Medieval Battering Ram - Scratchbuilt

As with the Catapult, Do I need another battering ram? No,  but as with the Catapult, this is for the same  upcoming Project,  so ..yes, I do need another one :-)
Stuff used. 
Wheels from the chariots in the Airfix Ancient Britons set,  coffee stirrers, toothpicks, and copperwire.
Crew -  Airfix Robin Hood .

Basing on a piece of an old CD case which had one Surface roughed up with sandpaper and scoring with a sharp blade. Base material,  sand mixed with PVA.

Make a Frame,  drill holes for the axles. The Frame alone could be laid on a flat Surface to check wether it´s Level but the holes for the axles could be slightly out of line so the axles are glued in place, the wheels added and then it´s placed on a flat Surface.  If the Frame isn´t sitting flat it can still be twisted gently to level it out.

Roof spars added. This is a bit of a balancing act but second glue (I used Pattex gel) helps. The upright spars get added first, the supporting beam after they are fixed in place. It´s a bit longer on one end (the back) so any troops waiting for the break through or have aided in pushing the ram into place have some cover.

Paint. Add the ram using copperwire as Suspension ropes.
The ram was made by slicing up a bit of vegbox Wood.

Removable roofing  also made with coffee stirrers.
Like the Catapult, It´s a Rough and Ready looking device but I reckon, unless the army using it had a decent road and Transport System, they would  make one more or less as needed. I mean, how complicated would it be to source the timbers needed? Kick some poor serf out of his house and requisition the roofing timbers.

Bod Converting - Body swops

Basically what´s shown here is a Torso and legs swop.
Obviously, swopping arms are bit more complicated but it also(in the majority of cases)  involves pinning and the method is similar to here.
Tools/Things needed
A sharp Hobby knife,
A razor blade (cut to a Point. This allows removing Flash etc from Corners)
Some normal Dress Pins (the pin in the pic has been used already for a conversion and cut but then resharpend..waste not want not
A pair of side cutters (to cut the Pins)
A toothpick (or use one of the Pins) for applying glue
A pair of thin nosed pliers (for pushing the Pins)
Glue. I use Pattex 100 gel
Two figures that will be converted.

Cut the figs in half, remembering to leave a bit of excess plastic on the parts wanted for the conversion.
Hold the two parts  together. The legs have a bit of  excess plastic left from the first cut and  Using the razorblade, thin slices are removed, matching the two parts each time until a decent looking fit is achieved.

The pin pushed through with the tip coming out roughly in the centre of the waist area. From the pic it can be seen where the pin was first pushed in , just behind the neck. This works well with all the figs from this set but sometimes it´s necessary to start the pin from the top of the head, which means more care in applying pressure to push the pin in,  as the neck can suddenly bend to one side and you might get a sore finger with a pin hole in it...happens to me often. Holding the pin with Thin nosed pliers helps or using those type of Pins with a coloured bobble type head. 

It´s sticking out a bit too far in the pic below so will now be withdrawn a bit and cut off so when it´s pushed back flush with the head (hat) or in this case, top of the pack, no part of the pin will be showing.

Position the Torso over the legs in the required Position and Holding both parts firmly in place between finger and thumb, press the pin through (Holding the pin with the pliers)
Cut off the pin as Close to the Point of entry (in this case just behing the neck)  and press flush (here using a flat edge on the sidecutters) The remains of the pin is now too short to resharpen but the head is usefull for rivets or such,  so it goes in a bits box.again..waste not want not

The two halves may have gone out of line a bit (swivelled) during the process so they can now be realigned. The plastic left over from where the elbow rested on the leg is  removed with the razorblade, then fill any gaps with glue and leave to dry. In the pic it appears that there´s a bit of overhang from the Torso to the legs but that´s because the glue is clear.

Cutting so that you end up with excess plastic on the halves wanted means, unfortunately, that the other halves can end up as useless for using in creating whole Body conversions, but they don´t get thrown away..there´s always bits and pieces that can be re-used...again, waste not, want not.

I´ve covered "headswops" in a previous post HERE. 

Medieval Catapult - Scratchbuilt

Do I need another Catapult? No I don´t  but this is for an upcoming Project so ..yes, I do need another one :-)

Build
Stuff used. Coffee stirrers, Copper wire, Cotton thread and florist wire.

Side Frame. Coffee stirrers cut to length etc. The main support and the uprights are made by laminating 3 coffee stirrers on top of each other, the angle supports with two layers. It means a bit of lining up to create Mirror Image frames, getting the uprights in the same place and at a Right angle but by starting with a "T" ,  one upright glued to a main support, then laminating other lengths of coffee stirrers on top it goes easy enough. 

The connecting beams added.
Buffer for the throwing arm made from tissue paper rolled up and painted. Rolling gear added. The round pole was a Kebab stick with 4 holes drilled in it to take the winding Levers.

"Rope" added. 

I came up on a Problem. It seems most catapults had a cogwheel added to one side of the rolling bar which had a drop latch, which as the Tension built up,   stopped any  loss of tension but I hadn´t any small enough cogwheels to create one so an alternative locking method had to be developed.

Basically, the winding gear  would be wound far enough that the two holes on the bar would be in line with the two hoops and then a pair of Levers would be pushed in to lock it. Seems reasonable if not a bit unlikely. 

The two rings (sorry pic is a bit blurry) between the top hoops are for the trigger release. 

Throwing arm.
Carved and filed form a piece of Wood from an old fruit box  

Throwing arm added.
Tension ropes made using copperwire. The top ring on the arm would, when the arm is pulled right back, locate between the two rings on the frame. A pin (with an eye on one end) would then be located along all three eyes to lock the arm allowing the hook, which is attached to the winding gear rope and the second ring on the throwing arm,  to be released. Pulling the pin out releases the arm.
I´ve also moved the two rings on the rear of the Frame as they didn´t line up with the ring on the arm.

At this point I realised...the "clever" solution to a lack of cogwheels to lock the rolling bar was a bit unecessary. Why? As there are 4 holes in the rolling bar it would mean two men could pull their Levers to the fullest extent, hold and then two more could add thier poles and take up the Tension allowing the first two to remove them and so on. When the locking pin was engaged the arm would stay in Position with or without a cogwheel.
Anyway, on the advice of the H&S officer, the "clever" locking idea was left as it was.

The Crew.

The Boss has had a head swop using the Archer´s head from the Airfix Romans set, cheek guards and neck guard removed. Left arm removed, Sword removed and arm turned around and re-attached.
Standard bearer from the Airfix Ancient Britons set.  Head swop from one of Robin´s bods and he´s become a Lever Operator along with his mate next to him who got a head swop and his Sword replaced with a Lever.
Then a generic "crew member number 6" (see the film Galaxy Quest)
The one holding the brand was holding a staff across his waist but after removing it, repositioning his head and giving him an arm from an archer,  he´s looking where the Munition will fall.

I might add another holding a hammer to help with the release pin.

Strelets Medieval Britain (Pt 2)

Another  Handfull finished from the increasingly hard to find and  increasingly  expensive Strelets Medieval Britain  set.
I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again, Strelets definately needs to re-issue this lot.
This was part one

 IMHO, the bod hobbling on one foot really has a look of being downcast about his injury.

At PSR they refer to this pair as a Doctor and attendant. This is Logical but they could easily be used Cooks or handworkers.

My Axe is bigger than yours.

The bod on the left I reckon is supposed to be leading a nag, which, when I find a suitable one (with or without rider) he´ll need rebasing....I loath rebasing!!!

If the double bod "vignettes" are counted as individuals, that makes 15 painted  from the 33 foot bods in the set. At this rate I should have the foot bods finished in..? ...2021 :-)

Knights of the Round Table (Pt4)

The next two
Hector de Maris .(Left) Younger half brother of Lancelot. Argent, 3 bands gueules.Soleil azur.
Galahad.(Right)An easy C-o-A  Argent, cross gueules.