Longbows, crossbows, swords, and arrows–Middle Earth has got them all, but not even the fabled Grond with words of evil engraved on its body has got the power to slay the Dragon.
The master of slingshots, Jörg Sprave, has challenged himself to create an Anti Smaug Crossbow Ballista, which was fairly hard to achieve, given nothing but a few screenshots of the weapon from the Desolation Of Smaug.
“The giant double crossbow ballista is shown very briefly in the extended versions of the two first episodes of “The Hobbit” that are out by now – in fact, only a few frames can be seen. It is expected that the third movie will have a lot of additional coverage though,” says Jörg in his two-part video coverage on the creation of the crossbow.
“From the few scenes, it already becomes clear that the weapon is windlass operated, fires huge black arrows, and can be freely aimed in all directions. Further, it can be handled by just one man.”
Aiming at keeping it one man-operated, Jörg managed to craft the weapon that would be able to penetrate a Dragon’s scale, although it did take two tries to perfect the Black Arrow.
To view the shooting takes and the principles of work of this slingshot crossbow, click here.
Also be sure to check out The Slingshot Channel’s Official Webpage to see Jörg’s other original weaponry.
