Posts: 3
Threads: 1
Joined: Jun 2011
Reputation:
0
This little guy was brought to my attention this morning. It looks like he's already reached his pledge goal, but he's using the extras to fund an onager. For those of us who have to pretend we aren't Romans from 9-5...
Desktop Ballista
T. Galenus Verus
(Galen Verret)
Posts: 7,668
Threads: 117
Joined: Apr 2005
Reputation:
0
I started a thread on this, too, but I'll delete mine. Good find, man, first rate fun.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
Posts: 3
Threads: 1
Joined: Jun 2011
Reputation:
0
He actually acknowledged that in a recent update; the explanation being that the decision to call it a ballista was essentially marketing:
"This small siege engine should actually be called a "catapulta". A ballista was a much larger weapon that was used to throw stones. The model in this project was also called a "Scorpion" or "Scorpio". I chose to call it Ballista for this kickstarter project because the average person has a different picture in their head when they see the word "catapult". And Scorpion conjures another image entirely, whereas the shape of a ballista to most people matches up with the form of my project."
T. Galenus Verus
(Galen Verret)
Posts: 15,118
Threads: 417
Joined: Mar 2002
Reputation:
79
That last shot was a mistake - now they can brand it as a dangerous weapon!!
Posts: 7,668
Threads: 117
Joined: Apr 2005
Reputation:
0
If only they had skewered an armored cockroach instead of a poor, defenseless fruit.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
Posts: 287
Threads: 12
Joined: Aug 2011
Reputation:
0
Looks to be great fun. Pity I have been to busy to see this whilst the funding was ongoing. Does anyone see how they did the torsion system?
M. Caecilius M.f. Maxentius - Max C.
Qui vincit non est victor nisi victus fatetur
- Q. Ennius, Annales, Frag. XXXI, 493
Secretary of the Ricciacus Frënn (
http://www.ricciacus.lu/)
Posts: 2,730
Threads: 20
Joined: Apr 2005
Reputation:
33
Somewhere during the middle ages the terms reversed. What the Romans called a catapulta was called a ballista in medieval texts and vice versa. In modern books I see more of the medieval terms rather than the Roman ones. A catapult throws stones and a ballista throws large bolts.