amazon
River Expedition set as the throwing arm. It swings freely through 350 degrees,
has a huge counterweight (equivalent to 64 1x1 blocks) instead of a basket, and
managed (once) to throw a 1x1 brick with a peg hole in it about 10-12 feet.
It is 10.3 bricks high without the mast, which has its axis of rotation a bit
more than halfway towards the counterweight side. It rolls on four of the thick
4x4 wheels--which I strongly recommend, since allowing it to move increases the
range by up to a half. Also, it's really cool to watch it roll backwards in
steps as the counterweight swings.
Actually, I'm not having a lot of luck with the sling part. I'd rather not cut
up a net to make a smaller sling, but it's looking like that's my best option
(folding the net does not work at all). Right now I've got a chain doubled over
with a rubber band (from Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins) which I wedge into the hole
of the 1x1. This isn't a great solution, cause it's really hard to make it
release at the right time.
Oh, by the way, for defensive purposes I recommend a ballista instead of a
trebuchet. Nothing quite like being able to spear an entire unit with a
sharpened tree trunk. ;)
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Trebuchet (was: Sneak preview Estuary Stronghold)
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| (...) Just read an article (I think it was in Smithsonian magazine) about this "experiment". I can look it up if anyone missed the special. (...) Have you observed the range difference with a rolling and non-rolling LEGO model? The article mentioned (...) (25 years ago, 2-Feb-00, to lugnet.castle)
| | | Re: Trebuchet (was: Sneak preview Estuary Stronghold)
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| In lugnet.castle, Jason Catena writes: SNIP (...) over (...) hole (...) Personal recommendation, don't even try for the sling approach. It will require a stout crossbar to stop the throwing arm, but put one of the catapult buckets at the end and (...) (25 years ago, 2-Feb-00, to lugnet.castle)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Sneak preview Estuary Stronghold
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| Wow. That was one piece of work. All those creative uses for pieces, especially the round towers and the rock raiders canopy, really gave it a realistic look. I'm gonna round the towers on my castle now. And is that a Trebuchet in two of the pics or (...) (25 years ago, 31-Jan-00, to lugnet.castle)
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