Saturday 14 May 2011

Medieval Staff slingers

This should have been posted yesterday but due to the "Friday the 13th" crash it wasn´t.
Anyway all seems ok now..:-D
Staff  or stave slings...fustibalus
There arent that many slingers as far as medieval models go, as far as I know there´s only one in 1/72nd scale, a bod from the Zvezda medieval peasant army  set and he´s a Hand slinger using a so called "shepards sling".
After a bit of research I know that there are NO medieval staff slingers represented in 1/72nd or any other scale come to that, although this seems to have been quite a common and effective weapon, with a massive range and deadly effect.
This shows english sailors using a staff sling to launch what appears to be a "bomb" device
Picture of a Trebuchet and a Staff sling. Apparently the staff slings were used a lot for defending castles. These were shorter, about 3 feet (1m) long and could hurl rocks as big as your head !!!
The bods are from the zvezda peasant set. I used them because  they were going spare and the poses offered the best opportunity without masses of conversion.
They are using the "field" staff sling, with 5 - 6 foot long poles. (1.7 - 2m)