Our new cheiroballista...

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Nice work by Len and it clearly works unlike the one waved about in France last year.
Yes its a Manuballista so why mount it on a stand!! It has no recoil so why fit it with an MG42 Butt??. How is it spanned? If its a belly bow do you have to unstep it from the stand each time you have to span it in which case do you really want an upright butt in your gut?
If its a winch then its hardly a Manuballista!!
Manuballistarius and proud of it

:? ? ? You really have me confused there derek...

I think Derek is thinking along the same lines as Duncan's post earlier in this thread. It's a pretty basic concept to which some of us subscribe. It goes something like this...
Greco-Roman artillery can be divided into two major categories, individual hand-held weapons and larger crew-served weapons mounted on stands. Examples of hand-held weapons would be the gastraphetes(Heron), Xanten (the scorpio minor?), cheiroballista, and manuballista. The common and defining features of the hand-helds whether torsion or tension, wooden or iron-framed, in-swinger or out-swinger would likely have been portability, linear ratchets, and the ability to span the weapon manually (belly-cock, hand span or some combination) without resorting to an unwieldy turnstile or levers. Their larger cousins the scorpio major, ballista, and carroballista sacrificed mobility for the sake of power and range. Since they were mounted on stands a rear mounted winch could be used. The Greeks used linear ratchets, the Romans used rotary ones. After Vitruvius they apparently dropped the drum-and-pin type mechanism and adopted two individually ratcheted levers (Cupid Gem). By interpreting the washer diameter as much larger than the ones sucessfully demonstrated by Aitor Iriarte, Alan Wilkins has increased the draw weight so much that a winch is needed. Along with the winch he includes a linear ratchet (belt-and-braces for safety sake like my dad wears). Add to that four enormous bronze locking rings, and what was intended as a portable weapon has now become a slightly undersized crew served weapon. Neither quite fish nor fowl. He wisely chooses the Itallic A shaped Cupid Gem Base rather than the Vitruvian. Curiously, he retains the hinged prop from the Vitruvian, but then uses the crescent shaped fitting to support the case during winching. This is just as well, because if it isn't used to belly-cock the weapon it has little reason to be there. Like everyone else I admire the crafstmanship on these weapons and I can understand why they have become the gold standard, it's just that my interpretation of the available evidence leads to much different conclusions.