What a question. Thanks for the compliment, Bill, but like mostly everyone else around here, I'm just a beginner with SketchUp, and I don't even like to think about how long it takes me to get some things right or before I throw up my hands move on. I guess I was working on the trebuchet in fits and starts for about a week-and-a-half, although I truly can't (and would prefer not to) say how many hours it took.

Since I'm in this just for recreation, I'm not really out for speed, and I don't mind doing something over and over again until I think I'm doing it the best way. As they say, it all pays the same, and I really believe that repetition is the way to improve and refine your skill. Also, I put it down because of some interruption (or because I was getting frustrated or burned out) and picked it up again many times.

I'm still not happy with some details. As I mentioned, the rope rigging was difficult to do, and I'm afraid the sling is completely fake-looking. It looks like it's supposed to be sort of woven from rope and fabric in the pictures I was working from--there are a couple of wonderful hand-drawn illustrations in the Wikipedia article on trebuchets--and I ended up using the unsmoothed edges of the facets of the cup-shape as a very crude approximation because I simply lack the skill and patience to do better.

I'm sure you could do as well.

-Gully