When I heard that we’re doing a costume contest for the 2005 ASH BASH, my first thought was: “Oh, yeah. Count me in.”

The next step was figuring out what I was going to do for a costume. That’s when I remembered the timeframe laid out in the contest rules. Specifically, the bit about how far back is legal for historical costumes. I thought about trying to do a Viking with a crossbow or longbow, but building something like that to fire airsoft bbs would be a real pain and the piece would end up somewhat fragile. I am intending for my props to be field-worthy, after all. So, I decided to go forward a bit in time.

My current scheme involves a late medieval/early renaissance outfit of loose tunic and boots, and an arquebus (pronounced ‘ar-keh-bus’). The arquebus, if you’re wondering, was an early matchlock gun. It was invented most likely in the 15th century (just about the beginning of the renaissance), and was the precursor to the musket. It fired by lowering a slow-burning match/cord, held in a lever and clamp combination piece called a serpentine, to a touch-hole in the breech end of the barrel—rather like a small cannon. More advanced versions had a small powder pan on the side of the barrel into which the slow-burning match was lowered. This pan had a touch-hole leading into the breech and often included a cover that could be kept over the gunpowder until the arquebusier was ready to fire. (Other names for this gun include harquebus and hackbut.)

The first thing I had to figure out was how this gun was going to fire. Fortunately, I remembered that arquebuses were sometimes loaded with batches of pellets—like a muzzle-loading shotgun—rather than a single ball. Then I thought of those airsoft grenades that blast out a big cloud of pellets. (Insert mad scientist-style grin here.)

The folks over at Impact Games were cool enough to hook me up with a bunch of King Arms 78-pellet airsoft grenades. (I needed a lot to make this thing practical on a game field, and they ordered some for me once we figured out how many I needed.)

Breech, trigger mechanism, and grenade

Once I talked with the Impact Games tech folks about how the grenades are triggered (pressure on the button that’s centered on the back of the grenade), and about some mechanisms for triggering them, I figured on making something that essentially looks like the serpentine on a real arquebus, minus the clamp. I found a piece of metal rod and bent it into the proper shape, and then mounted it in the center of a rifle stock I had at home. (I was originally planning to make a crossbow for the reenactment group I’m part of, but I just couldn’t resist using the stock for this.) Once mounted, the trigger actually looked a lot like the lever-style mechanism that the real matchlock guns used.

Bending aluminum rod for serpentine

The next step was mounting the barrel. I got a big piece of PVC pipe that fit the grenades snugly and put a connector piece on what was to be the breech end to help cover the part of the grenade that wouldn’t slide into the barrel. I was able to simply strap the barrel to the stock so that the trigger piece would hit the button on the back of the grenade when it was inserted into the breech.

checking the bore

The only thing left to do then, function-wise, was to rig something that could hold the grenade in the breech and to fit something to keep the trigger lever from flopping around. The breech lock wound up being a ring of PVC pipe held by rubber bands. I can slip it over the top of the barrel for loading and over the end of the breech to hold the grenade in place. I also used rubber bands to hold the trigger piece in place. It’s mounted on a swivel, but can swing freely if not held by something.

Rubber bands being used to secure grenade and trigger mechanism

I’ve used the arquebus at a couple of games, and it works great. The long barrel tends to keep the pellets in a slightly tighter pattern than the usual spread from an M203 or M79 launcher replica, and with about the same range. I’ve gotten some hits with it, too—usually accompanied by some sort of exclamation caused by the number of pellets it shoots.

The only thing left to do now is to add the esthetic touches. I’m going to replace the current red rubber bands with something that looks more like sinew, and give the barrel a paint job to look like dark metal. I’ll most likely sand the entire stock and then give it a light stain or similar finish, unless it looks good enough plain. I’m also planning to replace the breech ring with something that looks more like the actual breech end of an arquebus barrel.

I have discovered that this gun can be expensive to operate regularly, since it spits out 78 bbs and a lot of gas with each shot. Fortunately Impact Games came to my rescue again, since they’ve got good prices on both.

BTW: I’ve got another prop under construction for the ASH BASH which, assuming I can get it done in time, will be even more spectacular.
So, all you folks thinking of getting in on this—go for it! Just make sure you allow yourselves enough time to get your stuff ready. It took me just under three hours to assemble the parts to make my arquebus operational, but sanding and painting will add more time. I’ve also got to make the helmet I’m planning to wear, and then there’s that other prop I mentioned. All these bits can add up. Remember, too, that you’re not limited to just historical stuff. Science-fiction, Anime, even Fantasy rigs are do-able if you put the right work into it.