Potato field artillery: Part four

There is a wonderful thing called "modular movement tray".

I bought a pack of it and used it to make the base for my trebuchet. Oh and I also found someone at the local GW who agreed to share a box of Bretonnian Men-at-arms with me! So I was able to build the crew! Wohooo! :)

See you soon!

Potato field artillery: Part three

Added sling and cranking mechanism. NOW it starts to look like a trebuchet :)
I am currently desperately looking for a way of getting hold of just 8 bretonnian men-at-arms to build the crew, so if any of you have some left they are willing to trade/sell, give me a sign ;)
Enjoy!

The wood elf model is just for scale. That is what I call a proper sized warmachine ;)

Potato field artillery: Part two

The coutnerweight is done. I scultped it from putty and built a little suspension mechanism to attach it to the throwing arm.

Potato field artillery: Part one

Isn't the Games Workshop Trebuchet ridiculously small?


Yes it is. And too expensive for my taste too.

I always wanted to build a warmachine from scratch, and trebuchets have a charme that is undeniable. Trebuchets (from the french verb "trebucher", to "fall over") appeared in both Christian and Muslim armies around the Mediterranean in the 1200s. It could throw 140 kg projectiles at high speeds into enemy fortifications. Nasty things such as "greek fire" and disease-infected corpses were flung into cities.

Anyway, here's the first part (of 2 or 3) that follows my progress through the construction of such an awesome device... at a 1:35 scale, that is.

(My trebuchet is just a model that is aiming at looking more realistic than the GW version, but it won't actually fire chewing gum balls across the room.)


Concept sketch.

The base. A 1m stick of balsa wood costs around €0.30. With 2 pieces (and a little effort) you have enough to make a whole trebuchet. That comes A LOT cheaper than buying the GW model at €30!

I figured gluing the beams in place would not be solid enough. So I made a little "hole and pin" system to allow for more solidity. After all it is a wargaming miniature, and will be touched/moved around quite a lot.

The 2 first beams and the throwing arm are in place. The arms moves around a "toothpick" axis.

I added some green-stuff details (such as shields). In order to make nails, I just made green stuff "sausages" which I cut into thin slices. The slices can be glued onto the model to simulate the nails used by bretonnian engineers to build their trebuchet. I also cut out streks of cardboard, which will serve as the metal braces that hold the beams in place.

This is as much as I got so far. Now i will have to add the couterweight, the sling and the cranking mechanism. Stay tuned ;)

Ready, set, BASH!

Hi guys!

It's been a while since anything worth mentioning has happened "gaming-wise" as I have been very very busy lately.

However a few days ago I was browsing through the GW store in Leicester (just to see what new scenery they had done) when the store manager asked me if I wanted to take part in an "Ork Trukk Race".

Here's a little report of ourfun, yet VERY short "race"... you'll see why if you read on :)

GW-trukk #1, Tom's Trukk, GW-Trukk #2 - Bring it on!

Each player was allowed one trukk and up to 10 orcs. The objective: race one lap... and/or prevent the other from doing so. Fouls allowed :)

First round. GW palyer #1 gets the first turn and speeds past my boys, while firing with all he has. The lucker rolled three 6s in a row, resulting in my trukk blowing up without having raced an inch.

My boys survive the explosion, but they are now on foot.

A burst from GW player #2's flamer, kill 2 more of my boys. Talk about bad luck. But my boys respond in kind and let rip at Player 1's trukk, returning the compliment and blowing it up aswell.

GW player #1 does not look that happy anymore, hehe :)

He charges GW Player #2's trukk. But he fails to do any damage.

The ensuing close combat sees a dead GWPlayer #1's Boss, eliminating him from the game.
GW Player #2 finishes my poor boys off with his flamethrower.

So in the end, no one ever raced more than 12 inch, but instead the race turned into a head bashing orc-barbecue.

Final ranking:
1st: GW Player #2
2nd: Tom (yeah!)
3rd: GW Player #1

Wardancers

Just got these 3 "mail-order only" super-agile wardancers from GW mailorder.

We'll see how they'll turn out :)

I'll post my progress.

Cheers!

A city to remember

Erkwin - one of our forum members - has found and shared a link with us which shows pics of what probably is the best Mordheim gaming board of all times.


To quote our friend Erkwin by his painfully accurate formulation: "Prepare to cry guys, I nearly did when I saw this."

Click here to feel weepy.

Kudos (and respect) to Wolfgang, the author of this breathtaking Mordheim city.