Last April, I posted a link to a Kickstarter campaign that was raising money to produce miniature plywood trebuchets. Of course, I sent them some cash: some for their “trebuchets for schools” effort, and some so I could have my very own tiny siege engine. The kit arrived at Christmastime, but I didn’t get a chance to put it together until this week.
Assembly was remarkably fast: it took me less than 30 minutes. The kit really does just snap together – no glue, no sanding, no prep beyond peeling protective paper off each side of the plywood pieces. The peeling is necessary -- the tolerances of the laser-cut pieces are so tight that the kit’s tabs won’t go through its slots until the paper is removed – but the end result is a model without any wobble or shimmy. The trickiest part was threading the thin string through the tiny holes in the sling, and that’s more of a comment on my middle-aged eyes than anything else.
The kit comes with a pair of superballs as ammo. I used one for the inaugaral throw. Foolishly. Inside the house. I didn’t break anything, but we’re still looking for one of the balls. After that, we switched to crumpled balls of paper and were consistently shooting them 30 feet across the room. Our cat now thinks we bought the treb for her. You can order one for your very own at siegetoys.com.
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