Siege Ballista UPDATED

kelderic · Post by **kelderic** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:05 pm

Greetings,

A week or two ago, I showed you all the beginning of my Ballista for the contest. It is now finished. It uses torsion, and a screw mechanism to change in incline.

Pictures

Kelderic

Shadowviking · Post by **Shadowviking** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:36 pm

That's awesome! It looks great, and the mechanism sounds pretty cool, too-How well does the torsion work?- and it looks like it has quite a chance for winning. Very cool.
Best of luck,
S.V.

smcginnis · Post by **smcginnis** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:42 pm

Very nice ballista. How far does it fire? Only problem I can see would be the tape used on the bolt, and the string not looking like LEGO string. Perhaps it would be better dyed black? Anyway, quite good giant ballista.

~smcginnis

Spongey · Post by **Spongey** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:25 pm

This looks like a great ballista. The rope, even though it's not LEGO, doesn't look out of place at all, which is difficult to do. The shape and details are also very nice.

The dark tide · Post by **The dark tide** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:57 am

I am very interested by this. Please provide more pictures or more of an explanation as to how it works. I am eager to explore its workings. How far does it shoot?

DARKspawn · Post by **DARKspawn** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:44 am

Nice work, mate. I am really impressed with the tosrsion method but think you should have maybe used 11 long braided string with one stud at each end rather than a non-LEGO element - especially one so obvious. Best of luck!

Crazylegoman · Post by **Crazylegoman** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:37 pm

You've done a great job on the torsion skeins. What realeases to fire it?

You're gonna have to bring some of your stuff to an IndyLUG meeting someday.

Patron of the lego · Post by **Patron of the lego** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:55 am

Reminds me of a Roman ballista or scropion. Does it shoot?

kelderic · Post by **kelderic** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:46 pm

Greetings.

Thanks for all the comments.

Shadowviking

The rope, (well, string in this case), is made into a loop. The arm goes into the middle of the loop, and the top and bottom of the loop are rotated. The middle, with the arm in it, wants to twist in the same direction, but can't, because it is held in place by the arm. If the rope is twisted enough, the force pushing the middle and therefore the arm will be immense. Then, when you pull back the two arms even further, they will want to snap back, and they will do so when released, firing the bolt.

smcginnis

I have gotten it to fire about three feet, although it will go further if I wind it up tighter. Also, there is no tape, that is hot glue, which I had forgotten about. Thanks for pointing it out, because I will need to remove it.

Spongey

Thank you. I ran out of Lego rope, and asked in the official thread if I could use non-Lego rope.

The dark tide

See above, and I will take some more pictures tonight.

DARKspawn

I would use it if I had it. Unfortunately, I ran out. I have placved a Bricklink order, so if it gets here in time, I should be able to use Lego rope in the end after all.

Crazylegoman

The rope on the back loops the light grey hook. When it is pulled back all the way, and sword of spear or anything it inserted underneith it and jerked down. I will take a few more pic of that tonight. As to IndyLug, I am not yet 18.

Patron of the lego

Yes, it shoots.

Kelderic

Crazylegoman · Post by **Crazylegoman** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:01 am

kelderic wrote:As to IndyLug, I am not yet 18.

I'll have to work on a fake ID for you.

Seriously though, as long as you're old enough to drive yourself to a meeting, I can't imagine anyone saying anything about your age.

If you've thought of bringing any of your MOC's to Brickworld, I'll volunteer to be your "chaperone". Come to think of it, I don't remember the BW coordinators mentioning checking ID's...

DARKspawn · Post by **DARKspawn** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:47 pm

I just had a great idea for this, Kel - maybe you could use the old duplo string from the 70's - might be hard to get hold of but I reckon it would do the job

Legendary_Corsair · Post by **Legendary_Corsair** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 5:45 pm

Nice Ballista,It looks good and strong.I also like how it fires I would of never thought to make a mechanism like that.

Best of Luck.

kelderic · Post by **kelderic** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:15 am

Greetings. When I entered this into the contest several days ago, it was not accepted because I had forgotten to put the minifigs in. Silly me. Anyway, I used the last couple to day to remake it. I think it looks better, and more the scale with minifigs. Also, it now has a working release mechanism.

Folder (When moderated)

Deeplink (001-008)

Crazylegoman

Yay! Fake ID.

As to Castle World, I can't go anyway, unfortunately. Thanks for the offer, though.

DARKspawn

Actually, I have found some more black lego rope in one of my buckets. I am not sure if it will be enough yet, so I refrained from putting it on the ballista. I will go ahead a try it out tomorrow.

Legendary_Corsair

Thank you. I didn't think of this mechanism, though. Tortion is the way that real ballistas were powered.

Anyway, tomorrow I will take the final pictures, with charging cavalry and troops to man the ballista. Thanks for all the comments!

Kelderic

leaf_of_lire · Post by **leaf_of_lire** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:50 pm

Wow, I like that a lot. Does it actually shoot?

Legendary_Corsair · Post by **Legendary_Corsair** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:02 pm

I would like to see what kind of troops you use to charge with to match the ballista.Still I think it looks very good.

Classic-Castle.com

Siege Ballista UPDATED

Siege Ballista UPDATED

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