A Medieval Siege Engine

Ever since I played Age of Empires 2, the tribok or trebuchet caught my interest. In the The Outlaw King, the impressive Warwolf was seen in action. And when the Baron's War kickstarter covered a set of siege engine crew, I got them, as they fit very well the early crusades armies as well.

But as for the siege engine itself. I always liked the Gripping Beast siege engine, but that one is out of stock since I ever looked it up. Sarissa Precision covered a tribok of their own, as an MDF kit, which is a steal at 20 GBP, very inspired by the Warwolf and incredibly huge. But to huge for my use and I am not that keen on MDF for these kits, as I wanted the wood texture, that you can show like that in resin or plastic. The kits by Games Workshop for the Bretonnians or Gondor are quite nice, but OOP, so I went on looking for plastic or resin kits.

And I came across this one, by the russian company Zvezda. Yes, it is 1:72 scale, which translates into ~ 20mm. But a lot of these fit in other scales, like 28-32mm as well. So let's give it a look.

It is Medieval Siege Engine Trebuchet 8516 from 2004 and costs roughly 15 EUR, as it seems it got new tooling this year. It covers three sprues (two are doubles), a bit of yarn and the assembly instructions.

Casting is okay-ish, the structure of the wood is strong enough to be dry-brushed, but the mould lines and flash needs a bit of clean up. Fit is not the best, but as soon as you add multiple parts together, they support eachother. And as I'll put this one on a base and not just as a toy, I should be fine.

As you can see in the comparison with the 28mm crew (sculpted by Paul Hicks), they fit quite well and I am happy about the acquired kit.

The only thing I need now, is a base around 10 by 15 cm. I was looking at Renedra's oval bases, but those are too small. One of the large oval bases by Games Workshop might do the trick, otherwise I'm gonna scratch build one from plastic card.

This will be used with my crusade army and maybe some of the larger border reiver scenarios, and I'm looking forward to get it set up.