spanky,
I will look for drawings and plans etc. and put them out.I try not to focus too much on what these pseudo experts will challenge as not ' correct ' as if a Roman or Greek engineer arrived at a battle site with a mobile workshop and a full snap-on tool kit.These guys had to go chop down trees,repair and make all sorts of gear probably up to their knees in mud / dust / rocks.These guys were great innovators and design changes would have happened to suit the environment,that's what's so good about this forum,people look at things with real world experience.
I built that model to try out some ideas,I have loads of bumf on ' expert ' opinion but having fired this I can see what works and what would be better.You can buy all kinds of books but they all come back to the same sort of design and materials.Save your money and hopefully once this page opens up,catapults,air cannons and stuff you will find many new toys to play with.My model has 10 inch x 6.5 inch oak base and 10 inch painted beech throwing arm Next one will not have pegged butt joints this was done for speed as I was concentrating on the winch mechanism and if it was strong enough etc.I can get technical when I have to but important thing is I do this for R and R .Only expert I want to be is how to annoy Englishmen.