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Paint Arrows

Silent, deadly, colorful.
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An arrow with a paintball for its head, to be fired from a bow. A smaller bolt version could be made for crossbow use.
notmarkflynn, May 26 2006

What Google gave me when I searched for 'paintball arrow.' http://paintball.ab...f/a/kellyrecord.htm
[notmarkflynn, May 26 2006]

The Stonebow in the Medieval and Victorian Periods http://www.thebecko...nebow/stonebow.html
Make one of these with a soft pocket and a light bow. [baconbrain, May 29 2006]

[link]






       So the paint marks the spot the arrow went in, in case you didn't notice it?
ldischler, May 26 2006
  

       Half-Baked already - check Medieval Paintball. It's mentioned.
DesertFox, May 26 2006
  

       <nemesis>Just what we need! More ways for people to hurt each other! If I had my way notmarkflynn would be crushed into the hard earth by 314,506,235 of these, and it would serve him right.</nemesis>
dbmag9, May 26 2006
  

       I was think a widening of the shaft just before the paintball tip, recessed to make it easier to tie in the paintball whilst fletching it. It'll bruise, but it won't stick inside you.   

       Medieval Paintball has sponge arrows, which is not quite the same. Still, really close.
notmarkflynn, May 27 2006
  

       There was a medieval type of crossbow that shot rocks . . . well, one rock at a time . . . called a stonebow. It had a pocket like a slingshot, and probably could be reproduced to shoot paintballs. I've been sketching a longbow with a pocket for shooting stones. Paintballs are squishy, but I can see ways around that.   

       There shouldn't be any need for an arrow shaft behind a paintball--that sounds dangerous. If you want to shoot blunt arrows at people, there probably is no need for paintballs--a fellow with an arrow tangled in his padding knows that he has been hit.   

       Or is there something Freudian about this idea that I'm missing? Hmm; long shaft, splattering liquid, projecting dominance . . no, nothing suggestive there.
baconbrain, May 27 2006
  

       do you mean a ballista [bacon]?
tcarson, May 28 2006
  

       Yeah, ballistas, which I can't figure out how to pronounce, could be made to fire rocks or large bolts. I have a book of crossbows written by an English gentleman who builds them for fun.
notmarkflynn, May 28 2006
  

       I like it.
epicproblem, May 29 2006
  

       Now that I think of it, this is almost baked. In the PC gmae "Theif," your character could use arrows with a hollow glass tip filled with water, which could put out candles and the like, but were useless in combat.
notmarkflynn, May 29 2006
  

       //do you mean a ballista [bacon]?// No, I mean a stonebow. A shoulder-fired weapon so like a crossbow that they are often confused. (I've seen old stonebows displayed with crossbow bolts and with the bows strung with pouchless strings.) I am linking to a page I Googled.   

       Stonebows were often used for hunting birds, so they might be compared to shotguns. The idea was that the rocks were expendable, I think. I do not know that stonebows were ever used in war in Europe--the Chinese may have developed them for war. I do know that the bow was one piece, flexed, not a torsion bow with two arms like a ballista.
baconbrain, May 29 2006
  
      
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