Here ye will fin' all manner of unspeakable beasties an' their activities...
An' remember ta' beware o' th' Rabbit!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Roman Onager

Years ago I purchased a "Roman Stone Thrower" in 28mm. It was a nice metal kit with seven or eight crew. The model seemed to be a medieval catapult with Roman crew. Over the years I would pull it out and work on it a bit, then put it back in the 'TBD pile'.

The stone thrower had wheels, which I have never seen any evidence for on a Roman onager and the crew were a bit chunky (think Michelin tire man).

During my recent painting spree I decided to take a look at the onager again. Sometime in the past I had assembled (mostly) and primed it and the crew. I was unhappy with the wheels... they weren't well cast and they seemed out of place to me, so I removed them. Removing the wheels lowers the height, which makes the crew a bit to tall and the winch 'wheels' sit on the ground. I used some balsa wood to make a frame to raise the onager back to the proper height, added a few details and mounted it on a base.

I decided to not use all the crew, while I am sure an actual onager had more than the five I am using, mounting more on the base made the whole thing look like a Chinese fire drill (chaotic).

This is a work in progress, I am still not happy with it, but here it is in all it's glory



From the left side


3/4 view from right front

Tim, they call him...

3 comments:

Larry Stehle said...

Looks good Tim, I am not sure what more you could add to it!

Tim said...

Me either, but when I look at photo's or more recent battlefields there is a lot of cast off equipment and dunnage. I assume thing haven't changed that much, but for the life of me I can't decide what to add.

More probably it is just such a large base that it cries out for more than sand and grass. At least in my mind.

T

Tim said...

Me either, but when I look at photo's or more recent battlefields there is a lot of cast off equipment and dunnage. I assume thing haven't changed that much, but for the life of me I can't decide what to add.

More probably it is just such a large base that it cries out for more than sand and grass. At least in my mind.

T