Mad Max "Road Warrior" build

Just finished a working replica (with some minor diffs to the movie original), of the forearm/gauntlet crossbow the mighty Wez sports in the classic "The Road Warrior"

Poor Mad Max: heaven help him when he needs the bumroll in the loo!

I've seen a couple of wrist crossbows before, this looks nice. I will have to admit that cocking aid lever is a bit high. I found this post on the forum about wrist crossbows https://thearbalistguild.forumotion.com/t594-wrist-crossbow. His cocking aid lever is lower so it's more concealable. I think as long as the crossbow the draw weight isn't too high you could do what they do on crossbow pistols such as this one. A lever bar may have less leverage but it's more concealable. 

Ha Geezer... I know right!

I wanted this crossbow to be as faithful in appearance to the original movie prop as possible, including the lever.

There are several more subtle mechanical changes I have made that I believe make this crossbow more efficient when using.

 As a hardcore fan of the movie, this was mainly built to be a replica, (yet working) display piece.

http://blog.ricecracker.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Screen-Shot-2012-12-12-at-9.13.55-PM.png

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls021207205/mediaviewer/rm3035883264

My apologies, I forgot that this was supposed to be a replica. I was more thinking of enhancing it's practicality not being faithful to the original prop.

Brilliant job indeed.

The underlying problem is: Movie props don't actually have to work at all, whereas making an efficient operable copy can result in 'inauthentic' changes.  In truth, tiny pistol bows would have to be very powerful to be effective at anything over minimal range, preferably with poisoned bolts.  Geezer.

I've seen Tod's Balestrino(also known as "assassin crossbows") his range from 200-300 lbs in draw weight. The primary purpose of flim props I know is aesthetics, movies today have so much CGI they practically don't need props to be functional or practical.

I made a pistol-crossbow for Buffy the Vampire slayer, and several other ordinary medieval bows for Buffy as well as a handful of bodkin-bolts. Back in the 1930s Robin Hood movies, they actually had an archer off-camera who shot a lightweight arrow into a cork pad over a breastplate... so the actor was actually shot... sort-of.  Now they get the bow releasing from one camera, then project the arrow/bolt on a wire to the target of choice, with no chance of hitting the wrong thing.  It's rather disappointing but undoubtedly safer.  Geezer.

The original wrist crossbow from MM2 was fully operational and was a shooter. It was tested in a hotel carpark not far from where I live in Melbourne.

I wanted mine to likewise work, but hopefully work better.... part of the fun in this hobby!

It is still far from capable though of shooting out the tyres of a gas towing prime mover, or pinning a wasteland rebel to this panel of his dune buggy lol, as per movie. Those scenes were definitely  achieved using the special effects of the day!
No doubt most props need not work, and clever effects can be achieved on set and in the cutting room. MM2 was made in 1981, well before cgi.

The main differences with mine vs movie....

1. Mine has a bolt track. Movie was trackless.
2. Mine has an over top string latch and string cover (similar to Excalibur). Movie has a more conventional below string rolling latch and no cover.
3. Mine has string drawing "fingers" that slide on a rail under the track, and therefore keep string parallel to track when cocking, and are contained when at rest. Movie cocking fingers seem to be unretained to rest of crossbow, and need to be manually positioned over string for cocking.

The limbs of the movie model are two leaf loose laminate spring steel of unknown source.
Mine are similar and made from a large bricklayers trowel and covered in shrink tube.

Geezer wrote:I made a pistol-crossbow for Buffy the Vampire slayer, and several other ordinary medieval bows for Buffy as well as a handful of bodkin-bolts. Back in the 1930s Robin Hood movies, they actually had an archer off-camera who shot a lightweight arrow into a cork pad over a breastplate... so the actor was actually shot... sort-of.  Now they get the bow releasing from one camera, then project the arrow/bolt on a wire to the target of choice, with no chance of hitting the wrong thing.  It's rather disappointing but undoubtedly safer.  Geezer.

The archer in question was exceptional. It was the amazing Howard Hill.