Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

I do a lot of different dioramas and I do a lot of different siege engines. If you have been following me for a while you have probably seen some of my catapults, trebuchets and miniature castles. I recently got an email from a web visitor who has tied all these things together by making a large diorama of a castle with a very big front gate. But he also built the various siege engines that are attacking it.

This is a pretty cool project and it includes a trebuchet, battering ram and a Mantlet which is a portable shield that was used to protect warriors from arrows and other projectiles.

You can see the various aspects of his project on my website here: A Medieval Siege Diorama Project

You may also want to check out my 8 foot diorama called “The Battle Between Good and Evil” It has a castle with lighting, a mountain and a working waterfall.  A picture of this diorama is below.

You won’t be bringing down any castle walls with this trebuchet but it is a pretty strong floor model sized siege engine. It hurls a tennis ball.

The big thing I focused on with this trebuchet is “fast and easy”. I wanted to try to put together a powerful treb without all the hassle. And this fits the bill pretty good. It took me a few hours to design and make it. You should be able to build it in a couple of hours. I try to improvise all common parts and it uses just a few pieces of two by four and two barbells for a total counterweight of 20 pounds.

The project is located here and I will be posting to that page a youtube video explaining more and showing it firing off. The Tennis Ball Trebuchet

A visitor to my website sent me a bunch of pictures of a trebuchet he made out of office supplies. The thing is just awesome, pencils, tape, batteries and some rubber bands. It fires a honey roasted peanut about 20 feet. Anyway, if you want to see more pictures of it or make one yourself I have the parts list he sent me and some more pictures on my website here:

The Office Supply Trebuchet

This is a fun little project that is about 12 inches long. It doesn’t take a whole lot of material and can be completed in a couple of hours. The thing about this catapult is that it is more realistic to the types of catapults they had in the Middle Ages and Medieval times. This is because it doesn’t use springs or rubber bands for propulsion. They didn’t have rubber bands or springs in the middle ages! But they did have rope, and twisting up rope can create a lot of torsion power. SO this mangonel uses twisted string for power. And after completing this project and testing it out I was really surprised by how much power it generates! The project comes complete with pictures, a full step-by-step explanation and an instructional video. If you really want to storm the castle here is your chance! How to Make a Mangonel Style Catapult

I have a section of my website on how to make a trebuchet. It’s a pretty popular tutorial and it gets a lot of traffic. It is a complete tutorial with lots of pictures that shows how to make a small table top trebuchet called “The Little Dragon”.  If you ever wanted to make a small siege engine I have everything you could possible need including ideas, designs, plans, videos and more, and its all totally free.

Anyhoo - Yesterday, just by serendipity, I got emails from two different people who followed my design and made their own trebuchets,  with some nice improvements. They sent me pictures, information, and videos and I have posted all of this to the website.

Here is a quick overview of their projects:

Gabe’s Trebuchet - Gabe created what I call the Ferrari of Table top Trebuchets. he went all out and painted his with flames along the side and well you can see from the picture that its pretty nice. He used a bicycle wheel hub as the pivot and I have more about this on my site. He also made some mods that give the swing arm and string more room.

Adil’s Trebuchet - Adil created two videos about his treb and I have them on the site. His treb is unique in that he took my design for a ten inch machine and he cut it in half to a five inch machine. He also did away with the string and pouch which is a nice solution because the string and pouch can be a trouble spot. This makes it sort of like an onager. It is kind of a hybrid and I call it the Trebupult.

If you every wanted to make your own mini siege engine or if you just want to take a look at the projects I have everything right here: How to Make a Trebuchet