Stuff at Which Blancmange Has Pointed a Camera

Ramdom Stuff

The Alps from the Sockburn Overbridge

Somewhere Away From the Sea

Somewhere Away From the Sea

A Hungry Kea

A Sulking Kea

A nice cheesy telephoto shot that makes
Christchurch seem more polluted than it is

The church spire at the centre of the city, shot at an early autumn evening with a kind of B&W APS film that seems to show extra sensitivity to blue-green light. I'm pleased with how the sky and the building are both well exposed.

Blancmange, outside a cave near Takaka

Pretty stalactites

Lots of pretty stalactities

Godley Head on a nice day

Jaffa-Throwing Ballista Construction

Behold the completed ballista!

The ballista is ready to smash that strange Roman war machine.

The construction started with the rachet wheels, made from pieces of doweling. They took about eight days to saw, drill, file and sand into shape.

The slider is made of balsa. The trigger block and pawls are made of rimu. The trigger itself is made from dowling and a mutilated screw-in hook.

With a dowel, the trigger block fits snugly into the end of the slider. Part of the sling is seen resting on the slider.

The ladder over which the pawls slide and the rails upon which the slider slides are glued and nailed to the inside surfaces of the tail. This unusual arrangement saved me from having to dovetail the slider.

To fire the ballista, the bar is yanked out from under the back of the trigger mechanism.

After firing the machine, the pawls must be reversed so the slider and trigger can be pushed forward to engage the sling. The pawls are a bit fiddly to reach when the trigger block is near the tail end of the machine. With these slots cut into the ladder, the pawls may be easily reversed by simply moving the slider back and forth.

The frame that holds the rope springs together is sawed and ready to be assembled. The flat pieces against which the arms will be pinned by the torsion of the rope springs are each made of two thin 5mm slices of balsa glue together to form a stiff 10mm slice. Actual 10mm thickness of balsa would probably be too soft to resist bowing under the tension of the rope springs.

The frame is fully assembled and attached to the tail assembly. The basis upon which the machine rests is also completed. There is only the swivel joint to be built and the stays to be attached. After that, the machine is ready to be be strung.

Would you trust these people with a bag of Jaffas?

Snow-Dougal

Wheeee! My first snow sculpture! It doesn't snow very often in Christchurch…

In case you don't recognise him, he's meant to be Dougal, the incredibly dopey looking dog in the BBC childrens' programme The Magic Roundabout.

Isn't he cuuuute?