Nimbus 2000
Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:11 pm
This was my son's car for our 2012 derby (he was a Bear). He was, and still is, a big Harry Potter fan ... so this was the first thing out of his mouth when I asked him what his plans were for a derby car. I have to admit, I had my doubts ... but I'm very happy with the results. We have a competitive pack speed-wise, so he placed in the middle of the pack, but his goal was a "Cub's Choice" design award. And, he did come home with that.
He drew up a sketch to start with, and from there we ended up with this:
Off to the scroll saw he went ...
Then, some time spent sanding ... which he absolutely despises. I remind him that it "builds character", though!
He picked out a "honey maple" polyurethane/stain that turned out very nice, I think. He decided to go with flat black on the bits of block we left for axle mounting, to draw attention away from them:
The only part of the project into which I put significant work was the "Nimbus 2000" logo. I stayed up late one night to paint this on and surprise him the next morning. He was absolutely beside himself when he saw the result, done with a fine paint brush with most bristles cut off.
From there, he pulled the bristles out of several "glue brushes" I had in my tool chest to use as broom bristles. He used rubber cement to stick them into the broom itself, then wrapped gold thread around as on Harry's broom. I put a couple of drops of super glue on the thread to hold it in place.
Thankfully, we were able to find a cheap action figure on ebay that was no longer in the box or anything ... some of those get pricey! Harry is hot glued in place. The wider rear area of the broom is drilled out with lead wire inserted for weight, along with tungsten plates attached to the bottom around the axles. We managed to get it back up to 5.0oz for race day!
Hope you enjoy it, I know he had a blast building/racing it. Unfortunately, we have two Webelos years left ... so I shudder to think what he'll come up with!
-Bob
He drew up a sketch to start with, and from there we ended up with this:
Off to the scroll saw he went ...
Then, some time spent sanding ... which he absolutely despises. I remind him that it "builds character", though!
He picked out a "honey maple" polyurethane/stain that turned out very nice, I think. He decided to go with flat black on the bits of block we left for axle mounting, to draw attention away from them:
The only part of the project into which I put significant work was the "Nimbus 2000" logo. I stayed up late one night to paint this on and surprise him the next morning. He was absolutely beside himself when he saw the result, done with a fine paint brush with most bristles cut off.
From there, he pulled the bristles out of several "glue brushes" I had in my tool chest to use as broom bristles. He used rubber cement to stick them into the broom itself, then wrapped gold thread around as on Harry's broom. I put a couple of drops of super glue on the thread to hold it in place.
Thankfully, we were able to find a cheap action figure on ebay that was no longer in the box or anything ... some of those get pricey! Harry is hot glued in place. The wider rear area of the broom is drilled out with lead wire inserted for weight, along with tungsten plates attached to the bottom around the axles. We managed to get it back up to 5.0oz for race day!
Hope you enjoy it, I know he had a blast building/racing it. Unfortunately, we have two Webelos years left ... so I shudder to think what he'll come up with!
-Bob