Pencil and rubber band ballistas

[silentbob]

After seeing a thread elsewhere in the forum (that I now can't find!), I got my Scouts to make these the other night.
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Sorry the photo quality isn't great. They absolutely loved making them. Their favourite part was trying to hit a tin can with small stones once they'd made them. It was one of those nights where once you start them off doing something you can't get them to stop and go home! I'd thoroughly recommend giving it a go.

[Pandabean]

Love them, minature army on the march. :)

I have still to make mine in the office, but as I said HSE would be down on me for having a dangerous weapon....there always some busybody who reports the fun in the office.

How far do they fire?

[silentbob]

We used small stones as ammunition (gravel from my garden). The distance fired varied, the shortest shot went straight up into the chin of the Scout firing it, the longest went about 20 feet. They would probably go further with a bit of tweaking but we ran out of time.

[bilmo-p5]

They'll be wanting to build a real one at your next camp. :)

[silentbob]

That is kind of what I'm hoping! We have made smallish catapults (slightly different design) when we held out Troop nights outside in the Summer. I'd love to build a bigger one though.

[mountainm]

I thought a ballista was a massive crossbow?

[Pandabean]

I would love to make a large scale version of one of these and maybe a trebuchet. Maybe something to consider as the next weapon for the NE Scotland meet. :) One thing I would like to make is the mechanisim for winding it back if its too heavy to pull by hand....rack and pinion I believe its called. Been a while since I did technical studies at school though.

Mountainm, yup you are right a Ballista is the giant crossbow, the ones pictured above are onagers or catapults as alot of people call them. The trebuchet is the large one with the counterweight... Edward I (Longshanks) tested a trebuchet (the largest ever one made and called War Wolf) out on Stirling Castle during the Wars of Independence in 1304, despite the Scots surrendering Edward continued to build and use Warwolf on the castle.

The Ballista: http://www.siege-engine.com/MistaBallista.shtml

http://www.siege-engine.com/chunk09/PB070061.jpg

[silentbob]

I thought a ballista was a massive crossbow?

Doh! Of Ccourse they are! How could I have forgotten that? I used to know all about that kind of stuff - must be old age. So now I really do have to work out how to make an actual ballista out of pencils and rubber bands!

[SussexRob]

We make trebuchets with Explorer scouts, using pioneering poles. Buy/blag a huge pile of watermelons, and your in for a messy, hilarious time!