Upholstery weapon
Upholstered weapons and pompfen are replicas of weapons made of soft materials. These are usually replicas of cutting or stabbing weapons . These are used, for example, in film and television productions , in the theater and in live role-playing games as well as in the team sport jugger and are used to safely simulate a real fight. Upholstered weapons should look as similar as possible to a real weapon, but be harmless. While these upholstered weapons, which are made for theater and LARP purposes, are visually very closely based on actual weapons, the upholstered weapons used for the Jugger game are visually rather simple constructions, essentially padded sticks. There is also a set of rules that prescribes the nature of the upholstery weapons.
construction
The basic structure includes a central core made of a hard but flexible material to make the upholstered weapon stable and resilient. Rods or tubes made of glass fiber reinforced plastic or carbon fiber are mostly used here, with short upholstered weapons occasionally also nylon or leather . Plastic pipes, bamboo or rattan are used less often. Bamboo has not proven itself as a core rod. The obvious disadvantage of bamboo over fiberglass is that it is less flexible and more likely to break, creating sharp-edged splinters of wood that can pierce the foam casing and cause serious injury. For this reason, it has often been recommended to wrap a bamboo core stick with sturdy tape first, but this only slightly reduces this risk. But bamboo also has advantages. With the same elasticity , it is lighter, which is particularly noticeable in the case of long upholstered weapons, cheaper and available in every hardware store.
Around the core rod are one or more layers of cushioning material which cushions the hard core. Various types of foam are used here. A top layer is applied over the foam. This increases the durability of the foam weapon and improves its appearance.
The term “Pompfe” was used as a name for club or club as early as 1970 in the Stone Age slapstick “ When women still had tails ”. He also describes the onomatopoeic noise that occurs when a player is hit by an upholstered weapon.
Types
Tape weapons
With the tape weapon, the foam is wrapped with adhesive tape to ensure stability, appearance and safety. Tape weapons are used by beginners or in practice fights because they are cheap and easy to manufacture, undemanding to store, easy to care for and, in the event of a tear, easy to repair with a strip of adhesive tape. Therefore, they are often used as non-player character weapons (for example by guardsmen or traders). In winter, tape guns stay soft longer than latex-coated guns at low temperatures, but are not as nice in comparison as the tape is difficult to paint on.
Pompfen in the jugger
In the team sport jugger, upholstered weapons are used, which are usually made by the players themselves and are called pompfen . They consist of a core, which is usually made of fiberglass or bamboo, and a padding made of foam, which is fixed with adhesive tape. The exact structure, such as the permitted materials, the size or the padding thickness, are specified in the Jugger rules. In addition to striking weapons, there is also a round shield and a chain with a padded swing body.
Latex weapons
With the latex weapon, several layers of colored latex milk are applied to the upholstered weapon. Stability and security are also guaranteed here. Well-made upholstered weapons also have a protective layer made of a type of paint called TopCoat. It gives the upholstered weapon additional stability and largely prevents so-called latex cancer. However, this paint sometimes becomes brittle, which can be a visual problem. Latex weapons are more time consuming and a little harder to build than tape weapons. Even a beginner can repair latex weapons with a few simple steps and the right materials. The possibly applied protective layer (top coat) makes any repairs more difficult, however, as this paint is usually difficult to obtain in appropriate container sizes and also usually contains toxins that make working in a living space difficult. There are also some care instructions for latex weapons. You can z. B. Do not leave it in the sun, as this promotes the formation of latex cancer. You should not leave them lying on the wet meadow or even expose them to frost. All of this leads to the destruction of the upholstery weapon. Well-lated upholstered weapons look better than taped upholstered weapons and thus ensure that a character is nicely equipped.
Foamed latex weapons
A special variant of the latex weapon is not glued together from individual layers of padding, but foamed around a core rod. It is positive that this eliminates the need for adhesive bonding as a weak point; however, a high financial and technical effort is necessary for production. This construction method is only suitable for series production by a professional company. The previously known problems with such weapons, such as their hard consistency, are now considered to have been overcome.
Full latex weapons
In addition to the core rod, full latex weapons only consist of latex, so they do not contain a foam layer for padding. These weapons look most similar to their real-life counterparts, but are still quite bulky. Due to their hardness and the risk of burn injuries from friction on the skin (pulling the blade on bare skin), they are mostly only used for shows and theater performances. At LARP events, handling full latex weapons is mostly prohibited by the game management for safety reasons.
Ranged combat
For long-range combat, a normal bow or a special crossbow is used, which has a pulling force that is a maximum of 25 lbs (25 lbs = 25 English pounds = 11.34 kg). The bullets are special upholstery arrows or bolts. These have a cushion at the top that makes the arrow / bolt safe. The padding must have a certain diameter (at least 5 cm) so that there is no risk to the eyes in the event of a head hit.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Film excerpt "Animal with Pompfe.avi" from " When women still had tails ".
- ↑ "The Heidelberg people called their weapons Pompfen (...) do 'Pompf' when you are hit." Wickenhäuser, Jugger, p. 87 (Interview with Mark Hahn)
- ↑ Jugger rules in the version from 2018 , accessed on September 16, 2018